What happen to my tank?

[bingyan]

seems to be lots of snails and they seems to be growing bigger.

lots of plants seems to have very thick algae growing on the leaves.

a very thick layer of "mouldy" stuff seems to be growing on the net I use to wrap my riccia.

the glass seems to have lots of algae.

is it because the light is too strong? I am using 4 x 55w on a 4ft x 1.5 x 1.5ft tank. btw, I am a newbie and this is a new tank.

forgot to add that there are plenty of bubbles in the tank.

[cheeboonyong]

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On 5/22/2003 10:49:05 PM

seems to be lots of snails and they seems to be growing bigger.
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Probably introduced into the tank with your plants. Either you manually crush them when you see them or introduce puffer fish to eat them. warning about puffer, when run out of snails, may snip your other fish's fins. avoid chemicals. Tend to affect your plants.

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lots of plants seems to have very thick algae growing on the leaves.

a very thick layer of "mouldy" stuff seems to be growing on the net I use to wrap my riccia.

the glass seems to have lots of algae.

is it because the light is too strong? I am using 4 x 55w on a 4ft x 1.5 x 1.5ft tank. btw, I am a newbie and this is a new tank.

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this algae problem is not so straight forward. I myself have to battle against it all the time. When you mean new, exactly how old is the tank setup? Try to avoid adding too much liquid fertiliser in the beginning as your plants haven't settled in. the excess nutrients just get sucked up by the algae. my advice is to introduce some fast growing plants first to stabilise the plant first. try hydrophila difformis. The amount of lights look ok to me. but best to experiment for yourself. why don't you try to on only 2-3 instead of all 4? Also, keep your lighting hours to 8-12 hours. again, you must experiment on your own for your own tank.

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forgot to add that there are plenty of bubbles in the tank.
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what bubbles are you talking about? Co2? O2? Hydrogen sulphide??? sorry man, don't understand your question.

[bingyan]

Tank is only 5 days old

bubbles means Oxygen bubbles

btw, I just took some plants out and brush them lightly with a tooth brush, just to confirm that it's algae. dunno whether I will hurt them.

[David]

You need to give more information like your water parameters, lighting duration, injecting CO2 or not, fertilizing your tank and with what......

In the first place you may have started planting too early as you tank is only 5 days old and your water may not be stable enough to place algae eating creatures like...Ottos, Pencil-fish, SAEs, Yamatoe Shrimps, Malayan Shrimps.

As for the snails, if you can pick them all out. Introducing a puffer is one method. Puffers quickly become a problem on its own as they are fantastic fin nippers. Rams would be a better choice but I dont think its a good idea now.

Since you have already planted, reduce your lighting period to no more tank 6hrs for now and if you are fertilising your tank with liquid fert, stop immediately.

It will be good to invest the following test kits like PH, KH, NO2, NO3

[PeterGwee]

Huh...David, what do you mean by planting too early? ..I thought we always plant from the start...just densely thats all. []

Limiting stuff like liquid fert is not going to help you win the battle against algae. Algae needs only little amount of nutrients to survive whereas plants suffer if starve them. What you need to do is to balance your fert regime. Start with CO2 (20-30ppm), NO3, K, (Ca/Mg), Traces, PO4.

[geoffrey]

If your tank is really bubbling like 7-Up then you plants are converting nutrients with the lights energy and CO2 (pH and kH??) quite rapidly to carbohydrate and O2. Hence, IMHO, uptake of nutrients must also be rapid. There is a possibility that some of that is already insufficient.

Did you use base fertiliser in your setup? What is your plant load vs your fish load?

I don't think it is unwise to dose fertiliser now although many would advocate otherwise.

[juggler]

Have you started adding algae eaters like Otos? They can help eat algae.
4x55W looks good for the tank. But recently the weather is very warm. Do you have fan for the tank or there's sufficient ventilation? Too warm temperatures have a negative effect on plant growth.
Are you using CO2 as well?

[DEA]

well, i just think you've got too many nutrients in the water along with excessive light
while your plants can use the light, the strong level of light will help to support algae
if i were you, i'd start by doing a water change and sucking out as many snails and as much algae as i can
carry on with the water change regime, and add some algae control crew, such as yamato shrimp and otocinclus fish

that should clear up the infestation