A Couple Of Questions..

[trout_pout]

1) I've read that you are supposed to soak bogwood overnight. Do you soak it in warm water or cold?

2) I have "silk feel" plants and it's very hard to get the algae off them once its on. Can algae grow on pure plastic plants? (if so is it very easy to wipe off?)

 

[Robotochan]

Not sure about your first question, depends if it's actual bog wood, mapani root etc. but for your 2nd question Algae grows on pretty much everything, best way to tackle it is to find the source of the problem. Maybe you are letting too much light into the tank?

 

[chelbel]

1) I've read that you are supposed to soak bogwood overnight. Do you soak it in warm water or cold?

2) I have "silk feel" plants and it's very hard to get the algae off them once its on. Can algae grow on pure plastic plants? (if so is it very easy to wipe off?)

I have little knowledge so someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I was told to soak it in a bucket for about a week to stop the water in your tank getting a browny tinge
We had plastic plants and I found sticking them under the flowing shower head blasted everything off them

 

[loachman]

Most wood will stain your water brown for some time. Mopani wood can do it for 2+ months depending on the size of it, tank size, filteration, and water changes.

It will make your water slightly more acidic (lowers pH), but not by much and won't hurt the VAST majority of community fish. The longer it's soaked, the less it'll do. Hot water makes it go faster.

Algae will grow on anything that has exposure to light.

 

[Meds081603]

Is the algae bad? You can't eliminate all algae and trying to do so would likely end in disaster. I wouldn't worry about it much unless it is bad. Your best bet with removing it if it is bad though would be first figuring out what is causing it and trying to eliminate the source.

 

[trout_pout]

It's not that bad... but I mean, over time it gets annoying because I don't constantly clean my plants. So I end up chucking alot of them away because it's so hard to get off.

Thanks for the advice anyway guys and girls..

 

[Meds081603]

It's not that bad... but I mean, over time it gets annoying because I don't constantly clean my plants. So I end up chucking alot of them away because it's so hard to get off.

Thanks for the advice anyway guys and girls..

LOL, it stinks because when it is not bad it does not bother people so they dont worry about it. When its not bad, its easy to remove. If you let it get to the point it bothers you, then it gets hard to remove. Either frequent easy cleanings or less frequent hard cleanings!

 

[!Gina]

I soaked my mopani bogwood for 48 hours in a bucket of warm water before I put it into my tank.

6 months on and the brown tinge to the water has gone, but i kinda like that since i treat a lot of my tanks with indian almond leaf anyway i'm used to it.