My betta is doing good and I have yet another leaf showing itself on my
banana plant. I think I am going to get the Bio-wheel filtering thing on my
tank and was wondering if that one would help control this algae that is out
of control. It is a really bright green looking stuff--not at all like the
brown diatoms hubby gets in his reef tank. I don't mind too much if it
grows on the bottom because it kind of looks like grass from a distance but
it is starting to get on the glass and my 'sunken fighter plane' where Clyde
likes to sleep. If you know what this stuff is and how to get it to slow
down, I would appreciate your help.

Kelly

I don't think adding a bio-wheel will do much to help your algae problem.

If algae is growing out of control, you either have too much light, too many
nutrients (from fertilizing, overfeeding, or overstocking), or both.

How big is your tank, and how much light do you have over it? What other
plants are in it?


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

There isn't much in there. It is a 10 gal. tank with 2 watts per gallon at
the moment. Life consists of one betta splendens and one banana plant. We
have well water that I use to do water changes with and it is heavy in
minerals and nutrients. Could be I just need to get more living things in
there to compete?

"LeighMo" wrote in message
...
I don't think adding a bio-wheel will do much to help your algae problem.

If algae is growing out of control, you either have too much light, too
many
nutrients (from fertilizing, overfeeding, or overstocking), or both.

How big is your tank, and how much light do you have over it? What other
plants are in it?


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

There isn't much in there. It is a 10 gal. tank with 2 watts per gallon at
the moment

That is your problem.

Could be I just need to get more living things in
there to compete?

Yes. Specifically, you need more plants.

IME, you can't put extra lights on your tank, and then put just one plant in
it.
There's a reason why the standard tank hood has so little light: more light
encourages algae. So if you add more light, you must plant heavily, or you
will have algae.

You should add some fast-growing stem plants. Cabomba, Hygrophila, Limnophila,
Bacopa, babytears, etc.

Algae-eating creatures will help, too. Amano shrimp would be good. (Don't get
ghost shrimp. They are too predatory to keep with bettas.) Or snails.

With 2 wpg, you may need to add a commercial fertilizer, such as Flourish or
Tropica Mastergrow. Or at least a liquid iron supplement, like Tetra
Florapride.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/

Ok, thanks for the information. I went foraging and got some duck weed off
my in-laws pond. I am going to cut back on the hours the light is on (it is
at 12 hours) to about 10. Our LFS doesn't have any freshwater algae eaters
other than pleco and I don't like those. I'm going to put in an order for
some of those shrimps tomorrow.

Thanks again

"Kelly Upton" wrote in message
.net...
There isn't much in there. It is a 10 gal. tank with 2 watts per gallon
at
the moment. Life consists of one betta splendens and one banana plant.
We
have well water that I use to do water changes with and it is heavy in
minerals and nutrients. Could be I just need to get more living things in
there to compete?

"LeighMo" wrote in message
...
I don't think adding a bio-wheel will do much to help your algae
problem.

If algae is growing out of control, you either have too much light, too
many
nutrients (from fertilizing, overfeeding, or overstocking), or both.

How big is your tank, and how much light do you have over it? What
other
plants are in it?


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/