Tips on growing plants and avoiding algae

[DocB]

That must be it.
Thanks Eddie

[beantickler]

This has MORE info then ANY of the planted tank forums by far! I am now thinking you may have just solved my algae problem in my soon to be Discus tank. THANK YOU FOR THIS VALUABLE INFORMATION!

[oeat07]

Hello there.. I have been into the live plants hobby for a long time now, and one thing is for sure... you will always have algae no matter what you do... the amount of algae is what you can control with this Article...
Planted tank with discus:... I have used a lot of no discus-friendly plants with great success... you just have to be on top nutrients levels in your tank and you will end up with a nice show planted discus tank.. I keep mine in my living room so I have no choice other than keep it crystal clean and good looking... here is a picture of my tank... hope you like it.
Oscar
Note: the red velvet rouge discus is spawning with the albino golden.. that is why it looks a bit dark...

[mcishaque]

Marilyn,
I thought about getting the AP one for the same reason as you, it just seemed like it would be easier to use. However every last review I read about the AP one said that they don't work well. The Vortex is admittedly a PITA but it does work very well. Since you have a 90 I would go with the XL and it's added gph. The other thing about the XL is you will not need to recharge the diatom powder nearly as othen as the DL.

I was using a diatom filter (Vortex XL). Ran it once a day, for about 1.5 hours just before lights out. A week later, fishes start acting up, and start bumping into the glass and trying to jump out of the water.

Did a couple of emergency water changes and stopped using the diatom filter. No problems since.

My theory: the stagnant water in the diatom filter will spoil in a few days, and introduce all kinds of nasties into the water.

So to those who do use diatom filters:

- how often do you run yours ?
- how long do you run it ?
- do you flush out all the water and powder and store it till the next use, or do you leave the water in there - maybe for a whole day, or a week ?

I thought about using this method:
- use diatom filter for X hours
- store the filter with water/powder in it
- before next next use, fill a 5 gallon bucket w/ water
- put some bleach in the bucket of water
- prime the filter by letting it run/circulate the bleached bucket of water for 5 mins to kill germs/bacteria
- dump bleach water out of bucket
- refill bucket w/ fresh water
- take the outlet of the filter out of the bucket, and let it run for another 5 mins

Basic idea is to run some bleach water though the filter to kill germs. Then flush the filter w/ fresh water to get rid of bleach. Then use filter for real.

Anyone run into water spoiling issue in diatom filters ?

Thoughts on bleach/flush method ?

Alternate would be to rinse filter off before storage. Then re-prime filter w/ water and powder before next use. That's a lot of work and wasted power if you do this daily or every few days.

[GrillMaster]

Why would you want to run a diatom filter in your tank to begin with? All it does is suck out the minerals and make your water sparkle. Thats what a tank filter is for.

[khaled]

hi evrybody, I want to ask about using the ultraviolet sterilizer in planted discus tank to control algae, any one try it before? thanks a lot

[RudeDogg1]

I thought I had posted this but it hasnt shown up so ill ask again. If I use the tropica ferts will I need to add any other ferts other than CO2? Its all abit confusing

[sfdiscus]

Do the commercial algae killers solutions really work?

[JRF]

thanks for the great info, I have a very tall tank (34") ..

[caprismart]

Diatoms have always been a problem for me.....any suggestions?

[Statik]

Flourish excell eliminates algae and makes the plants grow nicely. Works wonders for me. I always had trouble keeping my plants and battling constant bba. But since i put this stuff in my fish tank looks great!

[ktm4us6]

New Led lighting is a big change also, which is much different in watts per gallon. I haven't seen any specs yet on w/g butt from my experience its a lot less, and depends on the lights. I switched to led just for the energy consumption and am very pleased with the results.

[MOdiscus]

Do the commercial algae killers solutions really work?

Yeah, they do, but if you have algae in the first place, there's an underlying problem:
too many nutrients!
Best way to explain it is this: Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING you put in your tank doesn't come out unless you take it out.
all the food, all the chemicals, all the everything STAYS in the system. All the food you feed your fish gets digested, pooped out, and sits. and breaks down into nitrates and phosphates. And that's what algae eats. And, by the way, enough of it kills your fish. Algae feeds off the excess nutrients in your tank. So, if you have an algae problem, really, you have an excess nutrients problem, which means one of two things should be introduced:
Plants, or more water changes (or both). Plants use up those same nutrients, so if you can get a healthy plant population, with enough of the other stuff plants need (CO2, light), you will "starve" the algae. Alternatively,you can amp up your water changes and remove the excess that way. Either way you go, your fish will be happier once you make those changes. No offense to anyone who uses it, but I think of algae killer as a lazy way out(that ultimately harms your fish). Algae is just an indicator of an underlying problem- take care of the excess nutrients, and you take care of your algae.

[DiscusBR]

Diatoms have always been a problem for me.....any suggestions?

I had a bad brown algae problem in my 80g tank and I have completely solved it by increasing water circulation with a powerhead, by using Flourish Excel and by installing a PhosBan 150 reactor to eliminate phosphates and silicates. My long saga is presented in another thread:

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...light=discusbr

[kalawai]

add floating plants...