The Puffer Forum

Is there any way to get rid of this stuff short of scrubbing the glass and plants daily? I've got quite the bloom going on. The tank has been fully cycled for some time. Readings are thus:

Ammonia: 0
NitrIte: 0
NitrAte: 5 ppm
pH: 7.0

Only change recently has been the switch from super-hot incandescent bulbs in the hood to 50/50 actinic/regular compact fluorescent bulbs (the only CFs I could get locally). Do actinic (high blue) bulbs promote algal growth? I know they are good for coralline algae, but what about the blackish-green fuzzy kind? Can't quite remember my Plant Biology 101 at the moment...

How many WPG do you have? If it's over 2, do you add CO2?

Do you use any plant ferts etc? It might be that you need to add some nitrate to about 10-15ppm as the plants are utilising it well and are depleted, hence the algae

Compact flourescent bulbs are giving you a ton of light, which, if its not used up by live plants, is going to grow you algae, simple as that.

Is this a freshwater tank you can add live plants to? I would do so if it is. If you already have live plants, you may need some more to outcompete the algae.

Those screw in CF's do a great job of growing plants, that's for sure.

There are two 10-watt bulbs in the hood, and it's a 10-gallon tank. The actinics put out little to nothing in the red and far-red range, so I think we're talking about 1 watt per gallon of light that can be utilised by plants. I have no CO2 and I don't use any fertiliser besides what the puffer provides. Should I change this? I have some Flourish tabs in a drawer around here somewhere, and I'll be getting some pet-sitting money next week that I could use to buy a CO2 system.

I have two plants in there right now (don't know what they are but they're still alive after three weeks), which are being covered by algae as we speak. I dropped in 5-6 aquatic plant bulbs a few days ago that have begun to leaf out, but they're very small at this point.

OK, I just read Boxermom's excellent article suggestion, and it looks like I have Green Spot and Black Beard Algae. Should I start adding plant fertiliser and CO2? It looks like both of these are caused by not enough nutrients for the plants so the algae outcompetes them. The website advises that CO2 and phosphorus levels should remain within a certain range. How do I go about testing these levels?

Ideally I'd like to put in a pleco or some otos, but I think that would be too much bioload for a 10-g with an irrubesco puff. Also, the puff seems intensely interested in anything that moves and will often nibble at moving things in a vaguely hopeful way. I don't want to subject any fish to a slow fin-nipped death.

Whoops! One more question: will adding CO2 lower the pH enough to stress out my puff? Yesterday the tank water was at pH 7.0 . I read that there was a liquid Seachem product that could be used to add carbon to a low-light system. Would this be better than a commercial CO2 system?

The product you're thinking of is Seachem Flourish Excel. It may be more up your alley than a CO2 reactor.

The pH depression by CO2 supplement has no effect on the fish. But I do agree with Phaedrus that excel is better shot for small tanks than uncontrolled CO2

Great! Thanks for the advice, RTR and Phaedrus. I shall pick up a bottle of Flourish Excell and some more fertiliser this weekend. My mom has been giving me funny looks over the collection of little Kordon and Seachem bottles I've been accumulating. "And what's that one for?"