# Ok!



## Kageshi17 (Sep 6, 2006)

Plants! I have a 20watt hood and some plants. I forgot what they are called but they have rippled leaves and then like 3 huge long stems that reach all the way up to the top of the water and then sprout soft flat leaves there. I have about 5 of them and they are all thriving well and covering my 29g tank! Yay! The only problem I have, which I'm sure everyone has, is algae. Ok. So I've never had algae before I introduced the plants. Now I am getting brown algae on the front of the glass and a nice thick covering on the back. I also have hairlike algae growing on the stems of my plants.

Anything that can help with this? I've heard of something called: "NO2" but not sure what that is or what it does. I see posts where people say its too complicated or they are really frusterated with it. So I hope I don't have to go that route. But yeah, any ideas? I really would rather not invest in a pleco seeing as my tank is really too small for that type of fish and he produces ALOT of waste. I would really like to have some Kuhli Loaches but not sure if they would help either. So if some kind of fish could help the problem, that would be nice except I have a paradise gourami and he can barely put up with my 6 cory cats and 2 snails. Then I also have those pesky tiny little jelly egg laying snails that I cant get rid of!

Any ideas or help or anything please reply!!!


----------



## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

A bristlenose pleco would not be too big for your tank. I got one for the first time a few weeks ago and he's really cleaned up my 58g. But you're big about them producing huge amounts of waste, he seems to be continually pooing...

Otos are really great fish, but they don't seem to eat hair algae, at least they don't in my tank. Kuhli loaches definitely would not help, as they don't eat algae. They can help indirectly by eating leftover fish food, but you've already got the cories for that. I've heard that livebearers eat hair algae, but as I've never had them I don't have any first-hand experience with this.

NO2 is otherwise known as nitrite. I hope you don't have that in your tank, at it would mean that it's not fully cycled.

Perhaps it would help to feed a bit less food. If you've got too many snails that is a definite sign of overfeeding. I've got pest snails in all my tanks, but although they aren't the prettiest things, they don't cause any real problem since there aren't very many of them.


----------



## Ringo (Apr 10, 2006)

Mollies will go to town on hair algea. Along with the other livebearers, but the mollies like it the best. Also barbs will browse on the algea, and I've read that rosy barbs are great for eating it.


----------



## Kageshi17 (Sep 6, 2006)

My gourami tore up the rosy barbs I tried to accimilate last time I went to petsmart...and I mean TORE UP. He never left them alone for one second of time. Ever.

So yeah, live bearers are not an option. But yeah...a bristlnose huh? How big do they get?


----------



## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

Ringo is right, the rosy barbs certainly do eat hair algae! They also browse on other types of algae (like brown). I should have thought of it before, but since you've already tried them, they are not an option...

According to what I've read, the max size of a bristlenose is 5", but they usually don't get that big. Mine is quite small still, less than 2".


----------



## rcomeau (Apr 23, 2006)

I was discouraged by algae until I used Seachem's Eco Complete. There are many posts about carefully overdosing to bring algae under control then using it regularly as directed.


----------



## Kageshi17 (Sep 6, 2006)

Ooooooo tell me more rcomeau!


----------



## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

I think rcomeau means Flourish Excel, not Eco Complete.

And if you click on the word "discouraged" in his post, he will tell you more!


----------



## Kageshi17 (Sep 6, 2006)

Hahahaha. Ok, I have actually decided to go with a pleco instead of doing the whole adding chemicals deal. The less chemicals the better. But yeah, my friend just told me of about 3 different plecos I could get down at petsmart that don't grow more then 3 to five inches.

But how to keep the snails under control? I want them gone. How???


----------



## rcomeau (Apr 23, 2006)

yeah, thanks for the correction. I meant Flourish Excel.


----------

