Algae in a Planted Vieja Tank

[jstehman]

You can let the ludwigia float for a bit.. once it starts growing rooties you can jam a rock on it to keep it down.

Maybe try some dwarf sag?

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[Psylant]

You're a brave man. I tried to plant my 180g Vieja tank with amazon swords, java fern, anubias and a few other things here and there. I couldn't get the plants to stay planted or tied/glued for more than an hour. I gave up. They won. lol

 

[ragin_cajun]

Well there's backstory. All these Vieja are 4 inches or less. There's a 7 inch Syn who is very calm. And a JD is 6 inches he doesn't notice plants or dig holes...yet. I'm waiting on prices from a builder so we can add on to the house, and all these fish are going into a 540 gallon. I have 2 Breidohri, they eat lots of lettuce, so they'll start tearing up plants one day. Argentea and Regani will for sure tear up plants one day. But, they're growing slow, builders say they'll have prices soon, I'll get a loan and business is growing. So I'm putting more effort into the plants in this tank thinking I'll have the 540 stood up by...,Christmas?


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[HybridHerp]

Well there's backstory. All these Vieja are 4 inches or less. There's a 7 inch Syn who is very calm. And a JD is 6 inches he doesn't notice plants or dig holes...yet. I'm waiting on prices from a builder so we can add on to the house, and all these fish are going into a 540 gallon. I have 2 Breidohri, they eat lots of lettuce, so they'll start tearing up plants one day. Argentea and Regani will for sure tear up plants one day. But, they're growing slow, builders say they'll have prices soon, I'll get a loan and business is growing. So I'm putting more effort into the plants in this tank thinking I'll have the 540 stood up by...,Christmas?


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So if I may ask, what will you do with this tank after moving the fish?


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[ragin_cajun]

Have a planted tank with less fish! Without the cichlids, and clown loaches, I think it'll be a helluva lot easier to grow plants.


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[HybridHerp]

Have a planted tank with less fish! Without the cichlids, and clown loaches, I think it'll be a helluva lot easier to grow plants.


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So true. Its not impossible to have a nice planted tank with these, just not as easy.

 

[ragin_cajun]

Was outta town 4 days, got back last night, turn on the lights this morning, algae on tbe new plants. All tbe anubias, the sword, ludwigia, all have algae on em. Haven't seen a new Valisneria leaf pop out in weeks. So what now? Less light?


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[ragin_cajun]

I'm thinking maybe just turn off the Finnex completely for a few weeks? Run the T8s alone. That would be low light, right? The bulbs say "full spectrum". What does that mean? Any PAR value at all? Maybe I should buy some new T8 bulbs? These are almost a year old.


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[jstehman]

Im sure they have a PAR value but you are looking for bulbs that say "daylight" or 6500k for optimal results.

Yes you would be at low light, but your plants will be ok.

Better to err on too little light than too much. Especially with no co2.

You're doing fine. Make small adjustments one at a time to see what works. Making too many changes at once make it difficult to pinpoint troubles.

I would start with either raising the Finnex fixture 6" if possible and running that exclusively *or* running the t8s with 6500k bulbs.

I bet your algae starts to go away once you decrease the lighting intensity.

Dont worry. Algae is a part of nature and is found in many healthy aquatic environments. Keeping it out of our closed systems is challenging mother nature.

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[ragin_cajun]

I bought 2 new bulbs for the T8 fixtures--"UltaSun" 6500K. I've read that fluorescent bulbs are only good for 6 months or so? Finnex will stay off for a month or so, 6 hours of low light a day. See what that does. I've just stopped adding KNO3, I figure the fish provide too much nitrate already.


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