Otto rookie question

I want to add a few ottos to the tank this weekend, I finally have a fair amount of algae....what if they eat it all? Will I have to give them a piece of cucumber every morning? Or does algae grow quicker than they can eat?

 

I had 2 and they couldnt keep up with my 20 gal, but if u can't see any algae a slice of cucumber every other day or so would be fine

 

Thanks

 

what kind of lighting do you have in your tank?

 

I have an eclipse 12G w/ the factory light bulb which is 15w. I have algae growing pretty fast on one of the live plants leaves..while the other plant has no algae. Also have algae on front of tank.

 

it sounds like you have an incandescent bulb. If you do, then you could switch it for a compact fluorescent bulb. That would give you better light, less heat and more algae.

I have an eclipse 12G w/ the factory light bulb which is 15w. I have algae growing pretty fast on one of the live plants leaves..while the other plant has no algae. Also have algae on front of tank.

 

What other fish do you have in the tank?
Carol

 

Its a flouresent, I have a small school og glowlite tetras

 

Its a flouresent, I have a small school og glowlite tetras

Bet it's pretty Otos will do fine in that tank, try to get at least three. when you run out of algae they will eat veggie wafers and fresh veggies. sometimes it takes serving different foods a couple of times before they realize it is really food
Carol

 

hmm.. perhaps if you went with a fluorescent bulb for plants with a peak in the blue range, you'd get more algae. do you have an 18" tube for that tank?

Its a flouresent, I have a small school og glowlite tetras

 

Honestly I do not know. It is the factory bulb...I don't think there are many options on the bulb. Algae is growing well. Seems to be a little bit more each day...so I don't think the amount will be a problem. A small LFS has some ottos where I bought my Hornnwart...they have been in the tanks for weeks...and are big and fat. Petsmart just got a shipment in but...Id wait till they all settle in and waite to see who survives a few weeks. I know they can be sensitive. So...Guess ill go to the LFS acclimate them for a couple hours and see how they do. Ill keep you posted.

 

Ok here is my buld info 13W 5500K Fluorescent Lamp. Is this decent? I don't seem to have any other options cause...it seems this is really the only bulb for the ECLIPSE 12. But...The plnats are doing great...growing like weeds actually. I have Hornwart, two Wally world bulbs I put in there..now one is bigger than my hand! Getts bigger every day...and some Java moss. Algae is growing good.

 

That Eclipse hood takes an 18" florescent tube, so you should be able to use any 18" T8 bulb in it. Here's a list of compatible bulbs from DFS:

 

here is the bulb

It is acually a compact fluorescent that can fit in the palm of my hand. That 18' denotes another aquarium by eclipse. The width of my tank is only 17' inches I believe. This is the marineland where filter light is built in the hood. Question. The one I posted shows 10,000k. I think mine 1s 5,500. Is 10k much better? should I order the 10k one?

 

heres a better pic. Mine is 5,500 this is 10k?

 

well, when we were looking for a new tube for the cichlid tank, I looked more at the peaks in the light spectrum than the K temp. Since the tank is a tall tank, I wanted light more like sunlight and went with this bulb that has it's highest peak in yellow:


this tube is like sunlight but a little bit more of a peak in blue, so it would be better than the tube we got if you wanted sunlight and had live plants:


another tubes good for plants:


this tube is what I think i'd get if I were doing a planted tank. it has the highest peak in green, but also peaks in red & blue:


I see bulbs up to 20,000K but didn't need something that intense. the whole variety of lighting is crazy & something we're still working on learning.

 

My tube is a compact flouresent 6 inches. Its pretty much all you get w/ an eclipse 12 gallon. I don't have a selection of the ones you posted. Those bulbs are longer than my tank

 

Yea, those seem to be a bit rarer -- I can't find anything that looks like it on DFS, though I'm sure they have them buried in there somewhere.

 

yea, i'd like to find the same spectrum bulbs in compact fluorescent size as the 18" tube we got, but it seems very limited how much selection is available in CF size.

 

That bulb seems like a good one, especially in the temperature range. A temp of around 5000K is good. How do you like having the glowlights in the tank? They must be pretty cool, I used to have some of them. Otos are a good bet, they should be able to eat all the algae.

 

I have that same bulb in my 5 hex. They aren't hard to replace, honestly. And that's a very good bulb for plant/algae growing. I use the hex tank as a plant tank and I never do much but pull green plants out of it.