"Cammie" wrote in message
...
"Dances With Ferrets" wrote in message
om...
What a horrible concept, completely void of chewy goodness and higher
inspiration. How could one possibly do without greenery in a tank
(besides a cichlid aquarium)? It is now obvious that you are
possessed of an evil spirit. I bet you torture kittens too.



Ok, put down the bong for a moment here while I explain... Have had
tanks
for years, most successful with plants without algae outbreaks,etc. I
have
a 20 gallon with 3 red cap orandas in it. I have filtration on it that is
for up to a 30 gallon tank, I do regular water changes, I have a timer so
the lights are not on longer then 10 hours, no sunlight, no overfeeding,
all
water parameter test show everything is perfect. I have these little
cluster, or tufts of hair algae. On the glass it is fine, I can clean
that,
but these tuft start to grow around the edges of all my plants, no matter
the kind. Every two months I'm replacing the plants because they are
"furry" and just plain unsightly and bizarre looking.

My current batch of plants now too are just starting to get hairy tufts
around the edges of their leaves, I'm ready to do without plants at all at
this point. That is why I asked if I can just do without the plants and
not
have algae outbreaks, water quality problems, etc. So far I cant point
out
why this outbreak of algae "tufts", I've done tanks for years and now the
last 6 months I cant do anything right and I haven't changed anything I
do.


The "tufts" you are referring to are commonly known as BBA or black brush
algae. It's a tenacious bitch It is possible to defeat it though, you
need to start adding co2. and you have too many gold fish in a 20 gallon ;o
Google bba and read all you can, theres loads of info on how to avoid it.
--
**So long, and thanks for all the fish!**