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Hello and welcome to the forums! :thumbs: :welcome:

Thanks for all the advice so far, i REALLY appreciate it. I did a big big big water change this last weekend (almost 90%), scrubbed the tank walls and all the plants. I got rid of all the fake plants and ornaments, now it's 100% all natural. There are still little strands of "hair" on the Vals, I also pruned the anubias and broke off some of the rhizome (I think) and attached them to other areas the driftwood in hopes of more growth. Java fern isn't doing much, still sitting there trying to look pretty. It's only been 2 days and so far there's been very little algae growth. Hopefully this weekend i'll be able to pick up a bottle of flourish and i'll give what Kronosdelsol mentioned. I've looked at some of the "plant health indicator" webpages i've found here and i you guys are right, I don't have enough nutrients in the tank. Thanks again for all the help.

I got the driftwood from a PJs (It was shrink wrapped so I don't think it could have been contaminated) and the plants from Natures Corner Store. At Natures Corner Store the plants looked great with no algae in the tank. Thanks for the tip on the phosphate and iron test kit After speaking with some people on the puffer forums, they said I didn't need ferts so I haven't been using any. Only thing I used was Excel (0.85ml every 2 days) and after 2 weeks I had an algae outbreak like the one i described in my original post. So I stopped using it, changed lights and everything was fine for a bit and then it came back. Some people (on the net and RL) told me to upgrade the lighting again and I did, and the algae is back and now i'm in the same situation as before. I do a water change of 60 - 75% a week, I use seachem prime and stability sometimes. I do a full gravel vac and I also remove the algae by hand. I dunno if it's staghorn algae, i'm just going off the descriptions off some of the sites listed here for algae identification. It does not break off, I have to pull it off by hand (or use a toothbrush). I changed the lights back to a lower wattage, the new lights in the tank are those Compact fluorescent bulbs 13watts (says it's equal to 60 watts) x 2, at 900 lumens. With such a small tank do you think it's ok if I buy other liquid ferts? Anyone have any experience with the other seachem liquid ferts? Is there a different brand you'd recommend? Once my employment situation stabilizes i'll go and buy more plants, i've always wanted a fully planted tank and I thought I could do it with the pea puffers. I'm thinking of getting more vals, swords, more anubias and maybe more java ferns. I'd like to get some java moss but i've had terrible luck with it so far. Thanks for all the help so far, i'm going to be scrubbing and cleaning as much algae off as I can tonight and doing a big water change and gravel vac. Anyone else have any further suggestions? Thank you so much for all the help so far, this forum has been a great source of info!

I posted a few weeks ago about my problem with my 10G pea puffer tank. The problem has not gone away. Here is some info on my tank. 10G tank 2 pea puffers 5 Cherry Shrimp (I think they're still around :tongue: ) I have plants throughout my tank, Anubias Nana, Java Fern, Guppy Grass, Vals (Dunno which species, it has black strips on the leaves) A big piece of malaysian drift wood Ammonia = 0 pH = 7.8 nitrIte = 0 nitrAte = 0 - 5ppm Lighting = Compact Flourescents 20watts (says it equals 100 watts)x 2 at 1300 lumens The tank is located in my dining room and has no direct sunlight Lights are on for no more than 12 hours a day Substrate is black flourite mixed with small (5mm) gravel I use an API freshwater test kit for monitoring my water stats I've had algae problems every since I added the wood and plants (started with Java fern and anubias). After reading some forums and with recommendations from people and the net, I added some Flourish Excel (0.85ml) every 3 days to start. Brown stuff started to appear (Diatoms i think), then i started to see black brush algae on the leaves of my java fern and anubias. I removed the leaves of the infect plants and there has been no trace of the black brush algae. I also noticed a small BGA patch, i removed it and it did not come back. I changed the lighting time to 8 - 10 hours instead of 12 hours. I've also minimized the amount of mysis shrimp I feed the puffers, I feed them everyday small amounts and skip feedings on sunday. I also stopped adding Excel. I upgraded the light bulbs to what is currently listed now and with the recommendations from some of the members of this site, I got some more plants (vals and guppy grass). I did a thorough gravel vac, cleaned as much algae off the fake plants and real plants by hand and planted the Vals and added the guppy grass a few days later. Everything seemed good for about a day or so. About 2 days ago I started to notice what appears to be staghorn or hair/fuzz algae on my plants and driftwood. Today when I got home all the plants are covered with this stuff, it's on the tank walls and covering the driftwood. I've tried using the toothbrush method to remove as much as I could but it keeps coming back. I just noticed there's another patch of BGA. I'm frustrated and lost. I've done quite a bit of research and am even more confused now. If any of the more experienced planted tank aquarists out there can help me out, i'd really appreciate it. What tools or chemical kits do you guys use to test your water content? I've read about iron on phosphate test kits but am having a difficult time locating these things at your big LFS chains. I work odd hours so getting to Natures Corner store is really difficult. The more I think about it, I recall the diatoms started to appear when I added the driftwood in the beginning. I added plants to try to "out compete" the diatoms but then everything else happened and i've been struggling with this ever since. I'm considering throwing away the driftwood (I bought this at a LFS) because I read it could be leaching unnecessary elements into the water. Any advice/tips/tricks would greatly be appreciated. PS: Puffers seem to be fine, they are having the time of their life... shrimp however... I haven't seen them for 2 days LOL

Welcome to the forums!

