Tank Mate Debate (CAE/Oto cat)

[Kittiee Katt]

Hmmmm... Im not sure what fish eat hair algae (the long green stringy stuff), but i think i remember Silver Flying Foxes eating black beard algae, although again, probably not the best route...

As for adding plants, another method is when you trim your current ones, to replant them back in, eventually you can fill your tank and hopefully cut back some of the algae...
As for lighting, if you run 8hrs normally, then do 4hrs on, 3hrs off, 4hrs on... The break is meant to interupt the algae from photosynthesizing giving the plants a chance to catch up...

I thought the otos were supposed to eat both of them? I'm sure I read it many times while trying to work out how to get rid of my algae...

I'm trying to get my current stems to the surface before I take cuttings from them. Its all good, a bunch of 5-6 stems is normally only $5-$7 here which is pretty reasonable considering the price of some plants, and the guy at the shop always gives me extra because I'm awesome.

I'll give the break a try starting tomorrow (today? its almost 1am) and see of that helps, I'll hopefully be able to grab another bunch of hygrophila on Thursday or Friday and see if I can't avoid buying more fish as I'm really not a fan of the "choc a block" look when it comes to tank stocking.

Thank you for all your help.

 

[Fat Homer]

Sometimes trimming plants back makes them grow faster as well... My main planted tank got filled that way, and now every 2 weeks i remove a fair bit...

 

[Kittiee Katt]

Sometimes trimming plants back makes them grow faster as well... My main planted tank got filled that way, and now every 2 weeks i remove a fair bit...

Maybe I'll try it with my taller stems? I don't want to hack them up then have them not grow for ages on me.