Few tank questions

[theJATM]

So I set up a 50 gallon a two or three months ago, and I dont like it. The plants are covered with algae, some plants are dying, I am having an algae bloom I have to clean. Not happy with it. However, I should point out, the water is perfect. It is cool, and everythings in order, health wise.

However, a few things.

1. Has anyone ever used a dirted tank with axies? I know people have dirted tanks, but axies cant have deep sand or else something gas related happens. Does 2 inches of dirt + 1 inch of sand work the same way?

2. Does anyone have any suggestions to create a plant lawn? You know, small plants that cover the bottom? Inch or two high that grow throughout the tank? I figure this would make the water even higher quality, tank look better, and choke out the algae.

any suggestions?

thanks!

 

[lea]

What about java moss??? I have heard of people using it for the back of the tank. Just a thought. Sorry I cant help you with the dirt question

 

[carsona246]

I've never personally used dirt in a tank, but I know there are a ton of planted tank people who have tried it. Might want to hop on over to a planted forum and ask what kind of dirt they use. I personally wouldn't attempt it out of fear of getting the dirt everywhere when an axie uprooted a plant.
I've attempted hairgrass, but it was a failure. Problem is most lawn type plants need high light, which is difficult in an axolotl tank.

 

[theJATM]

What about java moss??? I have heard of people using it for the back of the tank. Just a thought. Sorry I cant help you with the dirt question

I have a ball of java moss in the tank, but it just wont take. My axies tend to not uproot any plants, they seem to like them, sitting in them, and hiding in them. They do uproot some small one occasionally.

I have a dirted, planted 10 gallon for shrimp, but that's only been up and running 2 weeks. The java moss in that is taking off though.

I should point out, I keep the planted end of my tank with a light on it. The other end has no light on it and is dark. When they want to get away from the light, its a 2 foot swim to the dark end.

Another problem that I feared telling you guys about is waste. I remove waste, but dead plants and some waste breaks apart. So I have a few areas where waste "builds" but is impossible to get out. By builds, I mean, there's just some in areas around plants and rocks. It's not alot, and like i said though, the water perimeters are perfect so I don't think its anything more then unsightly. That's another reason for the lawn. To ensure that waste is used AND unseen.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[carsona246]

lol, I have the exact same problem. I use eggcrate for my plant filter, and there is a ton of mulm behind the eggcrate I can't really get to. Not going to worry about it until the water parameters indicate it's a problem.

 

[theJATM]

lol, I have the exact same problem. I use eggcrate for my plant filter, and there is a ton of mulm behind the eggcrate I can't really get to. Not going to worry about it until the water parameters indicate it's a problem.

Someone told me do a big water change, as the nitrates were likely too high. Hopefully that helps with the algae. Still would like to know about lawn plants and a dirted tank.

Also, when you cut off excess hornwort, does it die? Or does it grow like a worm and multiply?

Sorry, lotta questions, and i want my tank to be the best it can be.

 

[Ed]

There are a number of reasons you can have problems with algae. One of the main ones is that there is too little light to really allow the plants to grow well enough to outcompete the algae and low light plants do not tend to grow fast enough to deal with algaes when there are a lot of nutrients available.

I doubt that in this case have a dirt subfloor is going to help as all that will really do it put more nutrients into the water.

If the sand is deep enough then you will get anaerobic decomonsition of waste materials which can release hydrogen sulphide, which is toxic to aquatic animals. If you stir your sand and some of the sand is black or dark brown that is a sign you are getting anaerobic decomposition.

More frequent/larger water changes may help with the algae control but that depends on the type of algae you have and whether or not there are nutrients in the water used to make the change that they can use... "Algaes" that form slimy sheets and can be colored from light green to bluish to black or even red tend to be from cyanobacteria, yellowish to brownish films/hazes are usually diatoms.... So if the incoming water has iron, or silicates it can help feed those two types of "algaes".

