[mauldi]

Hey there, I've been in a war with diatoms for about 2 weeks and i know that it is very common when the tank trying to balanced the ecosystem

Meanwhile I'm dping manual remocal with water change every 2 days

Yesterday i came across Jurijs video about how he waged his own battle with algae on his iwagumi tank. One of his many efforts is adding helping plants (i think it's stem plants, and floating plants..i think the idea is to get biomass as much as possible with plants that are greedy for nutrients, in hope they will slowly prevent algae from taking the nutrient from the water column

Anyone had any experience with this method? If so, any easy stem plants for beginners to try to adding for my tank?

 

[moke]

i use stems when setting up new tanks--whatever is the cheapest i can find at the lfs. hornwort is also a good nutrient sponge. the diatoms will go away as the tank matures. 2 weeks is still really "raw" (only half-way through the nitrogen cycle). patience is your friend.

 

[Aaronious]

I use water sprite to do this in one tank. It grows like mad and I just cut out a good mass every week or so. In another tank I have slow growers and there isn't really any algae cause I have a nice mat of floaters in there.

But I also make sure to have algae eaters in my tanks.

 

[mauldi]

i use stems when setting up new tanks--whatever is the cheapest i can find at the lfs. hornwort is also a good nutrient sponge. the diatoms will go away as the tank matures. 2 weeks is still really "raw" (only half-way through the nitrogen cycle). patience is your friend.

i think i do have a pot of hornwort...is this the one?

if so, i might trimmed it and putting on my main tank..btw, how much pots should i add to my tank? i have 40x40x40 (cube) tank with 2 weeks hg, 2 weeks rotala hra...i'm thinking adding 3-4 pots, what do you think??

 

[mauldi]

I use water sprite to do this in one tank. It grows like mad and I just cut out a good mass every week or so. In another tank I have slow growers and there isn't really any algae cause I have a nice mat of floaters in there.

But I also make sure to have algae eaters in my tanks.

haven't tried water sprites yet...but i might hehehe

i do have a couple of algae eaters, 2 oto, 7 bloody mary shrimp (not the most active eaters), 4 horned snails and 2 guppies (occasional eaters). some friends told to me to get 50-100 rcs and leave it until the tank mature..but i do afraid if several of them dies under the rocks and i can't siphon it, the amonia will spike like God knows what.

hopefully i can make it go away, slowly but more safely with helping plants. definitely going to try water sprite, do you have any specific species i should go for?

 

[moke]

i think i do have a pot of hornwort...is this the one?

View attachment 1029868

if so, i might trimmed it and putting on my main tank..btw, how much pots should i add to my tank? i have 40x40x40 (cube) tank with 2 weeks hg, 2 weeks rotala hra...i'm thinking adding 3-4 pots, what do you think??

no that is not hornwort. (looks like a rotala). check this out. btw, it's really a floating plant, does not have real roots. also, very fast grower, weed-like, so good for your needs.

 

[mauldi]

no that is not hornwort. (looks like a rotala). check this out. btw, it's really a floating plant, does not have real roots. also, very fast grower, weed-like, so good for your needs.

got it!

is it best to grow them by just leaving it to float on the water column or plant it to the soil?

 

[Aaronious]

haven't tried water sprites yet...but i might hehehe

i do have a couple of algae eaters, 2 oto, 7 bloody mary shrimp (not the most active eaters), 4 horned snails and 2 guppies (occasional eaters). some friends told to me to get 50-100 rcs and leave it until the tank mature..but i do afraid if several of them dies under the rocks and i can't siphon it, the amonia will spike like God knows what.

hopefully i can make it go away, slowly but more safely with helping plants. definitely going to try water sprite, do you have any specific species i should go for?

water sprite I think is a more common name for it. Another, at least I think it's a different plant, is wisteria. I don't recall more than that but they should grow the same. fast, big and in easily removable clumps. They will start a really nice root base at times. They can be clipped just under that and you can move that portion of plant easily or toss it esaily. I typically take the largest section out each week. another will take it's place in a few days, then cut that one out a week after the one before.

The shrimp thing isn't a bad idea. right now they will be okay with the other stock in there but I think you knew this already. but a Bristle Nose pleco or a couple hillstream loaches would take care of that stuff for sure.

 

[moke]

got it!

is it best to grow them by just leaving it to float on the water column or plant it to the soil?

it will thrive either way.

 

[jadavis99]

That plant might be hornwort but it looks a lot more like Elodea (Anachoris) to me.

 

[easternlethal]

It actually depends on what is causing algae. For old tanks it might be excess ammonia but for new tanks it's usually organics or excess crap leaching from the surfaces of new substrate (ranging from oil to silicates to dead bacteria). In the latter case plants won't actually help, which is why we need to do water changes and cleaning. Once all the unwanted excess is cleaned out, algae will get under control. Don't underestimate how long it takes to get rid of excess though - we're talking many many water changes over many months.

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[mauldi]

It actually depends on what is causing algae. For old tanks it might be excess ammonia but for new tanks it's usually organics or excess crap leaching from the surfaces of new substrate (ranging from oil to silicates to dead bacteria). In the latter case plants won't actually help, which is why we need to do water changes and cleaning. Once all the unwanted excess is cleaned out, algae will get under control. Don't underestimate how long it takes to get rid of excess though - we're talking many many water changes over many months.

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I see...the diatoms/brown algae will almost dusting and clumping at the bottom of my hairgrass every 2nd day after, despite big water changes (50% or more). It's been 3 weeks since i frist plant the hairgrass, do you think it's safe to wc once a week or just do what i do up till now?

Honestly my back is killing me with every 2 days doing big maintenence hahahaha

Thinking about adding couple of dozens rcs, say 50-80 to helo clean the tank just to relieve my back

Edit: i have 12 tetras, 2 guppies, 6 bloody mary shrimp, 3 horned snails and 2 otocinclus on a cube 40cm tank. Do you think if i move tetras and guppies to other tank, the diatoms/bron algae growth will be reduced?

 

[easternlethal]

If you're sure it's just diatoms then it will eventually die off.

Adding livestock will not help - unless you want them anyway.

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[mauldi]

If you're sure it's just diatoms then it will eventually die off.

Adding livestock will not help - unless you want them anyway.

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Ooh no, i meant I'm planning to remove all of my livestock from the tank woth diatoms to other tank. Except for algae eaters...i thought that maybe biowaste from tetras and guppies pronites algae as well, and bybreducing livestocks on my ditomas infested tank might help reduce it growth

 

[easternlethal]

You should not remove the livestock because they are helping your beneficial bacteria to establish and you want the tank to balance itself with them in it.

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