New 100 Gallons Tank

[pavlos]

Very nice discus Pavlos.
How old and big are they?
Ps.Don't worry about algae,they come and go occasionally it's nothing that can't be overcomed.
So if you liked better with sand stick with it.

Thanks for your kind words Filip. The two big ones (Cobalt & Red Snakeskin) are about 2 years old and 16cm.
The others are less than 1 year old and range from 11-14cm.
I have been dealing with the algae problem for over than 4 months and the only thing that I have succeded is throwing sand wich has hairy algae.
I don't think it will look better if I do not intrude.

[Filip]

I have always battle algae with lots of clean water and large WCs,adding big amount of fast growing plants like hydrophilic,valisneria, playing with light intensity and duration.
Lean water column always helps.

[FishFanMan]

Check your tap water for phosphates. Mine haslotsof phosphate in it, so i use GFO to get rid of it. If you're aging your WC water, then a pillow of GFO will quickly get rid of phosphate too before you use the water for WC.

[Filip]

What's a Gfo???

[Akili]

What's a Gfo???

Granular Ferric Oxide (GFO) is mostly used by reef hobbyists to decrease phosphate levels and algal growth in their tanks.

[pavlos]

Thanks a lot,

I have used anti-phosphate in my filters but not seen anything better. Now I will try what you tell me about GFO which looks like a good idea.. I hope it does not do any harm to the fish.

I do regular WC's and I do age my water. I will try to measure phosphates both to the tap and in the aquarium...

[rickztahone]

Thanks for the replies and kind words... Today I added 10 corydoras sterbais and soon I will add 3 ancistrus!

Just watch the ancistrus as they like to stick to the discus sides at times. Once they do, they will not stop. Just make sure you are feeding them their own foods as well and this helps with the sucking on discus.

[rickztahone]

Thanks a lot,

I have used anti-phosphate in my filters but not seen anything better. Now I will try what you tell me about GFO which looks like a good idea.. I hope it does not do any harm to the fish.

I do regular WC's and I do age my water. I will try to measure phosphates both to the tap and in the aquarium...

GFO will not harm your discus.

[Siddhartha Saive]

Hi pavlos.
The reasons for your algae troubles are
1. you have excess light. More than what you need for the plants you have. Decrease the light intensity by placing the lights higher or using fewer bulbs... and decrease the photoperiod to 6 hours a day till you get the algae under control.
2. You have too few plants. Focus on growing the plants. Add a lot more plants to utilise the nutrients and light. Once the plants start growing, your algae will dissappear.
Add hardy plants like swords, vals, crypts etc. If you don't want plants in your substrate add a lot of floating plants like water lettuce, salvinia, duckweed etc and even pothos.
3. You don't need to worry about nutrients like nitrates, phosphates. You need more of them for better plant growth... so the plants can outcompete algae and grow. This is the basis for the EI dosing method. We flood the tank with A LOT more fertlisers than the plants need. So we only need to ADD PHOSPHATE not remove it.. nitrates and phosphates DO NOT CAUSE ALGAE. They indirectly cause algae only in the presence of excess light... or when your plants aren't doing good.
so stop using the gfo. This is not a reef tank.
The only nutrient which directly causes algae is ammonia. This is the reason we see algae in uncycled tanks.

Algae is not an issue. It'll gradually disapper as your tank matures

[pavlos]

Some new photos.. I added some juvies, three red turq (Chens discus) and three (BD, LSS, galaxy turq) from Tony Tan.. I also have in QT two stendker Tefe's that I will show to you later...DSC_0682.JPGDSC_0729.JPGDSC_0723.JPGDSC_0720.JPGDSC_0715.JPGDSC_0713.JPGDSC_0709.JPGDSC_0706.JPGDSC_0701.JPGDSC_0750.JPG