I have a smattering of some brown fuzzy stuff over an area of my gravel. it
is a patch in the centre. it looks like a fine build up of dirt. is this
algae? if so what sort?

Thanks

Stu

Probably diatoms, usually symptomatic of some combination of nitrate, oxygen
deficiency, and insufficient lighting. Recommendation: change water,
increase wattage and/or period of lighting, and add snails or ottos.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
. ..
I have a smattering of some brown fuzzy stuff over an area of my gravel.
it
is a patch in the centre. it looks like a fine build up of dirt. is this
algae? if so what sort?

Thanks

Stu

Kush,

explain these diatoms to me please, I've been having a battle with what I
think was poop on the bottom of the tank, but now I've got algae giving me
greif again, and I've clumps of this stuff moving around the bottom of the
tank in the current.

"kush" wrote in
:

Probably diatoms, usually symptomatic of some combination of nitrate,
oxygen deficiency, and insufficient lighting. Recommendation: change
water, increase wattage and/or period of lighting, and add snails or
ottos.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
. ..
I have a smattering of some brown fuzzy stuff over an area of my
gravel.
it
is a patch in the centre. it looks like a fine build up of dirt. is
this algae? if so what sort?

Thanks

Stu

Hi Kush,

Appreciate the advise, however, I do regular water changes on this tank as
it contains baby guppies, and my nitrates are never above about 15ppm.
I have a UGF and a sponge filter running, with about 12" of fish all
together, in a 10UK Gal
The light is a 25W on for about 13hours a day.

I have a few vallis and a bit of eloda. I did a gravel vac last night and
the stuff was really hard to get off the gravel and larger pebbles.

is there any brown algae that grows in high light conditions?

Can you give me any advise on a cat fish for an Indian or south Asian
biotype tank. once my guppies are all gone I am having a tank of gouramis so
I would like a catfish or two from around India or south Asia.

Cheers

Stu

"kush" wrote in message
...
Probably diatoms, usually symptomatic of some combination of nitrate,
oxygen
deficiency, and insufficient lighting. Recommendation: change water,
increase wattage and/or period of lighting, and add snails or ottos.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
. ..
I have a smattering of some brown fuzzy stuff over an area of my gravel.
it
is a patch in the centre. it looks like a fine build up of dirt. is this
algae? if so what sort?

Thanks

Stu

You've got me, Stu. What kind of light are you using? If it's not
incandescent and anywhere over 5000k you should have lighting handled - In
fact, I would have thought 13 hours too much.

I'd still recommend snails. They're great scavengers for guppy fry (of
which I have a few tanks, myself) and I'm sure no one would question their
provence in an asian tank. I don't know about asian cats - how about shrimp?

I have a tendency in my fry tanks of not vacuuming the gravel well for fear
of vacuuming guppies. This could (and I'm stretching) result in an oxygen
deficiency.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
. ..
Hi Kush,

Appreciate the advise, however, I do regular water changes on this tank as
it contains baby guppies, and my nitrates are never above about 15ppm.
I have a UGF and a sponge filter running, with about 12" of fish all
together, in a 10UK Gal
The light is a 25W on for about 13hours a day.

I have a few vallis and a bit of eloda. I did a gravel vac last night and
the stuff was really hard to get off the gravel and larger pebbles.

is there any brown algae that grows in high light conditions?

Can you give me any advise on a cat fish for an Indian or south Asian
biotype tank. once my guppies are all gone I am having a tank of gouramis
so
I would like a catfish or two from around India or south Asia.

Cheers

Stu

"kush" wrote in message
...
Probably diatoms, usually symptomatic of some combination of nitrate,
oxygen
deficiency, and insufficient lighting. Recommendation: change water,
increase wattage and/or period of lighting, and add snails or ottos.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
. ..
I have a smattering of some brown fuzzy stuff over an area of my
gravel.
it
is a patch in the centre. it looks like a fine build up of dirt. is
this
algae? if so what sort?

Thanks

Stu

I do think I have a bit too much light, it is a 25w striplight only 12"
across though. I have just got some hygrophilia and a few borneo swords for
the tank so it is now a lot more planted. I was going to change the 25W
light to an 8w tropical light (one of those that gives out a pinkish colour)
do you think this will be a problem for my plants that I have? (tank size
18x12x12).

