Since I started filtering my tap water I have been gradually increasing my planting. I won't go so far as calling it heavily planted but I have started adding liquid ferts.
Today I returned from a 2 week holiday and the first thing I did was check the nitrates as there have been no water changes for 2 weeks. The fish were also fed less in my absence. I asked the house sitters to feed every other day and made them count pellets or wafers as they don't keep fish and I know how easy it is to overfeed .
I was rather pleasantly surprised to discover that my nitrates had dropped from 15 to 5 ppm in those 2 weeks. (Ammonia and nitrite still zero so nothing dodgy going on ). The water sprite actually didn't look great (I have some planted and lots floating) and some nasty looking algae on the floating plants (see pic). No algae further down in the tank so assume there is too much light at the top and possibly food trapped on the leaves as I usually move these out of the way to feed. The Anubias and java ferns actually had a lot more new growth than I expected. I also added more plants today as I had some left over from planting the nano (vallisneria spiralis and elodea).
So
Today I returned from a 2 week holiday and the first thing I did was check the nitrates as there have been no water changes for 2 weeks. The fish were also fed less in my absence. I asked the house sitters to feed every other day and made them count pellets or wafers as they don't keep fish and I know how easy it is to overfeed .
I was rather pleasantly surprised to discover that my nitrates had dropped from 15 to 5 ppm in those 2 weeks. (Ammonia and nitrite still zero so nothing dodgy going on ). The water sprite actually didn't look great (I have some planted and lots floating) and some nasty looking algae on the floating plants (see pic). No algae further down in the tank so assume there is too much light at the top and possibly food trapped on the leaves as I usually move these out of the way to feed. The Anubias and java ferns actually had a lot more new growth than I expected. I also added more plants today as I had some left over from planting the nano (vallisneria spiralis and elodea).
So
- Should I keep filtering the tap water or just plant more
- Any suggestions on getting rid of the algae - I have just rinsed the floating plants in tap water and put them back, along with a 50% water change and ferts.