Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tank Plant Advice => Topic started by: Resa on March 26, 2014, 12:08:22 AM
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Hi Guys :wave:
Some advice please? I am suddenly experiencing a problem in my tank of what I can only describe as Blanket weed, you know, like the stuff you get in ponds that you get out by twisting a stick through it and dragging it out. It appears to be attaching itself to all the rocks and wrapping around everything....including the other plants. ???
Any advice as to why I am having this problem would be much appreciated.
Cheers
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Mornin' Resa.... hope all's well in sunny France.
Have you checked here (http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm) to positively identify which sort of algae you have? Most of the causes of blanket weedy type stuff seems to be Low/Fluctuating CO2 &/or Low Nutrients.
I'm having a bit of an algae problem at the moment and one of the (many and often conflicting) things I've read was that an air-stone can knock the CO2 out of the water and cause low plant growth and an outbreak of algae. This came from an interview with Diana Walstad, so I'll go with her advice on this. I switched off my air-stone yesterday and I'm going to give it 'till the end April to see if there's any difference. The only difference so far is how quiet it is now. :))
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I can't agree that blanket weed (a filamentous algae) could be caused by low nutrients. In fact, like most algae, it's growth is promoted by high nutrient levels in the water. In nature, we always find it in areas where the water has been enriched with nutrients, often run-off from farm fields or input from treated sewage where the phosphates have not been stripped, and where vascular plant growth is low. High phosphate is often the cause, something which aquarists generally don't seem to test for. In garden ponds, it usually occurs when people feed their fish, i.e. add nutrients, which inevitably raises nutrient levels via the subsequent fish poo, and do no water changes. Aquarium plants may be competing poorly with the algae, but if you add fertiliser, make sure it is in the form of tabs to the substrate, not to the water which will make things worse.
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Oh dear resa! Looks like we're both having algae troubles! The Black / purple algae I had before is back with a vengence, all over my heater!
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Hi Jesnon, :wave:
You as well? Flipping stuff has attached itself to all my rocks >:( Mine is more like a blanket weed though. Gave my tank a good clean out and a big water change last night. Also, searched for, and found the body of my last original platy girl :( I knew she was on her way out as she had suddenly begun to look really old and tired, (it'll be all those kids she has had :o)
I hadn't seen her since the night before, so I was fairly sure I would find her dead, although, I thought that a couple of nights ago and had pretty much convinced myself I was on a body hunt when she swam out to see me from behind some plants.
Well, I hope you get control of your pesky algae...keep us posted.
Everything else going ok with you? How's work and your new home? Have you talked the boyfriend in to another tank yet? ;)
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Sorry to hear about your platy, Resa.
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Hi resa, yep pesky algae!
Sorry to hear about your platy :-(
Things are good hear. I just had a weekend away to Berlin, though didn't make it to the aquarium in the end! I'm supposed to be on annual leave but have worked a lot this week in the end (silly me!).
Work is going well just stressful as always and we're happily settled into our little home. I'm currently growing herbs that apparently go well in cocktails so soon will have a little cocktail herb garden on my balcony ha. No progress on the tank front though he remains unconvinced! I'm sure we could fit another smallish tank, the only real issue is the radiator it's got behind it and not knowing if we could turn it off! I would so love a new tank though. One of my lfs has those beautiful blue fish I posted about a while back and they would be happy in a small track a similar size to my current one. .. hmph!
How's everything your end? I saw you were making hundreds of trifles! ? How's progress on the new tank going?
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Algae issue tend to be the result of nutrient imbalance, not excess or insufficient nutrients. I think a common imbalance is the ratio between phosphate and nitrates. Excess phosphate tends to be a result of over feeding and we all go to great lengths to keep the nitrates low with frequent water changes. If you have a planted tank, which I have a feeling you do, Resa, it could be that the nitrates are too low! Do you test phosphate and nitrate levels? It would be helpful if you could provide a bit more info about your tank. I'm sorry, I know it is probably all on the forum somewhere, I'm just a bit bit mowed out by life at the moment.
Btw, if it makes you feel better, my tank is also over run with blanket weed. But I know that in my tank it is because I have lots of plants and not very many fish. So my nitrates are always low. I haven't been doing as many water changes as I'd like and because the nitrates in our water are so low, I actually dose additional nitrates when I change the water. Also the sporadic feeding of the fish probably doesn't help. :-\
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I think a new baby is the perfect excuse Helen! How is your little one?