I feel like I've jumped down a rabbit hole!

[Rosyannie]

Hiya, my name is Anne and I'm new to this site and to fish keeping. The learning curve has been steep to say the least and with so many differences of opinion when it comes to advice I'm floundering a bit!
I've got an Aquamanto nano 35 tank ( yes I now realise bigger is better for all sorts of reasons but it's not feasible right now!) that holds about 8 gallons, it's planted and only has 6 Rosy Tetras in. The fish seem to be thriving and have doubled in size since we bought them 5 months ago.
My biggest problem is the plants, my moss is happy, merrily growing over it's branch, but a lot of the others I have bought have died. I now have Annubis and Java fern and a grass whose name I can't remember which are growing well. I have put in 2 root capsules ( as it's only a 35cm x 35cm tank) and pop in 0.7ml Seachem Flourish every water change, but I'm struggling with brown algae on the plants. I've got the lights on a timer, they were on for 12 hours a day, which I reduced to 10, then 8, at 8 hours I've now got brown hair algae, do I give more light or less? I'm very very confused!! Any advice would be very welcome.

 

[Colin_T]

Hi Anne and welcome to the forum

Algae grows anywhere there is light and water. If you have lots of live plants in the water, they use the nutrients and light and inhibit algae growth. Your tank doesn't have many plants n and the plants you have are slow growing so algae will grow as well.

Either reduce the light duration or add more live plants. Floating plants like Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta) will shade the lower plants and reduce the algae.

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You have 3 plants along the front. The one in the middle that looks like grass, is Liliopsis, which is more a marsh plant than true aquatic. Anubias is another marsh plant. These survive underwater but grow very slowly and don't use many nutrients or much light. This is the main reason you have algae on them.

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It looks like the rosy tetras are all females. Males have a longer dorsal (top) fin. If you could find 2 young males, they would fit in the tank and show off to the girls.

 

[Rosyannie]

Hi Colin, thanks for the advice. My pump causes quite a bit of movement on the surface so wouldn't any surface plants all just bunch up over on side? The light is adjustable in intensity at the moment it's on full bright, but I can dim it? What plants would you suggest. I've tried a lot that grew well but then melted from the bottom up! I was told for a tank this size 6 was the maximum fish I could have, we'd love more but I don't want to cause any more issues!!

 

[Colin_T]

If you do regular water changes and gravel cleans, you could add a couple of male tetras without any issues. Just monitor the nitrate reading and if it goes up rapidly between water changes, either reduce food input or do bigger water changes, or more frequent water changes. But I can't see 2 more tetras making a huge difference.

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Floating plants will get pushed to one side by filters but that is fine for most of them.

Reducing the light intensity to 75% or even 50% might be enough to stop the algae without adding more plants. You could try it at 75% for a few weeks and if the algae is still a problem, drop it to 50%.

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Some good plants to try include Ambulia, Hygrophila polysperma, H. ruba/ rubra, Elodia (during summer, but don't buy it in winter because it falls apart), Hydrilla, common Amazon sword plant, narrow or twisted/ spiral Vallis, Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta).

The Water Sprite normally floats on the surface but can also be planted in the substrate. The other plants should be planted in the gravel.

Ambulia, H. polysperma, Elodia/ Hydrilla and Vallis are tall plants that do well along the back. Rotala macranda is a medium/ tallish red plant that usually does well.

H. ruba/ rubra is a medium height plant that looks good on the sides of the tank.

Cryptocorynes are small/ medium plants that are taller than pygmy chain swords but shorter than H. rubra. They also come in a range of colours, mostly different shades of green, brown or purplish red. Crypts are not the easiest plant to grow but can do well if they are healthy to begin with and are not disturbed after planting in the tank.

Most Amazon sword plants can get pretty big and are usually kept in the middle of the tank as a show piece. There is an Ozelot sword plant that has brown spots on green leaves, and a red ruffle sword plant (name may vary depending on where you live) with deep red leaves.

There is a pygmy chain sword plant that is small and does well in the front of the tank.

 

[Rosyannie]

If you do regular water changes and gravel cleans, you could add a couple of male tetras without any issues. Just monitor the nitrate reading and if it goes up rapidly between water changes, either reduce food input or do bigger water changes, or more frequent water changes. But I can't see 2 more tetras making a huge difference.

----------------------
Floating plants will get pushed to one side by filters but that is fine for most of them.

