# BBA starting to take over. Any help ok.



## jlroar (Jun 21, 2007)

Hi all! I was recommended to visit your forum from Geophagus_Fiend on the CAFE forum. I have looked at other posts before posting this but I'm still rather lost. I hope I have included as much info as you need to give me a hand and I hope to give back to your community as I feel I am trying to do at CAFE. I'm still new to some of this but have been keeping fish for almost 5 years now.

Otto Cats/SAE's/FFF all keep attacking my Goldfish's tail so I have added over 150 Snails and they seam to just hide all the time and I am getting beard algae really bad on my plants. Do any of you seam to know of a good non aggressive algae eater? I have over 30 cherry reds in the large tank (unless some of them have become lunch) and 12 rather large ameno shrimp (over 2 years old) still in the same tank (haven't become lunch) but, it seams like no one wants to eat the beard algae from the plants. 

Any suggestions? 

125 Gallon tank about 6' long 3' high and 2' deep standard all glass aquarium and stand. 
Over 15 different varieties of plants growing pretty well. 

Here are the plants I currently have (that I can find names for) 

10 Anacharis (slowly dying off) 
2 OPHIO PUSILLUS (lots of beard algae) 
14 BACOPA MONNIERI (beard algae growing on top and sides of plant)
3 SAURURUS CERNUUS (not positive if I have the correct name) lots of beard algae on edges.
8 Ludwigia repens 
40+ TEARDROP ROTALA INDICA or Eusteralis stellata (just can't tell which one it is)
1 Amazon Sword (doing rather badly) 
18 Cabomba 
2 Telanthera Rosefolia 
1 Cryptocoryne Blassi 
1 Red Ozelot Sword (doing really well) 
1 dworf sword grass (worst investment I have made) 
5 onion type plant. (that is what they called them) 
1 large Rotala rotundifolia 
Some kind of moss growing on most of my resin decorations. 
and 1 other plant that I have no idea what it is. 

Sounds crowded but it looks rather nice. There is still quite a bit of uncovered bottom space as I have placed the bunch plants that grow quite fast and tall in the back. 

The little fish love to swim through it and the goldfish feast all day long. 

No Co2 or Fertilizers being used other than Flourish brand Iron supplement after a water change. I did start dosing Kent Freshwater Plant food today adding it a few minutes before this post.

Here is my tank's stock.
2 Large Goldfish (6 inches)-Snorkel/Tippy 3 years old 
3 small Goldfish (2 inches)-BobBob/Jaws/Tinny Bubbles about 6 months old 
8 neon/glowlignt/cardinal tetras (no names yet) over 1 year old 
1 cat-shark-Sharky 6 months old 
2 zebra danios (no names yet) 6 months old 
2 upside down catfish (no names yet)8 months old 
1 Cory cat-Corry kitty kitty 2 years old 
1 pleco-piepie 4 years old 
1 male guppy-orange 8 months old 
150+ snails pulled from shrimp/snail tank 

(no names) = can't tell them apart to give them names. 
My water parameter's are: 

50 gallons changed every week. 
2 filters 
Aquaclear 110 hang on filter with a layer of phosphate remover pad, sponge, charcoal, and bio media. 
Fluval 104 with just sponges and bio-media. 
Filters cleaned 2 times per week. I have been finding fish eggs in the Fluval 104 for the past 3 weeks now. (clear in color) 

nitrate 20 ppm 
nitrite 0 ppm 
hardness 300 ppm (I don't know how to lower the hardness since I have crushed coral) 
chlorine 0 ppm 
alkalinity 180 ppm 
ph 8.4 a little high but I use crushed coral for my sub-straight. 
Ammonia 0 ppm 

Lighting 8 hours per day separated by a 3 hour dark-out in the middle of the day all ran by a timmer. I am using a Coralife light fixture that puts out 360 watts of light. 2 90 watt white and 2 90 watt actinic lights. I leave the moon lights off at night so the tank is dark and no algae grows. I have tried turning the actinic lights off but the plants start to die off so I need the light. All the light together = about 2.88 watts per gallon.

