The Right Kind of Algae

[Circus]

So I am going to be setting up a 29 gallon tank this week. It will have peacock gudgeons, pygmy cories, otos, and and possibly a small type of tetra.

It will have a thin layer of gravel with a couple of inches of sand over it. I will be using dragon rock and spiderwood as hardscape (I think that is the term) and will add amazon sword, java fern, and anubias if I can manage those three.

I would like to cultivate some soft algae for the otos (who are in my 15 gallon right now). How would I go about doing this? Is there a fertilizer you all would recommend, or a certain kind of bulb? Can you seed certain kinds of algae spores?

My test kit indicates 107 ppm gh wich converts to 6.4 dGH. The dKH is 7. I plan on adding distilled water to make the water softer for the fish I have planned.

 

[CassCats]

honestly, leave the otos in the 15 gal for a couple months after the new 29 is set up. This way there is plenty of biofilm for them ready.

Another good thing is to keep a jar or so of rocks in old tank water in the sunlight. You can add a bit of regular fert if you want to the jar. Have a couple rocks, rotate them out

 

[Circus]

honestly, leave the otos in the 15 gal for a couple months after the new 29 is set up. This way there is plenty of biofilm for them ready.

Another good thing is to keep a jar or so of rocks in old tank water in the sunlight. You can add a bit of regular fert if you want to the jar. Have a couple rocks, rotate them out

I had planned on waiting until I had the tank pretty mature, and will take your advice with the jar and rocks. The otos are at 5 in number right now but I figure when they are settled into the new tank I will increase that to 8 or 10.

 

[Byron]

I had planned on waiting until I had the tank pretty mature, and will take your advice with the jar and rocks. The otos are at 5 in number right now but I figure when they are settled into the new tank I will increase that to 8 or 10.

This many otos in a 29g tank will always be short of natural algae. One or two otos could keep natural algae (the harmless algae that grows in the biofilm on surfaces throughout the tank) cleaned off easily. I have had three otos clean a 115g 5-foot tank of algae in a couple of days.

You could not provide sufficient algae rocks for this many. So you need to wean them onto "veggie" wafers/disks. Otos will usually find these when the natural algae is insufficient, provided they are settled into the tank and eating natural algae first.

On another issue, I would not do sand over gravel; with the normal thermal currents, and with fish movement and substrate activity, the sand will get to the bottom with the gravel on top. The pygmy cories must have very fine sand. Use a uniform sand substrate and you should be fine. Plants grow well in sand, as well or even better than in gravel. All of my tanks have Quikrete Play Sand and the plants thrive, and so do my pygmy cories and the other tank of 40+ cories.

 

[Circus]

This many otos in a 29g tank will always be short of natural algae. One or two otos could keep natural algae (the harmless algae that grows in the biofilm on surfaces throughout the tank) cleaned off easily. I have had three otos clean a 115g 5-foot tank of algae in a couple of days.

You could not provide sufficient algae rocks for this many. So you need to wean them onto "veggie" wafers/disks. Otos will usually find these when the natural algae is insufficient, provided they are settled into the tank and eating natural algae first.

On another issue, I would not do sand over gravel; with the normal thermal currents, and with fish movement and substrate activity, the sand will get to the bottom with the gravel on top. The pygmy cories must have very fine sand. Use a uniform sand substrate and you should be fine. Plants grow well in sand, as well or even better than in gravel. All of my tanks have Quikrete Play Sand and the plants thrive, and so do my pygmy cories and the other tank of 40+ cories.

The sand and gravel thing makes sense. The lack of algae is what I was wondering about. What do you think of getting pure spirulina powder and making homemade food for the otos? They do nibble one the spinach and cucumber I put in there, and have shown interest in the Sera spirulina tabs I feed the shrimp and other fish in the tank. Honestly, they look pretty chubby.

 

[Byron]

The sand and gravel thing makes sense. The lack of algae is what I was wondering about. What do you think of getting pure spirulina powder and making homemade food for the otos? They do nibble one the spinach and cucumber I put in there, and have shown interest in the Sera spirulina tabs I feed the shrimp and other fish in the tank. Honestly, they look pretty chubby.

The Sera should be a good brand. Home-made foods carry problems, sometimes serious. One major thing is ensuring the fish receive all the nutrients they need. A quality prepared food is a certain way to ensure this. For my veggie catfish I feed Omega One Veggie Rounds. I do not know the ingredients in the Sera, but it is a reliable name (presumably?). I do know the Omega One are top of the line for these fish. The spinach and cucumber are OK as "extras," but these do not have much in the way of nutrition but they do provide variety.

 

[Circus]

One thing I have been seeing is that almost all of the veggie tabs and things I am finding all have fish as an ingredient. Otos are pure vegetarian right? Or at least feed on micro organisms that live in algae.

 

[Byron]

One thing I have been seeing is that almost all of the veggie tabs and things I am finding all have fish as an ingredient. Otos are pure vegetarian right? Or at least feed on micro organisms that live in algae.

Otocinclus are omnivorous but with a definite leaning to herbivorous. In grazing the aufwuch it eats algae but also microorganisms so it can handle the Veggie Rounds. You don't want too much protein though, true.

 

[Circus]

Otocinclus are omnivorous but with a definite leaning to herbivorous. In grazing the aufwuch it eats algae but also microorganisms so it can handle the Veggie Rounds. You don't want too much protein though, true.

Ok, thank you for the help. I will probably buy a couple different brands and see what they like, while supplementing with extra spirulina and veggies. But that will have to wait until I can actually go to the store.