Don't snails over run the tank if not kept in order, what snails would you
recommend for algae eating (so I can look them up).

Thanks for your help Kush

"kush" wrote in message
...
You've got me, Stu. What kind of light are you using? If it's not
incandescent and anywhere over 5000k you should have lighting handled - In
fact, I would have thought 13 hours too much.

I'd still recommend snails. They're great scavengers for guppy fry (of
which I have a few tanks, myself) and I'm sure no one would question their
provence in an asian tank. I don't know about asian cats - how about
shrimp?

I have a tendency in my fry tanks of not vacuuming the gravel well for
fear
of vacuuming guppies. This could (and I'm stretching) result in an oxygen
deficiency.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
. ..
Hi Kush,

Appreciate the advise, however, I do regular water changes on this tank
as
it contains baby guppies, and my nitrates are never above about 15ppm.
I have a UGF and a sponge filter running, with about 12" of fish all
together, in a 10UK Gal
The light is a 25W on for about 13hours a day.

I have a few vallis and a bit of eloda. I did a gravel vac last night
and
the stuff was really hard to get off the gravel and larger pebbles.

is there any brown algae that grows in high light conditions?

Can you give me any advise on a cat fish for an Indian or south Asian
biotype tank. once my guppies are all gone I am having a tank of
gouramis
so
I would like a catfish or two from around India or south Asia.

Cheers

Stu

"kush" wrote in message
...
Probably diatoms, usually symptomatic of some combination of nitrate,
oxygen
deficiency, and insufficient lighting. Recommendation: change water,
increase wattage and/or period of lighting, and add snails or ottos.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
. ..
I have a smattering of some brown fuzzy stuff over an area of my
gravel.
it
is a patch in the centre. it looks like a fine build up of dirt. is
this
algae? if so what sort?

Thanks

Stu

25 watts over a 10 gallon is great. How old is the bulb? Fluorescent bulbs
do have to be changed every year or so.

It's hard for me to give advice about snails - at least good advice. But
here's kush on snails in the aquarium...

I have never bought a snail. I have, however, bought a lot of mail-order
plants with snails and snail eggs attached. Most get eaten by fish. Of the
ones that don't, as they get larger, some eat plants and some don't. The
ones that eat plants get crushed and fed to the guppies. The ones that
don't, get to reproduce. All my community tanks contain fish that eat eggs
and very small snails and somehow, in the guppy tanks, the snails seem to
regulate their own numbers. In twenty-something years I've never had a tank
over-run with snails.

I've never obsessed much about what kind of snails I have. Ramshorns have a
good reputation in the planted tank and, in fact, I think most of mine
probably are ramshorns. I have something else that looks like a teensy
half-melted football with a glassy, almost transparent shell that hitchhiked
in on a chunk of java moss a couple of years ago and does an amazing job of
keeping one of my small fry tanks clean - every time I've tried to establish
it in another tank the bigger fish eat it.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
.. .
I do think I have a bit too much light, it is a 25w striplight only 12"
across though. I have just got some hygrophilia and a few borneo swords
for
the tank so it is now a lot more planted. I was going to change the 25W
light to an 8w tropical light (one of those that gives out a pinkish
colour)
do you think this will be a problem for my plants that I have? (tank size
18x12x12).

Don't snails over run the tank if not kept in order, what snails would you
recommend for algae eating (so I can look them up).

Thanks for your help Kush

"kush" wrote in message
...
You've got me, Stu. What kind of light are you using? If it's not
incandescent and anywhere over 5000k you should have lighting handled -
In
fact, I would have thought 13 hours too much.

I'd still recommend snails. They're great scavengers for guppy fry (of
which I have a few tanks, myself) and I'm sure no one would question
their
provence in an asian tank. I don't know about asian cats - how about
shrimp?

I have a tendency in my fry tanks of not vacuuming the gravel well for
fear
of vacuuming guppies. This could (and I'm stretching) result in an
oxygen
deficiency.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
. ..
Hi Kush,

Appreciate the advise, however, I do regular water changes on this
tank
as
it contains baby guppies, and my nitrates are never above about 15ppm.
I have a UGF and a sponge filter running, with about 12" of fish all
together, in a 10UK Gal
The light is a 25W on for about 13hours a day.

I have a few vallis and a bit of eloda. I did a gravel vac last night
and
the stuff was really hard to get off the gravel and larger pebbles.

is there any brown algae that grows in high light conditions?

