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Well, I made that statement based on my experiences.
There are basically 2 (3) kinds of planted tanks that I've come across that don't merely accrue algae and frustrate the living $#!t out of their keeper.
The first method I ever tried with success is outlined in detail in Diana Walstad's...
Lisa,
My best bet would be Badis badis badis females.
The males should not be hard to find, particularly if you haunt your LFS to any degree. Often the males are the only ones shipped to the stores.
Wow!
Congrats!
Looks like you're doing everything right :)
I have heard from some of the "old timers" in my fish club that leaving a light on over/near fish that tend to eat their eggs does indeed help.
I don't know how long Ram eggs take to hatch, but I would get that BBS going now...
Some literature you might want to investigate regarding this is Diana Walstad's book "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium". She illuminates an excellent, perpetually maintainable non-CO2 dependent methodology for growing aquatic plants.
Plain sand will not be enough, IMHO. But if you wanted to...
PO4 could be the issue.
Any particular nutrient in excess could be the culprit, IMHO.
Floating plants should help alleviate this.
Not to beat a dead horse :(
What is your substrate? Have you called your water company and gotten your official out-of-the-tap readings? Your tap may be...
I would try the floating plants before investing your money in CO2-related items. Far cheaper, IMHO.
You can also try squirting hydrogen peroxide at the individual tufts of algae. Some people have had excellent results with this.
You sure your ammonia is at 0? What test kit are you...
Stupid question:
Is this a planted tank?
If it isn't, there's no reason you can't just do a two week blackout.
Your fish won't care and the algae will die.
(But I would still cut back on feeding)
Algae is caused by ammonia, which is the result of overfeeding or your tank's filtration system being unable to cope with the ammount you feed.
My advice to you is to get some sort of floating plant (Pistia, Phyllanthus, Limnobium (BUT NOT Lemna)) to a) block the light and b) use up the extra...
Scarlet badis should be Dario dario.
Lisa, I don't think your fish looks like anything from Dario. I would say that it is most likely a Badis badis badis (as opposed to Badis badis burmanicus). Are the unpaired fins bright, irridescent blue...
My primary interest in the aquarium hobby is planted tanks, and I *HATE* (notice the capitalization and asterisks) Flourite.
Eco-Complete or SAPS (Schultz Aquatic Plant Soil) are much better in my opinion.
I am not the only one with this attitude. A lot of the aquarium maintenance guys...
i find that to be STRICTLY true only for Poecilia (excluding, of course, the ubiquitous reticulata) :)
my Xiphophorus swim/grow/breed/remain disease free in 6.4, KH 4, GH 4 without trouble. i do add other electrolytes to the water other than Ca and Mg, however...specifically K and Na. IMHO...
i kept Badis badis badis (the blue one) a while ago. i never spawned them, but they were certainly an interesting fish to watch (and very pretty). they are truly very chameleon-like.
i also could not get mine to take flake. but they did love their bloodworms and brine shrimp :)
i highly recommend livebearers as dithers.
they swim in all strata of the tank and run (fast) when chased. they are also unlikely to get near any fry unless they drift by them on the way to a rock they haven't cleaned off yet.
platies are an excellent choice.
i personally keep dwarf...
a great way to find out how much CO2 you are REALLY adding is to find out how much of your pH is actually composed of carbonic acid.
take an ounce or two of your tank water and let it degas (that's de-gas) for 24 hours. then measure the pH of your sample.
to get enough CO2 for plants, you...