Reducing the light intensity to 75% or even 50% might be enough to stop the algae without adding more plants. You could try it at 75% for a few weeks and if the algae is still a problem, drop it to 50%.

----------------------
Some good plants to try include Ambulia, Hygrophila polysperma, H. ruba/ rubra, Elodia (during summer, but don't buy it in winter because it falls apart), Hydrilla, common Amazon sword plant, narrow or twisted/ spiral Vallis, Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroides/ cornuta).

The Water Sprite normally floats on the surface but can also be planted in the substrate. The other plants should be planted in the gravel.

Ambulia, H. polysperma, Elodia/ Hydrilla and Vallis are tall plants that do well along the back. Rotala macranda is a medium/ tallish red plant that usually does well.

H. ruba/ rubra is a medium height plant that looks good on the sides of the tank.

Cryptocorynes are small/ medium plants that are taller than pygmy chain swords but shorter than H. rubra. They also come in a range of colours, mostly different shades of green, brown or purplish red. Crypts are not the easiest plant to grow but can do well if they are healthy to begin with and are not disturbed after planting in the tank.

Most Amazon sword plants can get pretty big and are usually kept in the middle of the tank as a show piece. There is an Ozelot sword plant that has brown spots on green leaves, and a red ruffle sword plant (name may vary depending on where you live) with deep red leaves.

There is a pygmy chain sword plant that is small and does well in the front of the tank.

Thank you very much!
I'm turning down the lights and only having them on fir 6 hours now. I will definitely get some more plants as I love the look of a planted tank, so thanks for the suggestions.
I really like the idea of getting a couple of boys in the tank but I can't find anything online or in the books about adding 2 males to a group of 6 females, best to do it one at a time or both together I wonder. The staff at our local stockist seem pretty clueless unfortunately!

 

[Sgooosh]

also, every new tank i had has had an era of brown algae, it will go away soon once the tank is more established... then you see Hair algae

 

[Rosyannie]

also, every new tank i had has had an era of brown algae, it will go away soon once the tank is more established... then you see Hair algae

Thank you! It's been running for 5 months, so I'd hoped it would of stopped by now and yes there is some hairy strands appearing but I'm hoping sorting the lighting out will quash that !!

also, every new tank i had has had an era of brown algae, it will go away soon once the tank is more established... then you see Hair algae

 

[Sgooosh]

Thank you! It's been running for 5 months, so I'd hoped it would of stopped by now and yes there is some hairy strands appearing but I'm hoping sorting the lighting out will quash that !!

thats good!
the lighting is a major problem in my tank, adjusted it, and it made the tank unbalanced taken over by hair algae

 

[Rosyannie]

thats good!
the lighting is a major problem in my tank, adjusted it, and it made the tank unbalanced taken over by hair algae

Well that sucks! How did you get rid of it?

 

[jaylach]

Just an observation from your photos...

It seems that your tank is too full of water. In the first photo it looks like the overflow vent is fully under water. In most tanks of this type this will mean that most of the water circulation is passing over the filter media instead of through as the top of the overflow is probably higher than the top of the filter media.

 

[Rosyannie]

Just an observation from your photos...

It seems that your tank is too full of water. In the first photo it looks like the overflow vent is fully under water. In most tanks of this type this will mean that most of the water circulation is passing over the filter media instead of through as the top of the overflow is probably higher than the top of the filter media.

I did it as I was advised to at the shop, 5mm from the top which puts it at the same level as the outlet, I've attached a pic of the set up with the filters, is this wrong?

 

[Rosyannie]

I did it as I was advised to at the shop, 5mm from the top which puts it at the same level as the outlet, I've attached a pic of the set up with the filters, is this wrong?

You can just see the height of the outlet -the circle on the left hand side of the tank in the brochure pic

 

[jaylach]

I did it as I was advised to at the shop, 5mm from the top which puts it at the same level as the outlet, I've attached a pic of the set up with the filters, is this wrong?

Actually you look fine. Yours is set up differently than mine and I consider yours better. Your spill-over from the sponge to the ceramics is at the bottom where mine is at the top.

 

[Rosyannie]

Actually you look fine. Yours is set up differently than mine and I consider yours better. Your spill-over from the sponge to the ceramics is at the bottom where mine is at the top.

Phew! You had me worried there!

 

[jaylach]

Phew! You had me worried there!

Sorry about that... I was going by how mine is setup which I don't consider well done.