New Enviroment Just 6 Weeks Old

[gorzo]

now that i have plucked up the courage to register and post could i please ask some advice.

the tank is 6 weeks old and lightly stocked with no plants or ornaments etc yet, it is very close to a large window and i am concerned about stocking with live plants as worried about algae bloom from the sunlight.

hence was not going to bother with plants and go for petrified wood and rocks instead, anyone had experiance of live plants near a natural light source or am i just being over concerned about something that may not happen.

also i have been told to replace one of the poly/carbon filters on one side of my Fluval U3 with activated carbon wrapped in muslin etc to ensure crystal clear water. returning from being away from tropical fish for over 20 years i have not used this techniqe before therefore some advice on this would be much appreciated also.

also was wanting to introduce some kind of invertabrate crab/lobster etc some advice here too would help.

many thanks

G

 

[SimoUK]

WELCOME TO TFF

And If I were you I would deffo move it away from the sun. My coldwater tank is right next to A window, and I have some bad problems with algae growth, I got alot of black hair algae that just wont go away!, But I do have Java fern and Java moss growing in there.

But with my experiences i would say if its possible, get it away from that window! I wish I coulds move mine.

Simo

 

[Wills]

If anything you are more likely to get algae with no plants as excess nutrients (like nitrate) caused by fish waste + sunlight = algae.

But if you have plants to soak up the nutrients before the algae develops it will starve the algae out of the tank. When you say it is in direct sunlight it is often unavoidable for example on a sunny day my tank is in strong sun but its in the middle of my lounge its just the way my apartment is laid out. If the sun is hitting the side of the tank or the back maybe get some black out fabric to drape over that side of the tank to prevent the light hitting it. I used to have a corner tank in a room that had some big glass doors in and the tank backed into half of the door and I used the black out material there and it worked after the initial algae bloom.

Wills

 

[gorzo]

ok thanks for the advice so far