I do not have a phosphate tester but change the phosphate pad 1 time per week and it looks pretty clean for the most part. It was brown when I started using it. Also I did have hair algea before I started using this and since then the Beard algae has been growing. Just a thought.

Their is very little algae at most on the glass and most of all the plants are clean of algae other than a few. Throwing away or removing these plants was my first thought but it would really cut down on my diversity of plants. Bleach or other solvents are not something I wish to try. Since I have goldfish I don't think the suggested OD of Flourish is a smart idea.

Any and all suggestions are welcome.

James rayer:


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## BlackTop_Kings (Jan 17, 2007)

Nice set up do you have a Pic...Its late so i will have to sleep on the thought and reply tomarrow sorry brain is mush


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## jlroar (Jun 21, 2007)

BlackTop_Kings said:


> Nice set up do you have a Pic...Its late so i will have to sleep on the thought and reply tomarrow sorry brain is mush


I just took this one. Please understand I am not good with a camera. I had to take 3 photos and had to cut off several things so the photos would line up.

James


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## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

I would consider a good school of SAE which always helps with getting rid of BBA. once i had an infected bunch of plants which i dumped into a tank with a school of 6~8 SAE. They cleaned it all up by the next few days. i dint feed them for the 2 days when the infected plants were in there. 

snails/ottos wont help.

Maybe you can move your goldfish somewhere while the SAE does their job and when they are done, bring the SAE back to ur lfs. Trade them for store credit.

Besides that, i'd try reducing ur nitrates. there are many options you can take. you can reduce fish load, which works for me or add much more plants to absorb nitrates.

Reducing lighting, increase water frequency for water change also helps.


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## mikenas102 (Feb 8, 2006)

You're running a good amount of light and using ferts yet you have no CO2 and no alternative like Excel. Sounds like an algae farm in the making. With a tank that big you really should be looking into a pressurized CO2 system. With that done, you should replace those actinic bulbs with something more suitable for freshwater plants.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Welcome to APC! 

You need to feed your plants with all they need. With that much light the plants will be trying to grow fast. However, to continue to grow fast, they need other nutrients besides light: C (carbon), N (Nitrogen), K (Potasium), P (Phosphorous), Fe (Iron) and trace elements.

We normally provide the C via CO2 (Seachem's Excel is an alternate source of carbon but not as efficient, especially for big tanks). The N we usually provide via adding KNO3 (potassium nitrate). The K in potassium nitrate might be enough or sometimes we add extra with K2SO4 (potassium sulfate). The P we add with a source of PO4, usually using KH2PO4 (nothing wrong with phosphate for a planted tank: plants have to have it so get rid of the phosphate pad!). The Fe and trace elements can be added from many sources.

The only nutrient you're currently providing your plants is the Fe and trace elements. That's what's in the Flourish and the Kent Freshwater Plant Food.

Here's some good reading material that will give you some of the basics of planted tanks:

http://www.aquatic-plants.org/articles/basics/pages/01_intro.html

www.rexgrigg.com

Enjoy!


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## Mud Pie Mama (Jul 30, 2006)

Others have given you some good advice, often running a planted tank takes an opposite approach from fish-only tanks.

However, I wanted to say: HI! And, welcome to APC! I'm really impressed with how you put those three photos together to show your big tank! I couldn't have done that. I also want to say BRAVO and good job providing your goldfish with the type of home goldfish really need and benefit from -- -not those awful bowls.

If you use "goldfish" in the search box you can read about how some hobbiest have specifically maintained planted goldfish tanks. Not the easiest or most common, but there are a few folks who have very beautiful and successful goldfish planted tanks.


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## jlroar (Jun 21, 2007)

Thanks to all those who welcomed me. Sorry for the long delay but I have added Co2 and such. I was and still am adding Excel to the tank. Trying to get a handle on ferts for now.

Again thank you for your responses and your insight.

James


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