[Wet Thumb Forum]-Argh! Algae!

[Chiad]

I have several tanks, but at the moment only one is giving me problems.

It's a 48gal tank with two 32watt bulbs, an AquaClear 300, and a heater. And algae. I'm starting to detest that tank because of the algae. Thick green sludge all over everything. For a while, I couldn't even see my fish! There were originally just a few Temple Plants (because that's all I had at the time, see my sig). And I don't think I'm overfeeding the fish, I'm quite careful about that.

The tank gets no direct sunlight. A month ago I added a smallish standard pleco (3" long at the time, now 4.5" and happily growing) and he managed to get the algae to a point where I can now at least see my fish.

Life complications arose and I was unable to do anything further about the algae for several weeks.

Unfortunately, while the pleco is keeping the algae at a level where I can see my fish, he's not having much success beyond that.
A friend kindly brought me back half-a-dozen young amazon swords and two more plecos when she went to the nearest city the other day.

So the swords are in the tank, hopefully to hurry up and grab some of those nutrients away from the algae, and the plecs are in quarintine for another week.

Anyone got any other suggestions? Would putting more plants in help? (I'll bite the bullet and have some shipped to me if I have to, but it's stupidly expensive and sorta beyond my budget at the moment.)

[Miss Fishy]

Dear Chiad,

Can you provide some more details like what your GH and other water parameters are and what substrate you have in this tank?

From Alex.

[Chiad]

Substrate is varied, but averages about 5mm in diameter. Natural gravel. Well washed, aquired at a local gravel pit.

At the moment I don't have any water testing equipment. I'll take a sample of water in to work in the next couple of days and see what sort of tests I can jurry-rig in the clinic.

I really hate living in the middle of nowhere sometimes.

[dwalstad]

If your substrate is pure gravel, I doubt you'll ever get plants to grow. You will just be wasting money. And if plants don't grow, you can expect to have algae. Whenever you have light, nutrients and water, something will grow.

Be glad you have algae, it is removing ammonia from water and protecting your fish.

There's more to a natural tank than just sticking plants in gravel. If you want to set a planted tank up, then I'd suggest you read my book. Check your library.