# Here I am again!



## Morgan Freeman (2 Nov 2011)

I've been trying to crack this problem without relying on asking, but my stubbornness must finally give in.

I have some brown/algae diatoms which aren't majorly out of control but are starting to negatively effect the appearance of my tank and plants.

23L. 11watt lamp. 200LPH internal facing towards the top of the tank so my Betta doesn't have too much flow. I'm now dosing 1ml of easy carbo a day to try and help but it's not working. I do 50% change a week and regularly does micro and macro. The plants actually grow really well with hardly any die off, about 40% of the tank is plant mass.

Is there something I'm missing? It's been up for over 3 months now and this is my first real algae problem.


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## andrejacobs81 (3 Nov 2011)

I am no expert on algae but I would test the water (especially the tap water). I started getting overrun by black beard and green algae and discovered that my tap water is really high in phosphates.

Also what is your lighting period like? (I cut mine down to 6 hours while combatting it)

Armano shrimp is awesome! Bought 2 of these guys for a slightly bigger tank than yours and they love algae.


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## spyder (3 Nov 2011)

How long is your photoperiod? Less light should help. Diatoms are down to too much light and not phosphates.

Otos absolutely rock at diatom control. When I have diatoms in a new or existing aquarium in go the oto's. Those tanks with oto's are diatom free.


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## Tom (3 Nov 2011)

Leave it a few weeks and it will be gone  Just keep up your maintenance and clean your filters.


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## Morgan Freeman (3 Nov 2011)

8 hour photoperiod. I could try this but then it doesn't really solve the issue, because I've been using this for 3 months and haven't had a problem until now.

I would add shrimp and ottos but not with a male betta in such a small tank. I did set this up for cherry shrimp but purchased the betta on a whim


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## Morgan Freeman (3 Nov 2011)

Tom said:
			
		

> Leave it a few weeks and it will be gone  Just keep up your maintenance and clean your filters.



This is what I'm hoping will happen! My maintenance regime is pretty good I think. I clean the filter every 3 water changes so that's once every 3 weeks. It doesn't even have that much gunk in when I do.

I've been thinking this over, given I have such a high volume of plant mass maybe there's some melt or die off due to leaves on my stems at the lower levels not receiving as much light anymore? It could be I just haven't noticed it. *shrug*


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## Morgan Freeman (5 Nov 2011)

Had a major trim and found a few dead leaves decomposing on the bottom. With less plant mass it might be easier to spot them now, had a major trim, 50% of the stems height now gone.


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## Iain Sutherland (5 Nov 2011)

i wouldnt swear by it but im fairly sure people have kept amanos with betta before... as long as they are a reasonable size when you get them....


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## Polly (6 Nov 2011)

My son kept Amanos with a Betta - NOT FOR VERY LONG THOUGH!

As the Amanos grow, they shed their shells and the Betta seemed to know this was when they were most tasty     She picked them off one by one over a couple of months.   We didn't know at first that was what was happening, just lost one occasionally, but then we saw her picking at one and as we were down to 2, took them out 

Very expensive snacks


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## Morgan Freeman (7 Nov 2011)

Amano adults seem pretty big but having seen the way my Betta ruthlessly attacks his food I'm not going to risk it.

Today I made an extra water change and pulled a few crypts out to go in my emersed tank, well, it turned out there were about six crypts growing down there I didn't know about/forgot about   . It wasn't until I removed a large one the extent of the crypt mass became apparent. I'm pretty sure my problem was just having too many plants packed too closely together,resulting in light blockage to some lower leaves which then melted and sunk to the bottom of the tank, messing up my water. I also pulled a few bits of dwarf sag.

I was pretty confident this wasn't a dosing/liquid carbon issue and hopefully I've solved it. Since the big trim there's been no increase in algae. Still there though.


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## mark4785 (8 Nov 2011)

I think you ought to be cleaning the filter weekly as otherwise you could encourage cyanobacteria growth. Sometimes if you clean the filter its not necessarily the gunk that you should be looking for, it's the discolouration of the water as you 'dunk' (never squeeze!) the filter media in tank water.


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## Morgan Freeman (9 Nov 2011)

Oh, I thought that would be too much.


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## Brenmuk (9 Nov 2011)

Most if not all new tanks go through a phase where they have a brown algae diatom bloom but doesn't usually last and clears up by itself. If this is the 1st time this has happened in this tank then I would not worry its just part of the final maturation phase of the tank. 

Sometimes you see this in an established tank where there has been some serious disruption to the filter affecting the filter bacteria.  I had this on an established tank when the filter got clogged with fine soil particles and I had to thoroughly clean and replace a lot of the filter material - its like the filter went through a mini maturation phase all over again. 

With just 1 beta fish in the tank I don't think you need to clean the filter too often - every few weeks at most.  You should be able to judge this for yourself if you are cleaning your filter every week and there is hardly anything to clean then clean less frequently (always in old tank water).

If the brown algae persists for many weeks then something else you are doing in your maintenance is disrupting the filter bacteria or you might have a silicate problem with your water.


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## Morgan Freeman (9 Nov 2011)

Thanks for the advice.

The situation has ever so slightly improved since removing all the gunk from the substrate and redirecting flow a little. Fingers crossed it starts to clear up permanently.


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