MoMa
Fish Fanatic
I have been having some issues with my 10g low-tech planted aquarium...
NH3/NH4: 0 NO2: 0 NO3: <0.5 mg/L pH: 7.0
fish are fed flake. plants receive Nutrafin PlantGro (0.15-0-0) once per week. Water is treated with AquaPlus tapwater conditioner and half dosage of Cycle during water change. CO2 (super low tech) is refilled once per week. water changes once per week.
Lighting consists of a 17w lamp over a 10g aquarium.
Plants in the tank:
I'm having a planarian problem and a major algae bloom. During each water change, I cut away as much of the algae affected plants as possible, and feeding (flake) has been reduced to once every 3-4 days.
I tried the "blanket-over-the-tank" trick for 72 hours, which wasn't effective.
Money is tighter than usual right now so upgrading to a bonafide CO2 system isn't possible right now. My intent is to remove all plants, do a 50-75% water change, and keep the fish. I'd like to eventually try my hand at a real planted tank. Is there any way to effectively keep the algae effected plants in another tank until I set up a true planted aquarium, or am I better off throwing them to the compost pile and starting fresh?
Or is there any other way to salvage this tank?
As an aside, if there's anyone from CT, USA here, any suggestions on stores I should check out for plants or planted tank supplies???
NH3/NH4: 0 NO2: 0 NO3: <0.5 mg/L pH: 7.0
fish are fed flake. plants receive Nutrafin PlantGro (0.15-0-0) once per week. Water is treated with AquaPlus tapwater conditioner and half dosage of Cycle during water change. CO2 (super low tech) is refilled once per week. water changes once per week.
Lighting consists of a 17w lamp over a 10g aquarium.
Plants in the tank:
- Java Fern tied to driftwood
- Java Moss tied to driftwood
- Anacharis
- Amazon Sword
- another unknown plant, possibly Mayaca that covers much of the water surface (but grows from the bottom) and grows very fast.
- 5 neon tetras
- 1 oto. cat
- countless "pest" snails (which are bred to feed a puffer in another tank)
I'm having a planarian problem and a major algae bloom. During each water change, I cut away as much of the algae affected plants as possible, and feeding (flake) has been reduced to once every 3-4 days.
I tried the "blanket-over-the-tank" trick for 72 hours, which wasn't effective.
Money is tighter than usual right now so upgrading to a bonafide CO2 system isn't possible right now. My intent is to remove all plants, do a 50-75% water change, and keep the fish. I'd like to eventually try my hand at a real planted tank. Is there any way to effectively keep the algae effected plants in another tank until I set up a true planted aquarium, or am I better off throwing them to the compost pile and starting fresh?
Or is there any other way to salvage this tank?
As an aside, if there's anyone from CT, USA here, any suggestions on stores I should check out for plants or planted tank supplies???
