need some help w/ 10gal planted

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T

tscharf

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Apr 17, 2009
1,291
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Bowie MD
ok so heres the deal, i need some help with a 10gal planted i have at my parents house, it has about 2-3in of home depot play sand in it depending on where you are in the tanks, a couple misc plants and a fake cave. it used to have 6 neons in it but when the power went out they lost 3, there power went out for 3 days and temps dropped. theres a bunch of dark green stringy algae covering most of the plants. it has a small piece of drift wood and a moss ball in it as well as some other misc. plants from petsmart. the problem i see is theres alot of build up of brown decaying matter on top of the sand. heres what i want fixed
1. how do i get rid of the algae without killing the plants
2. what kind of organism can i add to the tank to get rid of the dying matter ontop of the sane...
3. i want to make this tank almost completely self sufficient.

it has a HOB filter on the back rated for a 10gal tank. any other advice or comments you guy have would be appreciated.

there also used to be a shark tooth clam in there but it also died, now theres just the empty open shell, which i dont mind being in there.
 
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for some reason i cant get pictures to attach but if you look in my photo gallery you can see the 10 gal planted. the plant in the back left and front left are dead the one in the center is dying. and the grren budle of plant is tied to the driftwood and it appears to be where most of the alga is taking root.

in summation the tanks a mess. help me
 
The brown algae it diatoms, they will go away after some time. Ottos will eat it. The stringy algae is a bit more tricky. What I would do it manually remove most of it. There is an imbalance in your tank. Could be low Co2 and/or high nitrate etc. How long do you run your lights? Also is it consistent? Are you doing 8 hours one day, 10 the next, 11 next day, 9 another? This would cause problems. Are you dosing any fertilizers, any CO2?
 
actually im pretty sure the lights are on 24/7.... i know bad, but being that its at my parents i cant control that... what exactly do ottos look like and where can i get them? there are a bunch of small snails in there i got from the local pet store for free, and the breed in there. how can i ensure that my plants have the correct nutrients.
 
Put your lights on a timer. I'd recommend against ottos for you because they are very sensitive to water conditions. I suggest you do more research on the basics of a planted tank.
 
just read over the plated tank for beginners thing... gave alot of good info. still would appreciate any advice anyone has. i plant on taking out all the dead plants, getting some larger sunstrate to put on top of the sand and reconfigurings most of the tank
 
Well your substrate has got some bacteria and nutrients in it now. But I would add some root tabs to it since it is sand. Pick a few easy plants and you should be ok. Get a timer for the lights. You can get one at home depot for as little as $3.97 .
 
sweet good deal, thanks
 
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