I completed a 40% water change last night. Scrubbed the glass and removed the big castle. Slighlty re-routed the UV sterilizer. It looks a lot better and I am feeling better about it.

I think the surface algae took over since the otos died. I never normally had to clean the glass or ornaments.

I only ever found 1 of the otos dead. I think there was some some cotton wool type fungus on the tip of its nose.

On this tank I think I might be guilty of excessive light. Since the sand is nearly white, I think it could be reflecting more light back up. It is timed for 10 hours. I will try to drop it down to 8 or 9 on the timer.

On the filter media question, When I went from the internal to the external I used 1 of the 2 sponges from it. When I went back to the internal the sponge went back into that, I also have a sponge and tray of 1 ceramic type things from the external sitting in the tank.

You should definitely drop the time the lights are on down to eight hours. 10 is excessive.

What about them there algae removing products?
Anyone ever use them?

I tried "Green Away" for about 3 weeks, it is design for Green water. It made no difference.

I wouldn't recommend the algae removing products. Regardless of what they say, most will harm plants. Anyway, they only treat the symptom, not the cause.

Agree with above posts, the only algae treatment i know that works (even black brush/hair algae) and doesnt affect plants is protalon 707 by esha, amazing product!

I got a nice suprise when I got home from work. The tank is running on about 4 hrs of light at the moment and the UV steriliser. I am going to up the lights to 8 hrs tomorrow.



I can even see fish now:

I have found the best way of getting your algae problem to disappear is live plants lots of them... they compete with the algae for food and generally win if you have enough of them plus it'll make the tank look brilliant if you plant it right

Great news about the reduction of your algae problem. Defiantely the steps you have taken so far seem to be working.

I wouldnt rush to up the lighting. Why bother? Your plants wont mind at all for a few more days, so I would leave it at 4 hours for another week. Watch your plants closely and if any show signs of "browning out" then you can up the light.

Also, Id advise caution on the introduction of lots more plants.

Yes, they can be a great way of keeping algae down, but remember, plants only grow as much as their needs are met.

In other words, plants are limited by the lowest need in your tank. i.e. if you have loads of light, but no CO2 then they can only grow to what the available CO2 allows them.
If you have loads of light and CO2 but a lack of nutrients, then the plants will only grow to whatever the low nutrient level allows.

...Whereas algae are God's survivors! They adapt and change to meet whatever they can get from your tank. If the light is good, but there is no CO2, no problem, they will break down other nutrients to get it, or they will switch their working to get a different nutrient to allow them to continue growing.

End result is always the same - lots of slow growing, algae covered plants, and the algae thrives.

The only true way to allow plants to outcompete algae is to ensure your plants get EVERYTHING they need.

One great product for helping your plants AND removing algae is Seachem Excel. Its a liquid form of carbon for the plants, but it has a great side effect of removing algae

Bit expensive, but maybe worth it in your case?

This is the latest photo. UV sterilizer has now been removed and placed on another tank.