Help Please :)

[steven_askham]

Hey Guys, I plan on giving my tank a complete make over. My tank is a juwel aqaurium therefore has a filter system built in and it has been doing a good job regarding water quality however it is suffiecient but I want my water to be clear as there are bits in this one so will an extra filter help?

I am going to make it a planted tank hopefully. So I introduced a mix of plants to see whether they would grow and in a weak or so soome species have grown alot. However others have not. The problem is that since introducing some live plants the tank now has seemed to have an algae boom and there seems to be like muck on the tank glass however the water chemistry is fine and my discus still appear to be healthy etc.

My other problem is waste from the bristlenose. As mine appear to be rite poo machines does any one else have this problem if so what can be done to solve it and are they suitable for aplanted aquarium.

Another problem is that muck or algae appears to be settling on some of the plant leaves and makes the plants look a bit unpleasent, will ottos solve this as the discus eat my shrimp.

Another question is how do I attach plants to bogwood lol :oops: as I purchased to really nice peices and would like to attach some java fern to one and annubis to another.

I would like to add a automatic feeder; what are your views on these?

Sorry I forgot some tank specifications:

33 gals
Low Light
4 Discus
2 Rams
2 Bristlenose
Substrate is one for plants (TetraPlant)

*Plan on adding a CO2 system in the next 2 weeks*

Thank You

[marg]

Hi Steve,

I'm not an expert on Algae so I'll leave that to the planted tank experts. Ottos' might help a bit but if you have a really big problem with Algae maybe you should look in the Amazon Garden section for some hints.

I do have one planted Community tank but luckily Algae hasn't been a problem. The only additives to my tank are Prime each time i do a water change, and Flourish Excel every 2nd day to fertilize the Plants.

As far as the Poo Machines go sorry, but that's what they are renowned for!!. The only answer is regular frequent water changes (which you should be doing with your Discus anyway to keep them in good health). I have a little colony of bristlenoses in my planted tank together with my Discus, half a dozen Corys - (the Corys stir up the gravel looking for food), half a dozen Bolivian Rams, a large Clown Loach and a Large Knifefish. When you do your water changes make sure you siphon the gravel well each time - that helps.

To attach the Plants to the bogwood all I do is tie it on firmly with fine Fishing line. After a while the roots wrap around the wood and you don't notice the fishing line.

If you are going to add Co2 to the tank from what I understand, you have to turn it off of a night otherwise you end up losing your plants. I don't run Co2 in my tanks.

Hope this helps.,

Regards,

Marg.