ALGAECIDES in planted Fig8 tank! Please help!

[my name is mike]

for ferts, i pretty much use the tom barr method estimative index for low tech tanks -- where you dont measure anything really, but do big water changes every week to make sure nothing really gets out of hand --- that said, id like to start testing those kind of paramaters --- can anyone recomend a test ?

[Franco]

My regular maintenance has been a 50% water change once a week until a few weeks ago. I had finals and was really busy so I didnt get to do water changes. The excess nutrients from not doing water changes must have led to the algae bloom. I changed 50% of the water tonight and vacuumed the gravel and cleaned out all of the algae covered plants as well as the algae everywhere else. I gave the plants a bleach dip and it seemed to kill the algae without hurting the plants too bad.

If I do make a CO2 system, do I need to worry about the puffer suffocating from not having enough DO?
Will water changes keep the phosphates down enough that I wont have to use a phosphate sponge? All those things cost so much.
I've been dosing with Florapride and I've also added two doses of Algae Destroyer Advanced/Algaefix. It doesn't seem to bother the puffer from what I can tell and the plants arent dying but neither is the algae. I think I will hold off on the algaefix until I can figure out other means to cut back the algae.

My tank is only low-end brackish (probably SG of <1.008 ---my hydrometer sucks). Will otocinclus eat hair algae? My puffer tolerates tank mates (mollies and guppies) but I've had him alone most of the time. The tankmates were an experiment to see if he'd kill them or not. I'd like to try some sort of scavenger in the tank because as you all know puffers make a mess of things at mealtime. Has anyone ever kept olive nerites with Fig8s as a cleanup crew? Ghost shrimp? Otos? other scavengers?

Thanks,
Franco

[mikeosoft]

I don't believe the products you listed contain any source of bio-available carbon like CO2. As long as your system has some sort of filtration to move the water around I don't see any way that your puffer could die from a fermentation CO2 system (a pressurized bottle CO2 system is a different story).

With the addition of CO2, your plants should grow fast enough to take care of phosphate issues. If not, changing 50% of the water every week should take care of the rest.

Molly's may eat the algae. I don't know if Oto's or any type of pleco could tolerate that much salt, probably not.

[Pufferoni]

The skipped water changes probably didn't help but it sounds like you plants got to a point where they had sucked most of the nutrients they needed out of your system. That's why they did well for awhile.

If you get a DIY Co2 unit that uses a powerhead reactor then it can be plugged into your lighting circuit. This means very little Co2 is injected during dark periods and won't cause any problems. I use one made by Red Sea it cost me about $40 at Big Al's.

As far as ferts are concerned you could easily do the EI (estimated index) method that Mike suggested as you are already doing the recommended weekly 50% water change. I recently ordered some ferts from aquariumfertilizer.com located in California. I bought 1lb Potassium Sulfate, 1lb Mono Potassium Phosphate, 1lb Potassium Nitrate, (3 main macro nutrients) 1lb CSM+B Plantex(micro nutrient mix) cost me $23 + shipping. The site also has some useful dosing calculators.

This should be all you ever need and for that tank will probably last your a couple of years.

[TheSmJ]

I added 3 Yucatan Mollies to my F8 tank after fighting with long stranded algae in the tank for a couple years. Since my tank is also planted with low light plants (java ferns and moss) algae destroyer wasn't an option, yet the algae managed to get EVERYWHERE and something needed to be done. After the mollies were added almost all the algae vanished after 36 hours - even from the surface of the plants! The only area with any algae at all is right in front of the filter outlet where the current is too strong for the fish to grab anything. Obviously I can manage keeping this area clear myself.

Another good thing is I hardly need to worry about feeding them separate from the puffs as they don't eat snails, and the algae is prolific enough that its able to keep the mollies well fed without getting anywhere near out of hand. Occasionally I'll throw in a tiny bit of flake to supplement their diet with a little more protein. Since the puffers aren't the least bit interested in the flake there is no aggression problems after the flake is added.

The mollies also do a great job cleaning up after the puffers finish their meals. I often see them poking around in the gravel looking for bits left behind.

It's been 3 weeks and so far no problems at all. The F8s just ignore the Mollies, and only after they were first added did one of them even so much as approach them. Of course some puffers may not get along with any other fish in their tank, so if you do add them be sure to keep a very close eye on them for at least a few days after they're been introduced.

[yunachin]

Awesome!!

[Pufferpunk]

Same here--although I usually prefer more exotic fish (mollies always sound like "starter" fish to me), I get quite excited when I see babies! Of course, the puffers eat most of them so I don't have to worry about a population explosion (even ate some of the adults). I started with a pair of black sailfins, yellow lyretail & dalmation lyretails. I get a whole combo of colors as babies. No more algae in that tank either!

[Franco]

I was thinking about adding either otos or mollies but I wasn't too sure if my puffer would hurt either of them or the salt level with the otos. I added several doses of the Algae Destroyer Advanced and it halted the plant growth a little but it killed almost all of the hair algae. I manually cleaned off what I could before the dosing and it seemed to beat back the algae enough that it couldn't get a foot hold again. The tank looks fine now but the diatoms are starting to show up again.

About the competition for food, my figure 8 loves TetraColor Tropical Crisps and little bits of the freeze-dried tubifex worm cubes. Those are the majority of his diet along with krill, mysis shrimp, frozen bloodworms, and about 15 pond snails per week. I figure the Tropical crisps and tubifex worms is a more balanced diet than purely feeding snails. I lucked out though getting a figure 8 that loves the Tropical crisps. He chases them all around the surface and eats them eagerly even after I've fed him a few snails. Its almost as if he prefers them and it makes his colors really come out.

[Pufferpunk]

No otos with salt.

[sonicfishcake]

Hi,

I had a terrible problem with hair algae in my fig8 tank until I got a UV sterilizer about 6 months ago. Within a week it had all gone and have never seen any type of algae since!