Can you give me any advise on a cat fish for an Indian or south Asian
biotype tank. once my guppies are all gone I am having a tank of
gouramis
so
I would like a catfish or two from around India or south Asia.

Cheers

Stu

"kush" wrote in message
...
Probably diatoms, usually symptomatic of some combination of
nitrate,
oxygen
deficiency, and insufficient lighting. Recommendation: change
water,
increase wattage and/or period of lighting, and add snails or ottos.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
. ..
I have a smattering of some brown fuzzy stuff over an area of my
gravel.
it
is a patch in the centre. it looks like a fine build up of dirt.
is
this
algae? if so what sort?

Thanks

Stu

The bulbs about 5 weeks old =)

time to get finding some snails. I wanted to go for an oto, but they don't
really fit in with my biotype (being from south America) I could go for a
SAE (or is it a CAE).

Cheers for the help kush

"kush" wrote in message
...
25 watts over a 10 gallon is great. How old is the bulb? Fluorescent
bulbs
do have to be changed every year or so.

It's hard for me to give advice about snails - at least good advice. But
here's kush on snails in the aquarium...

I have never bought a snail. I have, however, bought a lot of mail-order
plants with snails and snail eggs attached. Most get eaten by fish. Of
the
ones that don't, as they get larger, some eat plants and some don't. The
ones that eat plants get crushed and fed to the guppies. The ones that
don't, get to reproduce. All my community tanks contain fish that eat
eggs
and very small snails and somehow, in the guppy tanks, the snails seem to
regulate their own numbers. In twenty-something years I've never had a
tank
over-run with snails.

I've never obsessed much about what kind of snails I have. Ramshorns have
a
good reputation in the planted tank and, in fact, I think most of mine
probably are ramshorns. I have something else that looks like a teensy
half-melted football with a glassy, almost transparent shell that
hitchhiked
in on a chunk of java moss a couple of years ago and does an amazing job
of
keeping one of my small fry tanks clean - every time I've tried to
establish
it in another tank the bigger fish eat it.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
.. .
I do think I have a bit too much light, it is a 25w striplight only 12"
across though. I have just got some hygrophilia and a few borneo swords
for
the tank so it is now a lot more planted. I was going to change the 25W
light to an 8w tropical light (one of those that gives out a pinkish
colour)
do you think this will be a problem for my plants that I have? (tank
size
18x12x12).

Don't snails over run the tank if not kept in order, what snails would
you
recommend for algae eating (so I can look them up).

Thanks for your help Kush

"kush" wrote in message
...
You've got me, Stu. What kind of light are you using? If it's not
incandescent and anywhere over 5000k you should have lighting
handled -
In
fact, I would have thought 13 hours too much.

I'd still recommend snails. They're great scavengers for guppy fry
(of
which I have a few tanks, myself) and I'm sure no one would question
their
provence in an asian tank. I don't know about asian cats - how about
shrimp?

I have a tendency in my fry tanks of not vacuuming the gravel well for
fear
of vacuuming guppies. This could (and I'm stretching) result in an
oxygen
deficiency.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in message
. ..
Hi Kush,

Appreciate the advise, however, I do regular water changes on this
tank
as
it contains baby guppies, and my nitrates are never above about
15ppm.
I have a UGF and a sponge filter running, with about 12" of fish
all
together, in a 10UK Gal
The light is a 25W on for about 13hours a day.

I have a few vallis and a bit of eloda. I did a gravel vac last
night
and
the stuff was really hard to get off the gravel and larger pebbles.

is there any brown algae that grows in high light conditions?

Can you give me any advise on a cat fish for an Indian or south
Asian
biotype tank. once my guppies are all gone I am having a tank of
gouramis
so
I would like a catfish or two from around India or south Asia.

Cheers

Stu

"kush" wrote in message
...
Probably diatoms, usually symptomatic of some combination of
nitrate,
oxygen
deficiency, and insufficient lighting. Recommendation: change
water,
increase wattage and/or period of lighting, and add snails or
ottos.

kush

Stuart Mueller wrote in
message
. ..
I have a smattering of some brown fuzzy stuff over an area of my
gravel.
it
is a patch in the centre. it looks like a fine build up of dirt.
is
this
algae? if so what sort?

Thanks

Stu