Hey there,

I had a very bad out break of a hair algae of sorts.
It was every where, and nothing would touch it, not even snails.
Poor fish were even getting caught up in it too!

Then I was turned on to the miracle fish - -
The American Flag Fish!

I put 3 of them into my 30g tank, and it was unbelievable watching this
stuff disappear! In a mater of days, the tank was clean of any strands of
this algae.
The flag fish did not nibble down my plants either.
And they actually are a very pretty & pleasant fish for a community tank.

This was over a year ago & my stock has diminished due to moving.
I have a 'long 40gal' getting ready for display.
I intend to get my local fish supplier to order some of these flag fish in
for me, cause they are not a type you would find easily for sale.
But they are inexpensive.. a couple of bucks...
I don't want to get stuck with out them again.

Now, if I could only grow any other type of plant than a sword.

Regards,
JC




wrote in message
ups.com...
Howdy Folks,

I have a moderately heavy planted 55g with a few workers, and a
handful of other fish. The tank actually was running with fish for
over a year before any planting was started. The bed is formed of
sand, smaller pebbles, and the a bag of time releasing nutrient stuff
you can buy for plants. Since the initial planting, things have went
somewhat well. The plants seemed to have transplanted well. My Ph
has been moderate, and I have been using occasional liquid fertilizer,
for 2-3 months. The plants seem to have good color, and have shown
some growth, and rooting. I installed a generic Co2 system 1 month
ago. ThisCo2 uses the sugar, and activators mixed together which
states it last up to 30 days a fill. I have done one small water
change (1/6?) with bottled spring water that I treated, and have
always used bottled thunderstorm rainwater for evaporation. My pH
levels seem to still be moderate, and I use two 70g filters. Within
the last 1-2 months, several of the plants have been forming a 'muck'
or 'sandlike' grain on them. Some of the narrow plants, like grasses
are getting covered so heavily it seems they are turning a light
brown. The discuss plant's leaves seem to have several strands or
strings of the sand growing off of them. I can brush or rub the
discuss leaves clean, but a few days later will be, again, covered in
strands. Is this a form of algae, or is this a plant disease? My
filters seem to be effective, and I have replaced the filters
components with new media a few times.

Any suggestions highly appreciated!

Newbie