Over that last few years, I’ve read a lot on the Internet about how other people had success or failures with their tanks. I’ve had a mixture of both. I’m no authority, by any means, but I thought I’d put my experiences down to help out the next guy that comes along.
A history…
I’ve been a aquarium enthusiast for the past 6 years. I started with a small 6 gallon tank with 4 fish. Four years ago, I got a 40 gallon tank. It came with a 20 watt lighting rig (wow) and a 50 gallon aquaclear filter. I tossed some rocks and glass beads into the bottom, threw in pirate ship and filled it with tap water. Naturally, I put fish in that day as well (what’s a fish tank without fish).
The Present…
I still have that same 40 gallon tank in my family room, but my how things have changed. I buy my water now, the RODI (Reverse Osmosis/DeIonized) water to pull out all the crap in the lovely San Diego tap water (you should see the carbon build up on my tank lid). I’ve got a 3 WPG (Watts Per Gallon) lighting rig with 7500 and 10000K bulbs in it on timers. I have 4 different species of plants and about 15 fish. Today, I added a C02 injection system to combat the algae and revive the plants (we’ll get to that later). What an addiction this has become.
For the last six weeks, I’ve been struggling to get my tank healthy again. A few months of neglect after the birth of my son earlier this year left my tank in pretty poor condition. What am I dealing with? Green spot algae, beard algae, some dead fish and some dead plants.
Green spot algae
For this, I did about an 8% water change each week for the last 6 weeks. It started to get under control till I added the liquid plant fertilizer (explained later) and then there was a big bloom on the back of my tank (of course, the hardest place to clean). I added some otocinclus catfish as well. I try to cure as much as I can without adding chemicals. My plan is to continue with the water changes and to stop using the plant fertilizer.
Black beard algae
I did a lot of research on the internet. The universally agreed cure for this seems to be Siamese algae eaters. I added three. I have seen a reduction of the algae, but I think they’ll need another year or so to get it all (it’s pretty thick in there). While I was at aquaticwarehouse (btw – if you live in SD, this place is great!) I talked with Sam and he recommended a lot of alternatives for me. Namely, CO2 injection. I didn’t want to drop $200 that day, so he gave me some carbon additive which I’ve used twice now. It’s called FlorinAxis and it’s a CO2 supplement and Krebs Cycle Stimulator. My CO2 is still really low, so today I bit the bullet and bought the injection system. I found one that was compatible with my old paintball CO2 tanks, so I saved fifty bucks
side note – the CO2 injector I bought is the one by Red Sea. It came highly recommended. They have a paintball version and a regular CO2 tank version. CO2 tanks are expensive. Paintball tanks are cheap. You have to refill them more often, but a 20oz tank is only $20 bucks online and $3 bucks to fill. I’ll let you know how long it lasts once I have to refill it.
Dead Fish
The fish that were dying was most likely due to infrequent water changes and a build up of nitrates/nitrites. I didn’t do any water tests at first and had done at least to water changes before I started testing. I haven’t had a fish die in the last six weeks (knock on wood). At least not one that I’ve seen. Those Oto’s are pretty small. Here’s a list of what’s in my tank right now
- 3 siamese algae eaters
- 4-7 otocinclus catfish
- 3 yo-yo loaches
- 1 redtail shark
- 1 dwarf blue gourami
- 1 irian rainbow fish
- 1 sunfire molly
- 2 dwarf albino catfish
- 1 angel fish
The plants I’ll cover in my next post, as it’s fairly lengthy and it’s time to go.
