Hi all,
I've got a little 2 gallon betta setup (Aqueon 2 with LED light, Quietflow carbon filter, Marina Mini 25W heater, gravel substrate) that was happily established for 1.5 years with the blue guy, some Amazon swords, and red cherry shrimp. No problems, weekly 25% water changes (Aqueon water conditioner to water out of the tap) and all that. Everything was working great.
Then I moved to a new town, and this happened.
Within a few weeks of moving, a brown scum of algae started growing over every surface in the tank - substrate, plant leaves, and the acrylic itself. It would return after being scrubbed within a matter of days. The photo below is 4 days after I sucked it off the leaves with a turkey baster - this stuff is not messing around.
My fish's behavior has quite understandably changed for the worse. Little dude is miserable, the plants are browning, and I want to figure out how to clear this up. (The shrimp, however, has gotten enormous).
I referred to the stickied post on ID'ing algae, but am still not sure what I'm looking at.
Pertinent info: I looked into it, and my town water supply is an artesian well (previous used river water), which implies silicates & mineral content. Is this diatoms? What can I do to combat this without adding biomass and overloading this little tank? Even an oto cat seems unwise at this small of a volume.
Advice is much appreciated, and if there's some obvious resource I should've read but missed, just point me that way - I'm still learning my way around. Thanks!
I've got a little 2 gallon betta setup (Aqueon 2 with LED light, Quietflow carbon filter, Marina Mini 25W heater, gravel substrate) that was happily established for 1.5 years with the blue guy, some Amazon swords, and red cherry shrimp. No problems, weekly 25% water changes (Aqueon water conditioner to water out of the tap) and all that. Everything was working great.
Then I moved to a new town, and this happened.
Within a few weeks of moving, a brown scum of algae started growing over every surface in the tank - substrate, plant leaves, and the acrylic itself. It would return after being scrubbed within a matter of days. The photo below is 4 days after I sucked it off the leaves with a turkey baster - this stuff is not messing around.
My fish's behavior has quite understandably changed for the worse. Little dude is miserable, the plants are browning, and I want to figure out how to clear this up. (The shrimp, however, has gotten enormous).
I referred to the stickied post on ID'ing algae, but am still not sure what I'm looking at.
Pertinent info: I looked into it, and my town water supply is an artesian well (previous used river water), which implies silicates & mineral content. Is this diatoms? What can I do to combat this without adding biomass and overloading this little tank? Even an oto cat seems unwise at this small of a volume.
Advice is much appreciated, and if there's some obvious resource I should've read but missed, just point me that way - I'm still learning my way around. Thanks!
