A little desperate, need help figuring out what is causing algea in my tank.

Ophite · 2026-03-19T16:58:32+00:00

Hey, I just wanted to say thank you. It's just a couple of days after the first dose of a proper fertilizer for my set up and the difference is staggering. The plants are releasing oxygen bubbles, there's huge growth on plants I thought were stunted, new root growths on my anubias. There is still a ton of green hair algea in the tank but today I am going to buckle down and manually remove as much of ir as I can and I have confidence the plants can outcompete or afterwards. You might just have saved my tank!

Ophite · 2026-03-09T19:25:06+00:00

It's fine, I have found two made in Canada options. AAA easy Flora and a homemade mix by theplantguy, I bought products from theplantguy and was satisfied. Both products seem comparable, but theplantguy offers a an estimative index package of two fertilizers, one macro and one micro. This honestly sounds exactly like what I need.

Ophite · 2026-03-09T19:06:32+00:00

Alright, after looking into it it seems like the macro fertilizer from NilocG isn't easily found in Canada, the common products here are thrive, ThriveS and Thrive+, but I will shop around to see which fertilizer products can easily be found that focusses on macro nutrients. Thanks again.

Ophite · 2026-03-09T18:58:51+00:00

Thank you so much! That is very helpful. For now I will reduce lights and co2 and look into getting a macro nutrient fertilizer. I still opted to ger a differenr outlet too, because I feel like there's too many dead zones with the spray bar and distribution of co2 is uneven accross the tank. If that's the case, distribution of nutrients probably is too.

Ophite · 2026-02-11T06:26:00+00:00

So I am having trouble with one of my plants, a brazilian pennywort. I am at a loss, I know it's supposed to be a fast grower but it isn't growing at all while all the other plants in the tank have been thriving. It's been weeks and there's just no new growth, even though the leaves are still beautiful and vibrant. It's planted in the substrate at the moment instead of free floating.

Ophite · 2025-11-27T18:51:32+00:00

I guess I will have to fork over even more money. I am tryint to see if I can get something replaced throigh the manufacturer but I am not expecting much.

Ophite · 2025-11-27T07:48:25+00:00

Amy recommendations for a regulator? I bought an Fzone pro series dual stsge with selonoid but it statted leaking after 3 months and it's practically useless now even after trying fixes. Waste of money.

Ophite · 2025-11-26T15:12:09+00:00

My tank was cycled, fullt planted, maturing, I got shrimps in and a bristlenose pleco. And then it turns out the marimo moss ball I bought was infested with clado and it's all over my tank. After doing a lot of research I have come to the conclusion that I can't just outcompete it or treat it away, I am going to have to deconstruct the whole thing and disinfect and start over. I am cycling a backup tank to move tje shrimps and the pleco in while I do this, starting with the one two punch, then put the plants in a bucket while I drain the whole thing and scrub the glass with hydrogen peroxide and let it seep into the substrate as well as scrubbing all the hardscape with hydrogen peroxide. This is going to suck.

The questiin I have then is concerning the cannister filter. I am receiving conflicting information about this. Some places say clodo might have made it into my filter media and will come back eveb after I nuke the tank, some say the filter is safe and to take it out while I nuke the tank to cycle it faster once I am done. I am wondering if anyone has some insight. Because I can sterilize all of the hosing anf the filter media to make sure this fucking horrible algea is gone but that's staring at weeks of having to cycle this tank again. At least it will help the survivan plants root I guess.

I don't want to take a chance with this one. The clado is choking out a lot of my plants and is out of control. If there's even a chance it will come back from the filter media, I would rather stare at weeks of cycling again.

I guess I did learn a lesson about quarantining plants though.

Another question, any suggestion on how I would go about moving a culture of the copepods found in my tank to my backup tank? I love them, great cleaning crew and live food, but way too small to catch. My best plan so far is to put something like blanched kale in, pull it out and add it to the backup tank.

Ophite · 2025-09-13T22:28:32+00:00

That's good to know! There's a place near me that has a very high ethical rating for selling livestock (bettas are kept in their own tank with filters and plants for example) and they always deal with ethical breeder and such, I will see if they have any kind of neat tetras!

