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Warning. This is going to be a bit long winded, but I want to be detailed.
Hello all. I've been lurking this forum for some time reading, reading, reading, and taking notes. I have since I decided, after years of owning aquariums, I would start my first planted tank. I bought a standard 29gal at Petco during their $1/gal sale, a whisper 30 HOB filter (on a budget until April, then will be switching to a canister), eco complete substrate, and river stone gravel to use as a cap (didn't like the black substrate). For lighting I was given a finnex planted+ 30inch light from a friend and my first plants were freebies from my lfs, he was testing these packaged bulbs a vendor wanted him to sell, and some that were melting pretty bad and he was going to pitch.
The plants are:
1x Water Lily
1x Water Onion
2x Aponogeton crispus
8x stems of dwarf sag
2x stems of jungle val
Ran the tank for a few weeks fishless and the plants exploded. The Apons shot up multiple stems with flowers, I had 2 Lily pads floating, with more on the way, the onion went from 1 leaf to 4 pretty quick, and the jungle val/dwarf sag started getting little sprouts of new growth. All was going pretty well.
Took a water sample to my LFS for free testing, was told my water parameters were good, so I moved my critters to my new tank, 7 neon tetras, 6 zebra danios, 2 tiger nerite snails, and 2 Indian glassfish. All was going well, then my finnex light died.
On one of the forums I saw someone using clamp lamps with cfl bulbs on a planted tank with good success, so since I'm on a budget and can't afford to replace my finnex (will buy another), undecided on would try. For under $20 I got 2 clamp fixtures and some 19w 6500k daylight cfl bulbs from Menard's. The picture attached is from right after those lights were up.
That was 2 weeks ago. Since using these lights on timers for 9.5 hrs/day. My tank has exploded with algae, I have brown algae (diatoms I assume) on EVERYTHING, and hair algae on some of my dwarf sag and jungle val. My little nerites are doing their best to keep the glass clean but they can't keep up. Several leaves from my apons got so covered with the stuff they started to rot.
By the advice of my LFS owner, I have done 50% water changes the last 2 weekends, but I'm not sure if that's doing anything. He has a half dozen zebra nerites in quarantine he got in a week ago he will give me a deal on for an expanded cleaning crew. But they won't clean the plant leaves. I've been using my finger to wipe the leaves clean every day, but by morning they're brown again. I have gotten this algae in nearly every new tank I've ever set up, but never like this, I assume it's the excess nutrients from the substrate.
I am seeking any advice on fish that will clean the leaves of my plants, and the gravel of the brown algae. I will get the nerites from my lfs and return the extras for credit later(his idea) for the glass. Thinking I may have needed to do a bit more research/bit off more than I was ready to chew.
I was thinking about floating giant duckweed to help with excess nutrients, since I like the way it looks, and I have no problem with disposing of/donating excess as it grows.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
-Troy
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Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
Hello all. I've been lurking this forum for some time reading, reading, reading, and taking notes. I have since I decided, after years of owning aquariums, I would start my first planted tank. I bought a standard 29gal at Petco during their $1/gal sale, a whisper 30 HOB filter (on a budget until April, then will be switching to a canister), eco complete substrate, and river stone gravel to use as a cap (didn't like the black substrate). For lighting I was given a finnex planted+ 30inch light from a friend and my first plants were freebies from my lfs, he was testing these packaged bulbs a vendor wanted him to sell, and some that were melting pretty bad and he was going to pitch.
The plants are:
1x Water Lily
1x Water Onion
2x Aponogeton crispus
8x stems of dwarf sag
2x stems of jungle val
Ran the tank for a few weeks fishless and the plants exploded. The Apons shot up multiple stems with flowers, I had 2 Lily pads floating, with more on the way, the onion went from 1 leaf to 4 pretty quick, and the jungle val/dwarf sag started getting little sprouts of new growth. All was going pretty well.
Took a water sample to my LFS for free testing, was told my water parameters were good, so I moved my critters to my new tank, 7 neon tetras, 6 zebra danios, 2 tiger nerite snails, and 2 Indian glassfish. All was going well, then my finnex light died.
On one of the forums I saw someone using clamp lamps with cfl bulbs on a planted tank with good success, so since I'm on a budget and can't afford to replace my finnex (will buy another), undecided on would try. For under $20 I got 2 clamp fixtures and some 19w 6500k daylight cfl bulbs from Menard's. The picture attached is from right after those lights were up.
That was 2 weeks ago. Since using these lights on timers for 9.5 hrs/day. My tank has exploded with algae, I have brown algae (diatoms I assume) on EVERYTHING, and hair algae on some of my dwarf sag and jungle val. My little nerites are doing their best to keep the glass clean but they can't keep up. Several leaves from my apons got so covered with the stuff they started to rot.
By the advice of my LFS owner, I have done 50% water changes the last 2 weekends, but I'm not sure if that's doing anything. He has a half dozen zebra nerites in quarantine he got in a week ago he will give me a deal on for an expanded cleaning crew. But they won't clean the plant leaves. I've been using my finger to wipe the leaves clean every day, but by morning they're brown again. I have gotten this algae in nearly every new tank I've ever set up, but never like this, I assume it's the excess nutrients from the substrate.
I am seeking any advice on fish that will clean the leaves of my plants, and the gravel of the brown algae. I will get the nerites from my lfs and return the extras for credit later(his idea) for the glass. Thinking I may have needed to do a bit more research/bit off more than I was ready to chew.
I was thinking about floating giant duckweed to help with excess nutrients, since I like the way it looks, and I have no problem with disposing of/donating excess as it grows.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
-Troy
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk
