Nick Emmons
New Member
I've just bought a couple of boxes on Sera Siporax Algovec as they had it in my local fish shop for £2.99 a box - with a nice net bag too! As I've seen it for around £15 a box online I snapped it up.
I bought it to use in my planted tank as I made the huge mistake of using rocks from the garden when I set it up a couple of years ago and there was an algae bloom the like of which I've never seen before in all my 45-odd years of fishkeeping! I suspect the rocks were leaching silicates into the water. Anyway, I still have bad problems with hair algae even now two years later as I suspect the Tropica aquarium soil powder probably absorbed a load of silicates at the time and has been slowly releasing them ever since. It's getting better slowly but it's taking a very long time!
So anyway, back to the point.... I thought that the Siporax Algovec might help with my algae situation a bit, however I'm concerned that as it reduces algae by competing with it for phosphates, that this may have an impact on my plants as well? Not that I have that many as I've not restocked since it all went horribly wrong as they'd just get swamped by algae anyway, but there are a few survivors. And if I can keep the algae down then I'll happily invest in some new plants. And even a CO2 system in time.
Anyone have any experience of Siporax Algovec in a planted tank? Are your plants ok with it?
I also snapped up some Sera Silicate remover too - also for £2.99 per box! If I use that with the Algovec do you think that would be too much? So many questions!
Any advice greatly appreciated.
I bought it to use in my planted tank as I made the huge mistake of using rocks from the garden when I set it up a couple of years ago and there was an algae bloom the like of which I've never seen before in all my 45-odd years of fishkeeping! I suspect the rocks were leaching silicates into the water. Anyway, I still have bad problems with hair algae even now two years later as I suspect the Tropica aquarium soil powder probably absorbed a load of silicates at the time and has been slowly releasing them ever since. It's getting better slowly but it's taking a very long time!
So anyway, back to the point.... I thought that the Siporax Algovec might help with my algae situation a bit, however I'm concerned that as it reduces algae by competing with it for phosphates, that this may have an impact on my plants as well? Not that I have that many as I've not restocked since it all went horribly wrong as they'd just get swamped by algae anyway, but there are a few survivors. And if I can keep the algae down then I'll happily invest in some new plants. And even a CO2 system in time.
Anyone have any experience of Siporax Algovec in a planted tank? Are your plants ok with it?
I also snapped up some Sera Silicate remover too - also for £2.99 per box! If I use that with the Algovec do you think that would be too much? So many questions!
Any advice greatly appreciated.
