2 ?'s someone might beable to answer.

[fester]

first ? is before i got a uv filter i had algea really bad. now that's fixed my plants have like black hair and **** all over the leaves. how can i get rid of that.

and second. how do i get rid of snails without hurting the plants. there f'n taking over.

thanks

 

[Bderick67]

you can clean/kill the algae on your live plants by giving them a dip in a 5% bleach solution for 60 seconds. You will need to rinse the plant well before returning to the aquarium though. The algae will turn white and and disolve afer a week or so.

I use two 5 gallon buckets one with 19 cups of water and 1 cup bleach. The other 5g bucket I fill with water and lots of dechlorinater. Dip the plant(not the roots) in the bleach solution for 60 seconds, then rinse of under faucet, then place the plant in the bucket full of water and add a double dose of dechlorinator. Now you can put back in tank.

The only luck I've had with snails is by using clown loaches.

 

[davo]

Only sure way to get rid of snails is manually removing them... I cannot stress enough, only get a loach if you want a loach... they don't all eat snails!

 

[fester]

thanks guys i'll try the plant thing but i think my diamond rhom will get the clown loaches though.lol those snails breed like wild fire. i would have to say it's infested.

 

[ewurm]

Only sure way to get rid of snails is manually removing them... I cannot stress enough, only get a loach if you want a loach... they don't all eat snails!

Yes, this is very true. Fish are not beasts of burden. Buy a fish you like, not one that will work for you.

 

[ThePBM]

look carefully at your plants and scrape off any clutches of snail eggs you can see. they're not that hard to find.

 

[ewurm]

thanks guys i'll try the plant thing but i think my diamond rhom will get the clown loaches though.lol those snails breed like wild fire. i would have to say it's infested.

I believe a piranha will find a clown loach a tasty meal.

 

[Bizzaro]

I thought clown loach were bad for planted tanks?

 

[Lupin]

I thought clown loach were bad for planted tanks?

Look into this link.
http://www.loaches.com/articles/my-clown-loach-aquarium

Most plants get damaged easily. Botiine loaches have a habit for boring holes on soft foliage. Not much luck keeping Amazon swords with them. I don't know when my Cryptocoryne wendtii and becketii will last although none have holes yet except dying leaves.

Clowns at their potential size may easily uproot plants that cannot firmly anchor themselves to the substrate.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Another way to kill the algae is to do an Excel solution dip. Soak the plant for 3 minutes in a 10:1 solution of Water:Excel, then place back into the tank without rinsing. Some plants don't mind their roots being dipped, but plants like swords don't. It kills them. So for swords, you only soak the leaves. Leave the roots out of the solution.

This also works great on java moss. If the moss is suffering due to too much algae, this approach works well. I did it on mine in my 26G, and have not had algae since. I corrected the algae problem (in my case it was too much light with no CO2, so I reduced lighting), did the Excel dip, and the algae just melted away in a few days.

Edit:
Not to be done on plants that do not like Excel, like anacharis and vals.