How Long To Quarantine?

[Luketendo]

Soon i'm going to buy an extra tank to house my fish whilst I restart the old one, after my Main tank is back and working with the fish in it, i'm going to use the extra tank as a Quarantine Tank. But how long should I keep my Newly bought fish in the Quarantine tank before introducing them to the main tank? The 10 Tips says a week but another user said 2 weeks so i'm not sure.

 

[*Fishkies*]

At least a week should be good, that way if anything is going to show up it will then most often. However you may no neeed to quarantine more then 2 weeks. A lot can also deped on personal preference with quarantining your fish.

Best of luck as you start up!

 

[Luketendo]

Ok i'll probably go with a week seeing as it means I don't have to wait ages.

Also Is it good for plants to have subtrate under the gravel or are they ok with just gravel?

Finally, i've had my current tank up for 2 years now, but once I introduced living plants my tank got covered in Algae that will not come off with a sponge. Is there anyway way that doesn't involve injecting CO2 to preventing algae?

 

[scouse_andy]

Lots of ways to reduce algae: have your lights on for a fixed period of time (I find 6 hours works well for my tank), plant heavily with fast growing stems (hygrophila polysperma, shinnersia rivularis and elodea densa all worked well for me). The planted forum is very good here and they'll give loads of advice on how to combat algae and what plants will work well in your tank. To keep bits of algae in check you can get an algae eater - bristlenose plec does a good job for me, siamese algae eaters and otocinclus are also good avoid chinese algae eaters (golden sucking loaches) as they turn nasty.

 

[afishdude]

Also Is it good for plants to have subtrate under the gravel or are they ok with just gravel?

depends on what type of plant.

Finally, i've had my current tank up for 2 years now, but once I introduced living plants my tank got covered in Algae that will not come off with a sponge. Is there anyway way that doesn't involve injecting CO2 to preventing algae?

less light and less feeding. Snails can be your friend in this matter, as they will eat most algae.

 

[Luketendo]

My main tank is about 60-65 Litres. I think my light is on for 9 hours a day, maybe that's the problem?

 

[scouse_andy]

Could well be especially if it's in direct sunlight too. Try and look through the pinned topics in planted forum to find a photo that matches your algae then you can see how to correct it. I had a bad case of Blue Green Algae not so long ago and a three day blackout (no light AT ALL) followed by a big water change fixed it.

 

[Luketendo]

Well since I will be soon emptying that tank and starting again, (I now have plans to make it heavier planted with some wood,) It doesn't matter at the moment, but I expect I'll still end up with another algae explosion eventually. My tank only gets sunlight later on in the day when the sun is low, my window is facing south and my tank facing west.