My 5 ft planted community

[dw1305]

Hi all,

what sort of fertliser do you use, ive tried using a carbon based one and once i started using it, i started to get a black algae growing off wood/glass and now the the plants, i have stripped wood out and scrapped all of it off but just comes back wondered if it was down to using a carbon based fert?

Black Brush Algae is a difficult one to control, I use Ramshorn snails in the tanks with harder water.

When you say "carbon based" do you mean it is a carbon supplement like EXCEL etc?

These add carbon, but they don't add any of the other nutrients the plants needs. Have a look a the Duckweed Index link above.

cheers Darrel

 

[rr16]

Finally got my female A. nijsseni for this tank so watch this space! Here's one of the female A. barlowi.

 

[rr16]

The female A. nijsseni has been spotted a couple of times now. Last seen within the territory of the male A. nijsseni so hopefully this is a good sign. Here are a few pics from the last few days of my A. barlowi and one of the discus.

 

[rr16]

Here are a few more pics!

 

[rr16]

The female A. aggasizi has brought the wrigglers into view, kindly for my photography and viewing pleasure!

 

[rr16]

Well, I did a cold water top up and the fry all died! The tank went all anoxic. I went all out and redid the whole tank with the fish still in. Had to lay everything out blind as the tank was completely murky and couldn't see a thing. Here it is now!

 

[rr16]

Here is the tank with a few new additions!

 

[fart]

Like your new additions is it
Dicrossus filamentosus ?

 

[rr16]

Like your new additions is it
Dicrossus filamentosus ?

Certainly is. Four of them - two males and two females as far as I can tell at this point. A beautiful fish that I haven't paid enough attention to until now.

 

[chris1805]

Sorry for the late comment, but how come that your tank went full anoxic? And how did you fix that problem? If i read it right you said it was mainly because of adding cold water, which i myself always do with a water change so that pretty much scares me.

 

[rr16]

It should be fine! I still add cold water changes. It was more that there was a lot of decaying leaf litter and vegetation on the bottom that I should have cleaned out and I think the cold water sank and disturbed this leaf litter which may have been more anoxic due to bacteria breaking down the plant matter (this is all speculation and I may not be correct) and mixed this in with the water higher up the tank, reducing the overall oxygen levels. The fish were then gasping at the surface and because a fairly wide area of the surface was covered in plants, there was not enough room for gaseous exchange to take place effectively, plus one of the filters had become clogged and was not causing as much surface agitation. I basically took all the decor and plants out, siphoned off about 40% (I think), replaced the decor and plants and topped the tank up after cleaning the filters out. I've since cleaned both filters out again as there was a lot of detritus sucked up after the cleaning and the water is looking decidedly clearer now!

 

[chris1805]

Ah well thanks a lot for the information! Incase this happens to me i know what there is wrong!

 

[rr16]

Here are a few recent pics from this tank.