How to get rid of diatoms on pygmy chain sword

[kno4te]

So I tested the water just to see if nitrates creeped up. Ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 2.5ish.

So I'm thinking either my caribsea sand is still leaking silicates, the mexican pebbles are or my tap water has high phosphate.

I've been doing 2 66% wcs a week due to the medium to high bio load. I think it might be removing too many nitrates and not having enough for the plants. This could explain high phosphates in my water since I'm doing 2 large water changes.

I'm going to cut it down to 1 66% water change per week and see if the nitrates rise up to around 10 and if less new tap water will help with lower silicates.

I ordered an api phosphate test kit coming monday to check my tap water.

I dose flourish and flourish excel as well as iron and potassium.... do you think overdosing any of these could cause diatoms?

Thoughts?

Sorry for the late reply. It could be the iron.

 

[celebrist]

I really don't think adding an otto or two would increase your bio load significantly but it would clean up your diatoms

 

[islandguy11]

Ya each ft has its own personality. Out of the 4 I have they each have their own certain behaviour of what they suck on. So it’s hard to know without trying. None of them seem to worry about other fish, other than each other every once in a while.

That's interesting Matthew, you've just answered a question I recently posted in the Other Characins sub-forum about whether or not people's FT's like to eat brown algae (mine doesn't) -- from what you say it seems it differs according to the FT's personal taste.

 

[Leo1234]

I'm not sure how well it would work out in your setup, but I know stiphodon gobies eat diatoms and might help? they also stay rather small. I have experience with the gobies, but not tetras and such, so I'm not sure if they are compatible or not

 

[SandNukka15]

So I got my phosphate test kit and test my tap water. There are 0 phosphates in my tap water according to the kit. So it's got to be the mexican pebbles and the silicates from my sand. I did a 50% water change yesterday before my kit came in the mail so I'm going to try testing the tank water tonight and then next few days to see how much the rocks and sand are leaching out

 

[SandNukka15]

So phosphates still remain zero in the tank... dont have a test for silicates. Anyone know what I should do?

 

[SandNukka15]

Some pics

 

[J. H.]

I had a similar problem with my amazon swords. Aggressively cleaning my filter, substrate, decor and glass and adding more plants solved the problem and the new leaves grew in and didn't get algae. The less plant food and the more competition, and the few reproducing algae, the better. I really don't know, but crud can never do you good. Snails can help and make very little impact on bioload, but that may be a rabbithole you don't want to go down.
EDIT: Sometimes starving fish for a few days can convince them to eat algae, even ones that aren't 'algae eaters'. It may make them nip each other, too though.

 

[SandNukka15]

I had a similar problem with my amazon swords. Aggressively cleaning my filter, substrate, decor and glass and adding more plants solved the problem and the new leaves grew in and didn't get algae. The less plant food and the more competition, and the few reproducing algae, the better. I really don't know, but crud can never do you good. Snails can help and make very little impact on bioload, but that may be a rabbithole you don't want to go down.
EDIT: Sometimes starving fish for a few days can convince them to eat algae, even ones that aren't 'algae eaters'. It may make them nip each other, too though.

I had a similar problem with my amazon swords. Aggressively cleaning my filter, substrate, decor and glass and adding more plants solved the problem and the new leaves grew in and didn't get algae. The less plant food and the more competition, and the few reproducing algae, the better. I really don't know, but crud can never do you good. Snails can help and make very little impact on bioload, but that may be a rabbithole you don't want to go down.
EDIT: Sometimes starving fish for a few days can convince them to eat algae, even ones that aren't 'algae eaters'. It may make them nip each other, too though.

I was dosing with liquid ferts 3 times a week but have dropped down to once a week

I have 2 nerite snails and a bristlenose.. they clean but none of the diatoms on the pygmy chain swords... those are the only plants that have diatoms on them

 

[J. H.]

I was dosing with liquid ferts 3 times a week but have dropped down to once a week

I have 2 nerite snails and a bristlenose.. they clean but none of the diatoms on the pygmy chain swords... those are the only plants that have diatoms on them

Nerites are not exactly the best algae eating snails, they are only popular because they don't breed in FW and they look pretty. The BN I would expect to eat the algae, but I wouldn't risk starving him, because he may choose to chew holes in all your plants. Judging by my experience of what fish and snails are willing to eat, I'd say diatoms are the least tasty algae. I have had guppies , pond snails, and BNs eat diatoms, I don't think anything else.
markstrimaran did some experiments with various LED colors and found that algae types have very specific light color needs; maybe changing the color with a piece of plastic under the light would help ???