Happy new year everyone!
I'd really appreciate your thoughts on an algae problem that I think might be the result of something I'm doing wrong, though what that is I don't know! There's brown algae growing all over my plants. They grew really well when I first set up the tank (http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/56861-conversion-4-foot-tank.html) and we just had a bit of green algae for a while. Now that the green algae has subsided, brown algae has taken over and is growing on the leaves of all the plants (except the vallisneria and hygrophila - weird) and smothering them. They're not growing at all and some of the swords have actually melted under it. It's also all over the glass and I have to wipe it off every few days.
It's summer now and during the day the temperature of the water gets to 28 C, sometimes up to 30 C (86 F). Is the heat stalling the plants' growth and allowing the algae to take over? Or is something else going on?
The lights are on for 12 hours a day, and the tank gets about an hour of filtered sunlight through a nearby stained-glass door.
Something else that's strange - the pH is unstable. Goes up to 8.5 during the day and heads back down as the tank cools off in the evening. ????
I'd really appreciate your thoughts on an algae problem that I think might be the result of something I'm doing wrong, though what that is I don't know! There's brown algae growing all over my plants. They grew really well when I first set up the tank (http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/el-natural/56861-conversion-4-foot-tank.html) and we just had a bit of green algae for a while. Now that the green algae has subsided, brown algae has taken over and is growing on the leaves of all the plants (except the vallisneria and hygrophila - weird) and smothering them. They're not growing at all and some of the swords have actually melted under it. It's also all over the glass and I have to wipe it off every few days.
It's summer now and during the day the temperature of the water gets to 28 C, sometimes up to 30 C (86 F). Is the heat stalling the plants' growth and allowing the algae to take over? Or is something else going on?
The lights are on for 12 hours a day, and the tank gets about an hour of filtered sunlight through a nearby stained-glass door.
Something else that's strange - the pH is unstable. Goes up to 8.5 during the day and heads back down as the tank cools off in the evening. ????