my plants vs algae

[luisrcrx]

This is my planted tank but as you can see the algae gang moved into town.
Its a 75gal tank my signature shows my fish and filtration,my magnum is full of charcoal ,and my fluval has charcoal in the first chamber,the zeo-carb in the second and bio media in the other two. my tank has been setup since early august07 and my lighting is a compact florescent 260watts it turns on at 7am and off at 8pm.i have one bag of Eco-Complete Plant Substrate mixed into my gravel,i want to add a few more plants but i have to do something about my jd since i feed once a day he decided to start taking bites out of my plants and pulls them out. those are 10" flower pots by the way.

these are my latest test results
ph: 7.0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 10ppm
ammonia: 0.25ppm
temp 80deg

I was also thinking of getting a RO water system and a co2 system what do you guys think?

heres some pics

 

[cichlidbuddy]

nice looking tank. myabe if you cut the time on the lights, it would help with the algea.

 

[arowana man]

cut the lighting to 7-8 hours. then get CO2. then remove the carbon from your filters. that will take away any macro nutrients that are important for plants

 

[arowana man]

that algea's called BBA. Black Beard Algea. just so you know. good luck

 

[luisrcrx]

macro nutrients? i've added API's algae fix and reduced feeding. I've also added more plants it seems to help i seen my plecos having there way with the algae

 

[luisrcrx]

BTW my JD is it male or female? I cant tell, i heard you have to check there gills for color or something like that.

 

[arowana man]

plecos will love it. plants are the best way to rid algea. be carefull with algea chemacals. there no good for sensitive fish and all inverts. macra nutrients are im[portants for the plants. carbon will remove those. carbon is good but not for a planted tank.

 

[luisrcrx]

Thanks for the info. I've added more plants to my tank since and reduced light time+feedings and the algae looks like its suriviling up and turning purple in some spots. Is it starting to die?

 

[WolfFisho1]

BTW my JD is it male or female? I cant tell, i heard you have to check there gills for color or something like that.

appears male to me! a lil oddly colored though almost looks like a texas or jd texas mix! with a the spangling! but with the amount of green on gill platee appears male!

 

[WolfFisho1]

Thanks for the info. I've added more plants to my tank since and reduced light time+feedings and the algae looks like its suriviling up and turning purple in some spots. Is it starting to die?

suck it off with an air siphon thats wut i do for my hair algae! works nicely in my troph tank i scrub of of rocks and tanks with an air tube siphoning the green water that is scrumbed off!