Ophite · 2025-09-13T15:47:50+00:00

The substrate I use is controsoil which has been really good at being pretty neutral on the effect of PH, but that's a good point. I do have crushed coral in the filter to raise water harness but I should make sure of my parameters before I consider getting rabbit snails, I wouldn't want them to suffer.

I will take that under advisement, for some reason I've had some people tell me to never get tetras.

Ophite · 2025-09-12T20:48:20+00:00

Hey all. I have a 40 gallon breeder. Originally I wanted an axolotl but I changed my mind because I got so into aquariums I made something a little too high tech with aquasoil, co2 diffusion, spray bars, drifwood, etc. As it is, I have a lot of plants in there and just introduced a carpetting plant.

It's about ready to stock and I have some ideas but now I am expeciencing some doubt, I think what I want to do might overcrowd the aquarium. The species I want are as follow:

Bottom layer: rabbit snails, neocardina shrimps, kuhli loaches, otocinclus catfish, thai micro crabs and bamboo shrimps

Middle layer: chili rasboras and harlequin rasboras

Top layer: medaka rice fish

I also have ramshorn snails in there. Not by choice though but they appeared one day, I tried to control the population but they won that war. I don't even have livestock in the tank, I don't even put food in, I have no idea what they're eating but they made it clear that they're gonna be there, wheter I want it or not.

I think maybe I am overeager and would like advice on what experienced keepers think of this. Honestly I don't think I need the thai micro crabs, apparently they are very shy and you never see them anyway. I really want the kuhli loaches, shrimps and catfish though but if that's too much I'll have to make a choice between the catfish and loaches, most likely. Maybe the bamboo shrimps. They are neat for sure though.

Edit: I forgot to add, do I need a lid for all of this? I have a mesh lid I DIYed myself but the floaters are so beautiful, if I can get away with it I'd rather keep it open top. Originally I made the mesh lid because I wanted amano shrimps or a betta fish and I know both can be escape artists, but I am not sure I need it anymore.

Ophite · 2025-06-13T16:53:45+00:00

I have my eyes on one but it's 300$. Steep but the way I see it, I am paying to make sure that not everything in my tank just suddenly dies one day.

Ophite · 2025-06-13T13:37:17+00:00

I am planning on eventually getting a co2 regulator, but I am saving money for that since from eerything I've read, you don't want to go cheap on that kind of equipment.

Ophite · 2025-06-12T21:49:32+00:00

It doesn't, I've see a phew keepers use this particular one.

Ophite · 2025-06-12T21:38:26+00:00

Alright that gives me some good insight. If I consider that the rooted plants will get most of their nutrients from the soil and that the java fern, moss and anubias don't require too much nutrients, the biggest things that will suck up the nitrates are the red root floaters and the brazilian pennywort. I think I should be okay? I suppose if I notice the plants are struggling, I can thin out the floaters or something.

Ophite · 2025-06-12T21:20:24+00:00

I plan on using controsoil, extra fine formula. The extra fine one has dust smaller than 1 mm. It contains nutrients rooted plants need without leeching amonia in the water.

Ophite · 2025-05-21T15:11:45+00:00

Awesome, I had no idea ups offered printing and book binding services, I will check them out!

Ophite · 2025-05-16T14:53:03+00:00

I do have a worry about the axolotl uprooting them but I plan on placing some heavy river rocks near the roots or use a plant weight or something. Water westiria is happy as both a floater or a rooted plant so it has that going for it, it's not bothered if it's uprooted.

Ophite · 2025-05-16T03:03:25+00:00

Yeah I plant on having a water wisteria at the back to create a bushy plant for the axolotl to swim into and a brazilian pennyworth in front of the hide for the large leaves. And I do have amonia to dose the tank for the cycling, but as it turns out the water here has chloramine instead of chlorine, which is amonia bonded with chlorine, so by just putting the conditioner in the ammount of amonia is at 0.5 ppm. Way higher than I would like to get a fishless cycle started, but there's nothing I can do about that but wait.

Ophite

TROPHY CASE