haedra

I was going to avoid posting pics of my tank with my Oh so close friends Mr. Diatoms, but whatever!

Originally I wanted to "fake" a salt water aquarium; though I realize how much different it really does look than the real thing, I thought it might be interesting anyway.

Here it was when it was empty of any aquatic life:

10gallon.JPG

Fast forward to later. The interesting silk plant got nothing but ridiculously dirty, so I took it out. Figured the hornwort would be enough for now (that is what's floating in the right side), plus I'd rather have a real one than a fake one anyway!

Not great of a footprint I know, but I've been watching the fishies and they spend little time on the bottom anyway... they seem to love nibbling at everything else, and to explore the crevices in and around the big cave. Incidentally, the top of this cave reaches a few inches from my filter output, and that is where the shrimp seems to like to sit to filter feed.

tank.jpg

Diatoms don't look as bad as they did, but that's mostly because I took out the silk plant.. and ran a finger along my heater, where it was congregating the worst.

pinkfloydpuffer

That's just a cory/shrimp tank? CUTE!!! I loooove cories!
Are your guys like mine and spend lots of their time swimming around instead of sitting on the substrate?

haedra

O totally. The only time they seem remotely interested in the bottom is when they seem to either resting.. or eating food I drop in there (since there's no other fish in there to leave leftover flakes). The rest of the time they are ALL OVER the place.

And they are especially nosey. After I moved the anemone thing back a little and put my new water in, they instantly had to check everything out.

jgon_

I wish I could get some Sterbais like you. My LFS sells them for $14.99 each.

pinkfloydpuffer

Hehe, cories are soooo cute! Mine would sit on the bottom all the time when they were with the bettas, but I switched the bettas with the guppies, and now the cories are swimming all over! Makes me smile to see them so happy

haedra

PFP- yea, that's one of the reasons I scrapped the idea of putting a betta in that tank. I had a suspicion that even if he never bothered them at all, that the corys would likely not be as outgoing.. and I didn't want to affect their happiness.

JGON-I had to drive a half hour to a store to find them, after calling every local store in my area. If you've ever heard of thatpetplace.com, apparently the only have one retail location (or so I was told), and that one location happens to be "near" me. I actually love that store.. it's like a Sam's club for pets. It's huge! They have things I cannot find anywhere else, and the people working there are much more knowledgeable than the other pet stores in my area.

pinkfloydpuffer

The nearest store to me that supposedly carries sterbais is an hour away... It's where I got my DP and guppies though

haedra

This store was also the only one around that had panda corys too. When I initially researched corys the pandas and the sterbas I both found interesting. Actually, the pandas are quite adorable lol. Maybe some day I'll give those a shot.

prairielilly

I love my pandas

It looks really nice, you did a great job! I'm not seeing any diatoms...every surface in my aquarium basically turns brown the day after I clean it...

Shawnie

great pics!!! so colorful....I agree sterbai's are the bomb!! I gave up worrying about the diatoms...looks more natural now that im use to it LOL ....

haedra

Thanks.

Well, the diatoms are real patchy.. there was actually alot on the heater, but I just smudged it off, lol. There looked to be some on my hornwort too, but not terribly bad. The cave is so colorful I think it's just hard to see where it congregated. Well that, and I must have shook my tripod because my pic isn't great! lol

For some strange reason there are no diatoms on the glass though. In fact, my glass is quite clear.

prairielilly

Consider yourself fortunate

Shawnie

can you fit some ottos? they love it

haedra

Shawnie-Idk, with the horror movie sized shrimp in my tank and the ever pooping snail.. I think I'm maxed.

Prairie- now that I've said that of course, I expect to find brown glass soon.. lol

agabr123

great tanks!!! diatoms are annoying but i dont bother trying to get rid of them anymore, they just come back even stronger!

pinkfloydpuffer

I tried to get rid of them in one of my tanks, next thing I knew.... CYANOBACTERIA! lol

My other tanks are great for algae though, not a spec in sight
(maybe cause they're full of snails )

haedra

I love the snail, I think he is real cool.. but I think the only creature I ever witnessed poop so much was my son when he was an infant. And that's saying alot.

Cyanobacteria.. I think I'll try to keep the diatoms then! I hear blue green algae is a bugger to get rid of.

prairielilly

I had a thread going about whether or not phosphate remover filter additives would be effective for the diatoms....short answer: 'maybe not really'...there's more to it than I thought. I think in my case I'm just going to 'not see' the diatoms for a while (just like dishes on the counter?), keep the water clean, and see if it goes away....

haedra

Ever since I took out the hornwort, the diatoms are growing faster and worse. BOO!

prairielilly

My betta's 3g (that has of late been a brown fuzzy mess) always got brown and fuzzy the day after I cleaned it. Last Saturday I couldn't take it anymore and gave it a very thorough cleaning...and for whatever reason, here it is Wednesday and it looks the SAME as it did right after I cleaned it! The end is in sight Haedra!

agabr123

plants and algae feed off of the same things, so removing the plants likely left more food for the algae

haedra

Indeed, I figured as much. I really do want to put another live plant in there, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Prairie- grats on getting rid of yours! I hope your tank continues to be diatom-free.

haedra

I'm finding it interesting, watching this little mini ecosystem.

Basically everything I had read about is proving true so far... Now the diatoms are disappearing, for the most part. The most obvious place is the corner ornament I have in there. It is brightly colored, so the bright purples and yellows being covered in brown was very obvious. But now that brown is almost gone.

But as I've watched the brown stuff slowly waning, I have now graduated to green! *giggle* It seems to be a "normal" algae. I am fairly certain it's not cyanobacteria. And it's not the green spot algae that you need to take a razor to; just a run of the mill green yuckiness. It's actually not that bad though, so it doesn't bother me. What else I do find interesting are all the "trails" running through it on the glass. I found maybe 2 ramshorns a week or so ago, that I let live; thinking that they would be no big deal, since I feed my fish lightly, and thus their population wouldn't explode. So far, this has held true; and I rarely see snails, except after a gravel vac when things get stirred up. But even though I don't see the snails, I see evidence of them being there! The back of the tank looks like a road map.

It has taken awhile, but I think I have finally accepted that there will always be some algae in my tank. It doesn't really bother me anymore. Well, as long as it doesn't take over that is!

For now, I just wipe it off when the water level is low for a water change; and for maybe the last 3 weeks or so, I've been turning the tank light off mid day for about 2 hours. I'm not sure if this is helping, but I thought it was worth a try.