Hello and welcome aboard! :thumbs: :welcome: :thumbs:

Thanks for the info everyone. I haven't been to Natures Corner since i bought my plants there a few months ago. Hopefully i'll get some time to check them out soon. I woke up this morning and noticed some fuzz/hair algae growing on my fake plants and anubias in my 10G... Time to do more research i guess.

Jvision: Anytime i've put some java fern in the 38G tank, it dies within days. The roots attached to the rhizome (I think) turn a dark brown almost black and then the leaves turn yellow then brown and finally black. The tank has been through it's cycle, it's only 4 months old. A few days ago i attached an anubias nana to a piece of driftwood in the 38G and the plant looks "less green" almost a dull green compared to what it was like when I first put it in. I think you are right, I had diatoms not brown algae all over both tanks. I've refrained on getting Ottos because i wanted to make sure my tanks are fully cycled before I put Ottos in there. I've read picking out healthy Ottos are a difficult task and have been keeping my eye on some at my local pet$mart and BAs. Thanks for the info on possibly upgrading my lighting for the 38G, i'll look into it further. Fleshgear: Which fast growing plants do your recommend? I've heard vals and swords require high light, should I try these with what's currently in my tank? My lights are on 12 hours every day. Tank is in the kitchen/dining room area and there's no sunlight there (direct or indirect). I'm using smaller gravel in my 38G and a mixture of flourite and small gravel in my 10G. You both mentioned balance, so should I start adding excel to my tanks again (or start adding excel to the 38G when I put plants in there)? What about CO2? Argg... i'm getting frustrated thinking about all this stuff again. I'm trying REALLY hard to keep it simple but when my plants are dying left and right it's hard not to wonder what you're doing wrong and not complicate things.

Hi everyone, I appologize in advance for the long post, but i'm one lost newbie fish keeper trying to make sense of all this information and would greatly appreciate any advice and/or direction! For the last few weeks i've been doing some research in regards to lighting in my tanks and switching them over to all live plants and getting rid of all plastic. There is A LOT of information out there on the net regarding lighting and it can get rather confusing. I've been reading a lot about how wpg is now a obsolete way of measuring lighting for tanks and people should be using lumens or per square inch or etc etc. As well, my tank lids came with the tanks I bought (starter kits from BA's or your chain fish stores) have lights already built inside them and i've been looking for stronger bulbs to replace the current ones but am having little success. Then there's the plant issue. I would like to use some easy to maintain plants, nothing overly crazy, plants like Java fern, java moss, anubias, vals and maybe some swords. I've read a lot about picking your plants to match your water, lighting and other plant parameters to make things easier. But i'm stuck on the lighting issue as it stands. Here is what I currently have, what I have tried, what has happened and what I want the end result to be. 10G tank - 2 Pea puffers and 2 Glass shrimp, mixture of fake and live plants (Java fern, Java Moss and Anubias Nana all attached (using elastics) to rocks and a large piece of driftwood). Water parameters = 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 5ppm Nitrates, pH 7.8 - Originally had 2x15 watt incandescent bulbs, after doing some research on the net someone recommended I change them to the energy saving twisty bulbs because they would put out more light output. So I changed them to 2 x 13w Compact Fluorescent bulbs at 900 lumens from home depot. They also recommended I use some Seachem Flourish Excel every other day (about 0.8ml). After doing this for about 2 weeks all sorts of algae grew all over my tank, brown, blue/green, hair/thread/fuzz, and hydra broke out but the plants were growing. So i stopped using excel and things calmed down a bit. I did water changes (50 - 60%) and gravel vacs every 2 days, wiped down the inside of the tank, scrubbed all the plastic plants and even lightly scrubbed the live plant leaves. I took out all the "black" leaves and took out the Java moss that seemed to be a big brown clump of weeds. It's been a week and everything seems to be ok now I can see a bit of brown algae on the sides of the tank. I spoke to some people online and they recommended I try out these other compact fluorescent bulbs from Ikea so I bought 2 of them (20watts (says it equals 100 watts)x 2 at 1300 lumens. It's been a week and everything seems to be ok. It's been almost 2 months and most of the plants i've bought are now dead or dying. I'd like to be able to fill this tank completely with java moss, java fern, anubias, vals and/or swords. 38G Tank 5 Cherry barbs, 5 Zebra Danios, Water parameters = 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, and 10ppm Nitrates It has one T8 ballast with only 1 slot for a bulb, currently it has a 24" 17W 8000K. I've tried looking for another bulb to increase the lighting because of a large brown algae outbreak in the tank but i've had no success. I've tried putting some java fern in this tank and it's died off completely. Should I get a new lighting setup all together or is there anything I can do with the current tank canopy I have? Just like my 10G i would like to have java moss and mostly vals and/or swords in this tank for my future angel fish i'm planning on getting. I'm at a complete loss on what to do with the lighting in these tanks. I love how live plants look and would love to get one up and running but i'm having very little success. Thank you for taking the time to read this long post (Again, I apologize about the length!) any advice, tips, tricks, guidance would really be appreciated!

Hello and welcome to the forums!

Hi there and welcome! :thumbs: :welcome: :thumbs:

I'm curious if anyone has tried Angelfish with Ottos?

Absolutely beautiful! Great job raising that Aro!

Thanks for the link! :thumbs:

Unfortunately, my landlord will only allow me a tank up to 40-50G. Hopefully in the next year or two i'll be able to buy a house and make my fish room :smokey: There are a lot of well experienced "aquarists" and great people here! Again, welcome to the forums!