2.9 Gallon Fantasy Tree Stump! *pics*

[2in10]

Beautiful, nice growth and color

[oldbonehead]

Absolutely beautiful 2.9G scape! I like it. Excellent job and vision.

[ADA]

Thanks! Hoping to get a thick UG carpet happening in all of the bare spots.. The Erios will look a lot better when they have established too.. they're still acclimating after being split.

[smellslikefish]

nice journal! I see your tank has come a long way. Just curious, do you know why your hc turned brown? I have HC in my 2 gallon too and I'm worried this might happen to mine too.

[ADA]

Hi there!

Thanks!

I think you have to keep it trimmed, if it grows too high, the bottom layers can die from lack of light.

[ADA]

So... unfortunately this tank got completely destroyed by a HUGE algae outbreak. There must have been 5 different types, all competing to kill everything in there. So, after putting up a half hearted fight, I just took the light away, left it in a bright room, so SOME light would get to it, and forgot about it.

It's been 2 months now. Most of the algae has died off, so I think I'm going to revive it.

Here's how it looks now, after two months. The Anubias Petite looks happy.. all of that brown stuff coating EVERYTHING is dead algae.. need to vacuum it all out.

[bsmith]

That sucks. Did the algae start to appear then you got worried that cutting the light some would ki your plants do in the end nothing was really done and this is the result? I know how you feel having that same experience in a couple tanks before.

With algae issues it is always a must to determine the cause. 99/100 times it's a co2/light problem.

But I can't remember if you even have co2 on this tank or not.

[merkexpress]

do you have problems with your halfbeaks eatting your shrimp?

[ADA]

Originally Posted by bsmith

That sucks. Did the algae start to appear then you got worried that cutting the light some would ki your plants do in the end nothing was really done and this is the result? I know how you feel having that same experience in a couple tanks before.

With algae issues it is always a must to determine the cause. 99/100 times it's a co2/light problem.

But I can't remember if you even have co2 on this tank or not.

Man.. this was a weird one.. the tank was amazing, for the longest time. I didn't change a thing! Light, Co2, ferts, plant volume, water quality... ALL was never changed. I had that horrible brown algae in my other tank, and I was always careful not to contaminate this little tank with anything from out of there.. BUT.. I got sloppy, and I think I put a plant in there from the other tank or something.. within days, this tank was over run by that exact same horrible brown algae. I tried everything to get rid of it, and it ended up killing most of the plants,, then I just left it alone in dismay. That's how it ended up.
Fortunately, it seems to have all died.. Some plants have survived too, so I will just clean it gradually, and slowly introduce light and ferts again.. but I'll do it all very slowly and gradually.

Originally Posted by merkexpress

do you have problems with your halfbeaks eatting your shrimp?

The halfbeaks ended up jumping out

[merkexpress]

That sucks! But they didnt touch your shrimp?! that surprises me a little bit and now im considering getting 2

[TexasCichlid]

That's terrifying. So sorry to hear about the random algae implosion. My tank is not even 1/4 as nice and I think it's a recurring nightmare for me.

[ADA]

Haha.. nah, it's okay. I does suck, but I was due for a reshape anyway. The tank is actually bouncing back nicely. I'll post more pics soon.

[ADA]

Okay, it's starting to slowly bounce back.. here are some pics I took today.







Thanks for looking!

[ADA]

K, I have another update for this tank.

I was seriously on the verge of calling it quits not only with this tank, but with the hobby itself.

I don't quit easily, and I have been struggling, pulling my hair out for well over a year because I just never could get rid of this hideous "algae" issue.

I had a lot of advice saying that you'll never fix an algae problem by killing the algae somehow, because it would just come back if the root cause was not corrected. That totally makes sense in MOST cases..

All of my efforts went to trying to adjust the lighting, adding more Co2, balancing ferts etc etc. Nothing worked. It just got worse and worse, so I even tried dosing way too much Excel, tried blackouts, turned up the Co2, put WAY too many plants in there in the hopes of eating up the excess nutrients.. just tried so much. All the while I was losing some really expensive plants.

Finally, FINALLY, I found out that it was not algae at all, but a type of bacteria. In my last attempt (I had decided to throw in the towel if this didn't work) I dosed the tank with some antibiotic used to treat sick fish.

Now, after all this time, it it truly gone. I am finally free of this nightmare, and my passion for the hobby has returned!!! So happy.

I'll take pics and post tomorrow.

[iwagumikun]

Where did you buy the blue rams and Badis?
I 'm looking for some colorful peaceful fish
For my planted scape.