Wolfgang8810

ok ive had my tank cycling for a little more than 3 weeks 9 days using biospira (what a wonderful product) and im noticing sioem brown spots on my fake plants. with mylighting i get a little over 1 WPG and it is on from 9am to 11 or so pm. im not sure wether it is algae or not so im posting a picture of it. if it is algae what should i do. i know my lights are on too long so what schedule do you guys use (i have a timer)? and if there are any fish that could help.

thanks,
Mark

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bhcaaron

I hope you don't mind me piggy-backing off your question Wolfgang.

Why should there be only 10 hours or so of tank light when there are more hours of stronger light in nature?

BTW, wolfgang, I've read, for salties anyway, you should have ten hours of simulated day light in the tank. One hour BEFORE the daylights, the nightlights (actinic) should come on till about an hour after. Then the actinic light should come back on an hour BEFORE the daylights go off and stay on till an hour AFTER the day lights. So twelve hours all together.

Example:

7am - 9am actinic
8am - 6pm daylight
5pm - 7pm actinic

notice that day and night lights overlap at the begining and at the end of the schedule.

MrWaxhead

I run 10 hours of lighting, anything beyond that is completely not needed for photosynthisis (granted you don't have that issue with fake plants) and just encourages algae.

But without real plants to take in macro nutrients that your fish expel and that long of a light cycle you will be fighting algae non stop. I would cut back your lighting and make sure you are doing good water changes weekly to reduce all the macros as there is nothing in your tank other then a small benefical bacteria colony to to take in the macros.

You could also try adding some amano shrimp and ottos or a TRUE SAE or american flag fish to help with your algae once you are sure you have completed you cycle.

Wolfgang8810

im planning for corys, pearl gouramis and rams would any of those you sugguested work with this stocking plan mrwaxhead??

MrWaxhead

Sorry what is your stocking plan, I see no mention of it on this post and what size is your tank etc?

MrWaxhead

And I love all three fish you mentioned, but I have no info at all on rams, I have yet to own them. I love pearls and corries though and they are great in a tank together.

My juvie pearls in my 50g

Wolfgang8810

i havea 50 gallon too not as many plants as you though lol i may switch some of the fake plants for real ones though. at jsut over 1 wpg what should i go for that will help beat the algae?

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MrWaxhead

Anything fast growing like hornwort is always excellent for algae busting. keep a good sized clump in your tank and the algae has way less to eat. Don't try to plant it though as it just rots in the ground, when I ever I start a tank with some hornwort, I just take a lead planting band, and carefully wrap it onto the stock and drop it in the tank. Then as it grows like mad I trim it back and reclump a bunch in a new lead band and drop it in.

And for slow steady growth in low light again non planted all are tied to wood etc with cotton thread (by the time the thread rots it will have attached to the wood, annubis, java moss and any strain of java fern lace needle reg etc. They never grow fast but are always a slow steady intake of nutrients as long as you have a algae busting plant like hornwort in your tank. Otherwise they get coated in fine algae and don't do so well.

I think isabella if I remember right has a low light planted topic, and you really have to keep that lighting down, I know its fun to watch them, but its even nicer when you are watching them in a tank with no algae. Try a moon light LED for the last few hours of viewing (ie 10 hours of tank light and 3 of moonlight). It is very fun as well, as your tank goes into its change over in that time, your shoaling fish slowly go off to bed, and you catfish and shrimp etc start to get real active. And its a more gradual swap to darkness, its not highbeams for x amount of hours and boom darkness. The fish seem to go to bed more peacefull when the lights go down and there is light moonlight for a bit for them to find there nighttime resting places. My fish have very set places they all go to its very cool to watch.

Wolfgang8810

thanks for the help. in my pictrue i have a resin type rock thing. can plants attach themselves to that? what about those banana plants?

MrWaxhead

Yes they will just not as strongly but they will, I have moss all over some resin rocks in the left of my 50g, I wanted a cave system, and hid it with the moss, that moss has been on there now for almost 2 years, and its stuck like mad now. Some fine leaved needle java fern would look stunning on that as a focal point in your tank.

I see you have corries too, I know keep a small section of plain sand in all my tanks that have corries, as there is nothing cooler then watching a corry snort sand, they burrow there heads in and puff puff puff little sand explosions as they look for food etc. I just use hardscape, like a long peice of wood etc, to controll a area for my sand so my other substrate does not pour in and mix. A little beach would fit in with your corona bottles too hehe.

Wolfgang8810

lol thats true hah well ill look into some plants there really is a limated selection where im at. so pretty much hornwort and java fern would be good?

MrWaxhead

Yes every little bit helps, but ya, the hornwort will bust algae and allow the ferns to take hold without getting covered in algae.

Wolfgang8810

sounds good ill check for hornwort and maybe a week or so after the algae is gone ill tie up dome ferns woo.

Wolfgang8810

ok i got some more plants and i have notices the algae slowing down and disappearing. here is my tank before and after.

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bhcaaron

So before it was blue-er and now its browner?

Wolfgang8810

lol no thats waht flash and no flash does

bhcaaron

Which one is no flash?

Wolfgang8810

the seccond one is the one with no flash

bhcaaron

I like the one with no flash better.

TheEssigs

I think what you are seeing... the brown stuff I mean... is diatoms. In your first post you had said that you were set up for a little over 3 weeks... what might be happening, which happens with new tanks, is a brown diatom bloom.

Diatoms... can appear as a simple dusting on the tank walls and substrate surfaces, or it can turn into a massive growth that covers just about everything in the tank. This type of outbreak typically occurs when a tank is just completing or has finished the nitrogen cycling process and/or has excess nutrients from food or waste are in the water.

It is a normal occurrence, as diatoms are one of the first to appear in the chain when the tank conditions are conducive for algae growth, and is usually a precursor to other forms of desirable and undesirable nuisance type green algae.

You can keep wiping it away and filtering it out, but eventually they will starve out and go away on their own... but it takes a while....

Wolfgang8810

so am i doing the right thing by adding plants to take up all the neutrients leaving nothing for the brown stuff?

MrWaxhead

It doesn't hurt to add plants, but it takes a sizeable amount of healthy plants to effectively control algae. But every little bit helps, as long as they are healthy and growing and not dieing and creating ammonia to trigger even more algae.

Wolfgang8810

i lowered my daytime light hours to 8 and have 30 mins before and after the daylight comes on blue led's that looks so cool.

Wolfgang8810

my night lit tank.

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bhcaaron

That DOES look like moonlight! It works! It works! lol