smmetz
Fishaholic
I have a 20 gallon tank at work, in my office.
It has been set up for over 3 months.
Here is the description from my profile:
20 gallon - whisper 60 filter, sand, lightly planted - 7 platy, 3 neon tetra, 6 zebra danio
I had 7 neons 2 months ago. After an amonia spike (due to filter impaler jamming over a weekend), the neons have been dying off. I have been seperating the sick ones into a hospital tank at home. Just this week I noticed another had a white patch on its red stripe, and was swimming funny. He went home to the hospital.
Question 1: . I have a UV sterilizer at home, never used it. Would it be worth running it in my 20 gallon for a month or two, to try to keep other fish from getting sick? (the other fish all look fine now, even the 3 remaining neons)
Question 2: I have recently had a problem with algae growing on the sand and glass. Any suggestions on what I can do? Here is some more information on that:
It is growing in small circles on the glass, and huge patches in the sand.
edit: I just found this link, and it appears I have both "green algae" and "hard 'green dot' algae"
http
/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/algae.htm
I have a magnetic glass cleaner thing from the pet store. I use it about every 1-2 weeks to get growth off the glass. This new type of algae take more aggressive scrubbing to remove though. It is growing in small circles on the glass. I have to scrape with my fingernail to remove it. I have just been mixing up the sand more frequently to prevent patches from getting too big, but maybe that is not a good approach since that algae is now just mixed in all the sand.
The lights are on a timer. They go on for 4 hours in the morning, and 4 in the evening. It is a 15 watt bulb that came with the cheap hood. (all-glass brand I believe) The fish are fed once per day. On weekends, an automatic feeder continues to feed them once per day. Last week I added phosphate remover to the filter. There are no longer any phosphates in the water. Nitrates are around 10, and are pretty steady at that level with my maintenance routine. There are no "algae eating" fish or shrimp in the tank. I can move my BN in there if it would help, but I would like to have the remaining 3 neons not get sick for at least a month before I consider adding another fish to the mix. Any other suggestions for controling the algae?
I tried growing Anacharis in this tank, which in my understanding is like an aquatic weed - easy to grow. It did not do well in this tank, perhaps due to light. (I had my light timer on for two 6 hour shifts back then, and it still didnt help)
It has been set up for over 3 months.
Here is the description from my profile:
20 gallon - whisper 60 filter, sand, lightly planted - 7 platy, 3 neon tetra, 6 zebra danio
I had 7 neons 2 months ago. After an amonia spike (due to filter impaler jamming over a weekend), the neons have been dying off. I have been seperating the sick ones into a hospital tank at home. Just this week I noticed another had a white patch on its red stripe, and was swimming funny. He went home to the hospital.
Question 1: . I have a UV sterilizer at home, never used it. Would it be worth running it in my 20 gallon for a month or two, to try to keep other fish from getting sick? (the other fish all look fine now, even the 3 remaining neons)
Question 2: I have recently had a problem with algae growing on the sand and glass. Any suggestions on what I can do? Here is some more information on that:
It is growing in small circles on the glass, and huge patches in the sand.
edit: I just found this link, and it appears I have both "green algae" and "hard 'green dot' algae"
http
/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/algae.htmI have a magnetic glass cleaner thing from the pet store. I use it about every 1-2 weeks to get growth off the glass. This new type of algae take more aggressive scrubbing to remove though. It is growing in small circles on the glass. I have to scrape with my fingernail to remove it. I have just been mixing up the sand more frequently to prevent patches from getting too big, but maybe that is not a good approach since that algae is now just mixed in all the sand.
The lights are on a timer. They go on for 4 hours in the morning, and 4 in the evening. It is a 15 watt bulb that came with the cheap hood. (all-glass brand I believe) The fish are fed once per day. On weekends, an automatic feeder continues to feed them once per day. Last week I added phosphate remover to the filter. There are no longer any phosphates in the water. Nitrates are around 10, and are pretty steady at that level with my maintenance routine. There are no "algae eating" fish or shrimp in the tank. I can move my BN in there if it would help, but I would like to have the remaining 3 neons not get sick for at least a month before I consider adding another fish to the mix. Any other suggestions for controling the algae?
I tried growing Anacharis in this tank, which in my understanding is like an aquatic weed - easy to grow. It did not do well in this tank, perhaps due to light. (I had my light timer on for two 6 hour shifts back then, and it still didnt help)
