chinese algae eaters, please help

[black_ops]

I've kept otos before, and recently I bough a cae for my five gallon platy tank that's been overrun with algae. are they nocturnal? and i'm worried that it might get bigger from all the algae its been eating, so how large do they get overall. my platy tank is home to a trio of platies, kuhli loach, and one old corydora who has been in there since the begginning of time. the tank is well planted with camboba and cryptocoryne, has a white sandy bottom, and is filtered by a super-old fluval 1 canst. filter. does this tank sound ok for a chinese algae eater? i was told it will grow to be as big as an oto, but ive never seen an oto hit two and a half inches, so i'm getting suspicious.

 

[pategirl]

I think the algae eaters are fairly slow growing...I've had a gold marble algae eater in my 10g for almost a year and it doesn't seem to have grown much. He's pretty active all the time, especially when the other fish are fed(eats the stuff they drop). I think he's a relative of the chinese variety.

 

[Deliverme314]

I would say that a 5g is to small for a CAE... It would help if you knew the exact species as CAE's as a common name go can vary to several diff species. That said it is not the answer to an algae problem. They are good for tanks for standard algae. Can you tell me more about your tank set up(I keep planted tanks myself) what is your light cycle(hours per day) how many watts per gallon of lighting do you have? What kind of dosing do you do? What are your water paramaters specificly; Ammonina, Nitrite, Nitrate and Phosphate(nitrate and phosphate being the biggest of concerns as I assume the other two are at zero.).

Any other info you can think of may help too.

 

[black_ops]

It is about two and a half inches long now, and has a line of checkers going down its body. it isnt a flying fox or oto.

my tank has no test kits, but the water is exremely clean and by the growth of algae, im assuming has everything on the high scale. the filter is a fluval one that takes carbon sleeves. the tank has a standard pair of 25 watt incand. bulbs, and the average temp. is about 79 degrees far. the tank is unheated.

as for plants, i only have what i mentioned in my post, and the algae.

cheers

 

[Deliverme314]

Originally posted by lizardman
It is about two and a half inches long now, and has a line of checkers going down its body. it isnt a flying fox or oto.

my tank has no test kits, but the water is exremely clean and by the growth of algae, im assuming has everything on the high scale. the filter is a fluval one that takes carbon sleeves. the tank has a standard pair of 25 watt incand. bulbs, and the average temp. is about 79 degrees far. the tank is unheated.

as for plants, i only have what i mentioned in my post, and the algae.

cheers

Whoa... 50 watts on five gallons? Well there is your problem. Considering that 3-4 WPG is considered High... 4 VERY high. Granted its incondescent(sp?) but that is a ton. What about your light cycle? Meant to ask... but what kind of algae is it? Regardless... a sure way to get rid of it but keep everything else you have is to do a black out for three days. Kill all light and cover the tank with towels so none is getting in(make sure you have an air stone going since you are now killing photosynthesis or else you may kill or severley stress your fishies. Trust me... I learned this the hard way two months ago when I did a black out and lost a school of Phantom tetras, neon tetras and a few blue rams.) Dont feed dont dose or anything else. After three days do a major water change I would say at least forty percent to get rid of all the now dead algae(which will quickly grow stringer than ever if you dont) from the water column and you should be "a ok".

 

[black_ops]

thanks. the light is on for 12 hours a day, and the algae is just common green grow-on-your-glass and crypts algae.

today my power went out and the filter started spewing out ammonia and crap, the platies' gills turned all red, is there any way to cure this, besides water changes?

and as for the blackout, last time I left the tank in the dark for just one day, my crypts all melted and it took months to get some new leaves coming in, the whole tank was a mess.

 

[Deliverme314]

Originally posted by lizardman
thanks. the light is on for 12 hours a day, and the algae is just common green grow-on-your-glass and crypts algae.

today my power went out and the filter started spewing out ammonia and crap, the platies' gills turned all red, is there any way to cure this, besides water changes?

and as for the blackout, last time I left the tank in the dark for just one day, my crypts all melted and it took months to get some new leaves coming in, the whole tank was a mess.

PLants dont melt from a day without light. Plant leaves wont melt from that at all. Plant melting generaly occurs when chlorine is introduced. Melting from light starvation... well that wouldnt happen... decompesition would occur but not until much later. Unless they were light starved in the first place.

 

[black_ops]

PLants dont melt from a day without light. Plant leaves wont melt from that at all. Plant melting generaly occurs when chlorine is introduced. Melting from light starvation... well that wouldnt happen... decompesition would occur but not until much later. Unless they were light starved in the first place.

nope, cryptocorynes are notoriously bad for being sensitive.
the light was out and the filter stopped running.

it might have survived the filter being out, but after one day and two nights of darkness, almost every leaf was transparent and melted.

these plants are natures mr. sensitive.

 

[Deliverme314]

I disagree crypts are some of the hardiest plants in nature. Up there with swords, ferns and almost as strong as anubias. They tolerate a range of light levels, carbon and acidity as well. Maybe your conditions are not ideal for plants... I know that incondescent lighting isnt and depending on what your dosing with and how often may be a factor. But I have been keeping crypts for years and through the three blackouts I had to do in the past 7 months(new 90 gallon planted tank since July) due to my major algae wars I havent lost a single crypt or shown any wear.

Here are my paramaters if it helps at all.

Substrate; bottom half is flourite topped with an inch and a half of white sand
260 watts lighting with a super reflective lining.
Injected pressurized Co2 with an electronic PH controller.
PH-constant 6.7 due to the controller
dKH 3-4
dGH 6-7
nitrate 20ppm
nitrite 0.0ppm (or indetectable)
ammonia 0.0ppm (or indetectable)
temp 75-79
phosphates 0-.25 ppm
Dose twice a week with Tropica master grow/seachem flourish, seachem iron

Flora; Riccia fluitans, Amazon swords, various crypts, various valls, nymphea tiger lotus, sunset hygrophilia, various alternthera, moneywort, various anubias, ludwiga repens, marsilea quadrophilia.
Sorry if I botched any plant spellings but most of their scientific names confound me.

Fauna: 1 Snake Fish(14"), 2 African Butterfly's (4" each), 6 German Blue Rams (1.5-3" each), 15 neon tetras(1" each), 6 corys(3 species 1.5-2.5" each) 1 elephant nose (5") and two discus on the way(should have in two weeks) at 6" each.

 

[black_ops]

when i meant sensitive i guess i should have said "sensitive to change", which is also what most sources point out. my mistake.


my tank is great for growing plants, since its a small tank, 5 gallon, the crypts grew roots filling the entire layer of sand on the bottom. which i might add is only a half inch thin and is constantly being tilled by the kuhlis which i think are still alive.

 

[Deliverme314]

I hadnt heard that about crypts. Sorry you had bad luck with yours. I hope you get your filtration issue worked out. I think I read in a diff thread that there were issues. A small tank like a 5 gallon is always gonna be tough... there is just so little room for error. People always ask me when they see my tank if it takes alot of effort and are always shocked when I tell them how much less effort it is than a smaller tank. There have been two times that for a month straight I was unable to devote much time... there were no water changes, or filtration cleanings etc... it stayed completley stable. The only thing that really sucked is all my plants had gotten totaly overgrown and some of the undergrowth had gotten chocked out and light starved so I lost some plants... but aside from that my eco system was totaly intact.... I will try and get a few pics up of the tank... I dont have any good pics but you should be able to get the idea.

 

[Deliverme314]

here is a bad pic