Brown Algae and Overstock?

[frrranklinn]

I have my 90 gallon setup now. I currently have 8 Angel fish, 12 Buenos Aires Tetra, and 1 orange spotted pleco. I am planning on adding 8 clown loaches to the community. Would that over do it?

Also my tank started to grow brown algae and a little bit of green algae. I took my water to get tested and everything was fine. What would you recommend to solve this algae problem?

[barrettsline]

Read this:

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=60144

[mnemenoi]

As to your first question of clown loaches, I will say that you are quite correct in the number you are selecting for a school. They are quite gregarious and appreciate a school of fellows. On the other hand, they get very large indeed. At a realistic 12" (wild ones have gotten to 16"+, but not often seen in home aquariums) you are now talking about 8 - 12" fish in a 90 gallon. They do grow slowly, but thats some serious size eventually. Perhaps look into smaller relatives such as the Zebra Loach (Botia Striata) as they stay far smaller and would be far more managable at their full adult size. They are also seen regularly at local fish stores.

On your second question about brown and green algae, I am uncertain as to your exact water parameters. Most stores that test will only tell you the presence of extremely high (toxic) levels of pollutants in the water. Your tank sounds well cycled, so the only real possibility is Nitrates. They can be higher and have no adverse effect upon the fish, but one indicator is that these are fertilizers for algae. Algae blloms are indicitive of raised Nitrate levels and long photoperiods (the amount of time your lights are on). There is one sure manner of adderssing it and that is easy. Water Changes, plain and simple. Just start a regimen of 50% water changes weekly and even bi-weekly and I bet your situation remedies itself in no time. Remember Nitrates hide out in the tank as well, so rinse any material accumulating on the filters and vaccuum the tank very well and you should be golden. You can also try and reduce the photoperiod for the fish, most only really appreciate 8-10 hours and its truly for our own enjoyment more then theirs. If you have no plants in the tank, try only turning it on when you get home from work until bed instead of all day that no one is home. Basically you are attacking the two requirements algae need, food and light. Without those you'll see a dramatic reduction in no time.

Good Luck!!!

[jeb102385]

It could also be a water flow problem. You could try putting a powerhead in the tank

[eklikewhoa]

Pictures of the algae? Algae id is a hard one but we can get close enough

[frrranklinn]

barrettsline thank you!

mnemenoi - how about cory cats? how many do you think I can add with my current community?

jeb102385 - i have a koralia in the tank

eklikewhoa - here is the picture

[eklikewhoa]

diatoms, it's almost normal with a new tank and limestone seems to attract the stuff like crazy.

Water changes and watch the lighting, unless of course the source of the problem is coming from your water source.


I think it's mainly new tank syndrome... you set up a new tank and keep the light on cause you wanna see everything, even if sometimes there's no livestock.

[Totenkampf]

corys will school really nicely, check out c.sterbai...the yellow on them can get pretty intense. my experience is that they dont like overly deep aquaria but a 90 might not be too deep.

for stocking i use the surface area rule as depicted here:

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/beginnerinfo/a/fishcalc.htm

just dont stock too quickly, if you just added a bunch of fish then wait a week or two for the bacteria to multiply enough to meet demand.

as far as that algae on the rock, i think thats just aging and you can live with it or pull the rocks out and scrub them frequently. i prefer the aged look myself.

[afremont]

On the lighting and diatoms. From what I've read, more light rather than less can help to defeat diatoms. Diatoms can grow with less light than green algae so they outcompete and take over early on. They'll grow with just ambient room lighting available. More water changes should help, but they'll just stop being a problem on their own eventually.

[frrranklinn]

I have also read that theory about the lighting..

8 Angelfish x5.9in = 47.2 inches
12 Buenos Aires Tetra x3in = 36 inches
1 Orange Spotted Pleco x5.12in = 5.12 inches
TOTAL = 88.32 inches

Want - Sterbai x8 at 2.7in = 21.6 inches

Would this overdo it? Scared to buy them. I've been adding fish to my tank once every week. The pet shop owners said my aquarium water was great.

[frrranklinn]

Update - The brown algae is slowly dying out. I currently have 8 Angelfish, 12 Buenos Aires Tetra, 1 Golden Nugget Pleco, 1 Orange Spotted Pleco.

I was thinking about adding either 2 Rams or 2 Gouramis with 8 Sterbai Cories.

The Buenos Aires are very jumpy, any suggestions on any other tetras that go well with Angelfish?

Suggestions please!

[mnemenoi]

Perhaps try a few different tetras that could help stratisfying the tank. The rams are doable, though they can get over run in a tank full of angels. I'd recommend Bolivian Rams if you go that route. Not sure what your Ph is, but everything looks South American. Bolivian Rams tend to do far better in our natural Ph then the others. Gouramis can be fun, but they are quite a mixed bag of differing species that vary quite a bit depending on what type of water you have. If I had to shoot in the dark, I'd suggest Pearl or Moonlights, maybe Banded. They could get into it with your angels though, so just be wary.

Buenos Aires are a bit of a handful and they do get larger then most others. I would certainly suggest some top water tetras as they will add another strata to the tank. Silver Hatchets or larger Marbled Hatchets would work well. As to central tetras, Lemons, Serpae, Bleeding Hearts, Emporor, Candy Cane, Diamond, Black Phantoms would all work. It really just depends on what color you'd like to see in the tank. Any colors or patterns you like or find lacking in the tank? There are a ton of tetras and as long as they are bigger then a angel's mouth size should work. Try and stay away from the Headstanders and Silver dollars if possible as they can be trouble as they grow larger.

[armthehomeless]

Great recommendations! Someone on the box is selling serpaes...

[eklikewhoa]

Shameless plug... those red serpaes are awesome looking for the price.

[frrranklinn]

I heard Serpae tetras were fin nippers. I want a tetra that is bright in color but big enough so that my angels would not feed on them. Would the Bolivian Ram cause a lot of trouble with the angels? The Buenos Aires are going to be hard to catch...I wouldn't know what to do with them