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rate my tank and some questions

1K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  dj2606 
#1 ·
my tank is a 30 gallon tank, with 78 watts of light (2.66 watts/gal) with a diy co2 and is dosed according to one of the dosing schedules in the sticky. so all my plants are doing "good"... meaning not great and not bad. they arent dying but heres my problems. there is brush algae and green spots all over my tank, rocks, and leaves. i dont know how to get rid of it. i have 7 otos but supposedly they dont eat brush algae?? would the excel over does work?

next, the HC i planted doesnt seems to be doing too good either. it keeps getting uprooted and then going into the filter. this is most likely from the barbs and cories but is there anything i can do to help this?

also, there seems to be brown dirt/dust type substance on teh ground at some parts of the tank. i have no idea what it is. does anyone know. the picture is below. should i gravel vac even though i have plants. cause i havent been using a gravel vac because i heard it allows for the plants to get nutrients if you leave it there.

any type of help would be greatly appreciated and also help with the layout of my tank (rating, suggestions, likes/dislikes, etc.)

thanks guys. you always get me out of these situations so I look forward to getting some help again. THANK YOU!!!



 
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#2 ·
Hi ara35,

I like your tank, your plants look pretty healthy and they seem to be growing well. I try not to "balance" my hardscape quite as much, instead I have more hardscape on one side of the tank than the other. I think unbalanced hardscape increases the visual interest.

You didn't mention if the tank is relatively new or not, but the brown discoloration are probably diatoms. The ottos should eat them if they get hungery enough, or they will normally go away on their own as the tank matures.

Your green algae could be caused by too long a lighting period or maybe not enough fertilizer available to the plants so they can out compete the algae. You didn't mention your how long your light period is, or if you are testing to determine your fertilzer levels. BBA is typically caused by low CO2 levels and/or poor water circulation in the tank. How is your tank circulation, do you have good water movement throughout the tank? I did DIY CO2 to start, with about 2 WPG, had to run two of the 2 liter bottles and still couldn't keep up with the increasing CO2 demands as my plants grew. I eventually had to go to pressurized CO2.

Excel overdosing, or spot treatment will definately help with the BBA problem. And Excel overdosing will help control your green algae as well. But I only use Excel to help control an algae outbreak and then try to find the root cause of the algae problem and correct it. Hope this helps!
 
#3 ·
My ottos love diatom algae (the brown algae). But if you say yours are not eating, then not to worry. Diatom algae forms on newly set up aquariums and will dissipate as the tank matures.

Another solution to the BBA are amano shrimp or SAE's (I prefer amano shrimp because SAE's can be aggresive). Also as Seattle Aquarist said increasing water flow will reduce the spread of this algae. So getting a power head will help dramatically.

If your other fish are tearing the HC then remove them temporally until it establishes itself.

Also your big rock on the left looks to square and uniform. Maybe taking a hammer and give it more shape.
 
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