As for options, there are several, the first is to increase the light so that you can get plants to grow well enough to compete with the algaes. The second is to make sure that you don't have a lot of waste building up in the corners and upper layers of the sand (make sure your not overfeeding). The third is to look ouside the box for ways to deal with it. One possible solution is to use plants that can be grown with the roots in the water and the rest up in the air where they can be provided with more light while shading the tank. For example, peace lilies(Spathiphyllum ssp) grow very well with thier roots submerged in water and can do a decent job of removing waste materials from the water. If you can set up something that keeps most of the plant out of the water you can get several of these inexpensively and use them to remove nutrients.

Some thoughts,

Ed

 

[theJATM]

Thank you, Ed!

The dirted tank idea is not to compete with algae, just to help get the plants to grow. I typically have the light on half the day, so the plants get light. The axies do have dark escapes, as only the planted half is lighted. The algae is redish on the plants. I did a 20% change last night, as a recommendation from a fellow aquarium keeper.

Ultimately, my goal is to get a lawn of short plants to cover some of the bottom of the tank, as well as those floating anabuis plants (spelling?) and a colony of cherry shrimp to do some maintenance work, and small snails. I've also read that small tadpoles eat algae and are a great source of food for axies, so this spring, I might have to catch a few. I did buy two bullfrog tadpoles to throw in there, but they were too large to eat, and they are dirty. So I removed them within an hour.

And I do stir up the sand from time to time. I haven't had any dark sand pop up, so I am ok in that regard, I believe.

 

[jcj57]

The hair grass I bought was grown in that oasis type stuff they use in flower arranging. Maybe you could use something like that, tie the plants to it, they then have something to root into, but you would need to weight it down with something.

 

[carsona246]

to answer your hornwort question, it will keep growing. almost nothing kills hornwort.

 

[shells]

I became interested in this post as I too am encountering algae problems. I started to develop small patches of brownish algae on the glass which was easily cleaned and and am still getting this brown algae on my ornaments and fake plants and in the corners and along the bottom of my tank where the sand meets the glass. What I am most concerned about is what I can only describe as black muck appearing on my sand (its not appearing in the sand just on topand am worried is is the algae Ed mentioned:

"If the sand is deep enough then you will get anaerobic decomonsition of waste materials which can release hydrogen sulphide, which is toxic to aquatic animals. If you stir your sand and some of the sand is black or dark brown that is a sign you are getting anaerobic decomposition" (sorry I dont know how to block quoted text)

My sand is no more than 1/2 cm deep, my tank parameters are fine and the tank is about 10 months old. Its a 3ft tank holding approx 200 litres of water and I only have one Axie in it, his poop is cleaned up pretty much straight away and any unwanted food (this hardly ever happens!!) removed also. I have one java moss ball growing quite happily and the tank gets morning sun then filtered daylight the rest of the day.

For those who understand algae can you please give your opinion on what this black stuff appearing could be an how I can safely get rid of it?

Thanks for reading/

 

[theJATM]

I became interested in this post as I too am encountering algae problems. I started to develop small patches of brownish algae on the glass which was easily cleaned and and am still getting this brown algae on my ornaments and fake plants and in the corners and along the bottom of my tank where the sand meets the glass. What I am most concerned about is what I can only describe as black muck appearing on my sand (its not appearing in the sand just on topand am worried is is the algae Ed mentioned:

"If the sand is deep enough then you will get anaerobic decomonsition of waste materials which can release hydrogen sulphide, which is toxic to aquatic animals. If you stir your sand and some of the sand is black or dark brown that is a sign you are getting anaerobic decomposition" (sorry I dont know how to block quoted text)

My sand is no more than 1/2 cm deep, my tank parameters are fine and the tank is about 10 months old. Its a 3ft tank holding approx 200 litres of water and I only have one Axie in it, his poop is cleaned up pretty much straight away and any unwanted food (this hardly ever happens!!) removed also. I have one java moss ball growing quite happily and the tank gets morning sun then filtered daylight the rest of the day.

For those who understand algae can you please give your opinion on what this black stuff appearing could be an how I can safely get rid of it?

Thanks for reading/

i have the blackish stuff too. muck basically. my water perimeters are fine, and i read that this stuff is actually the sign of a very healthy tank.

 

[theJATM]

can some one tell me what kind of algae this is and the best way to get rid of it?

thank you!