newbie woes

[Priscacara]

Its taken 6 months of saving then 2 months of getting things ready so bit of a downer just at the moment with things but I do know it will be worth it. Not been a great time for my fish projects of late, lost half a tropheus illangi colony, my threadfin rainbow and other natives tank has me with even more shy fish (but beautiful little things), filter for the to be discus tank died on me...............thats more than 3 things gone wrong so maybe I've done double my bad luck so I get double good .

[Ghoti]

For what its worth, a few days is nothing in the overall time you've taken to get to this point.

I can't say I pat mine, but they do give me a little nip during water changes. Probably bcause I hand feed them beefheart mix

Cheers,
Scott

[Priscacara]

As expected another problems cropped up allbeit minor this time. I'm getting a fair bit of algae floating on top of the water and unsure on a solution to it. I know its a case of lighting and nutrients for it but already cut my lighting from 12 hours to 10, wondering if I should drop it to 8. I'm changing 10% water daily now so that might help a bit, tannins in the water could be stopping some of the light getting to the plants but not by very much. The native millfoils I planted thrived for about 3 weeks and now have pretty much deteriorated away to nothing so I have 2 areas I can plant something else into. I expect its lack of lighting with the millfoil, I have 4 x 55 watt 10k compact tubes which may not be enough, the other plants are swords, crypts and echs for the most part but none are very fast growers.

As always any suggestions much appreciated.

[Wendy]

I find Ambulia grows much easier than Milfoil and is a very similar plant to look at, perhaps you could try that instead.

Cheers

[Exotic Aquatic]

8 hours is plenty IMO.

[Ghoti]

I was advised that breaking the lighting cycle could help with algae as apparently plants react more quickly to lighting changes. I run mine for 4 hours, off for 1 hour, then on again for another four.

Plants are all doing fine, including my milfoil.

Cheers,
Scott

[Priscacara]

Tx for the replies I'll give the ambulia a shot and try running the lights for 8 hours, 4 on break then 4 as suggested. You people will get me having a great looking tank with gorgeous fish if you dont shoot me first, thanks for the support.

[BigDaddyAdo]

Something else to think about is the number of Discus. 3 is not a good number in my opinion. Adding a couple more will make a huge difference.

[lpiasente]

Something else to think about is the number of Discus. 3 is not a good number in my opinion. Adding a couple more will make a huge difference.

+1

[Priscacara]

G'day, I plan on getting another 3 discus but apart from no cash just at the moment I was wanting theses ones to settle in a bit before I added any more.

Along with a new lighting regime I've put in a 9 watt UV, not really big enough I know but even a little should help a bit with the algae.