Horde4life91 Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 I've had my 38 gallon bowfront running for years, after my previous "wet pet" passed away I decided to get some new fish and wanted to get into growing plants. I changed substrate from river pebbles to sand, added some mopani wood, and placed a pothos in the tank. The current stock in the tank are 1 blue acara and a bristlenose pleco . I have 5 plants, I started with anubias barteri then added anubias coffeefolia, nangi, gold coin, and nana petite. I have had tons of brown diatoms for months so I did research and seen that they need silicates to live and that a phosphate remover would help removing silicates. I wiped the diatoms off the leaves, did a water change and put PhosBond in the filter. Now that i havent seen much diatoms I have noticed green spot algae on almost every plant. I researched GSA and seen that low phosphates and high lighting is what it thrives in, so I removed the PhosBond. I have a 24" Fluval Aquasky led light that i have had running at white 100%, red 70%, green 70%, and blue 10% for 10 hours a day. Ive been lowering the light intensity slowy, and started dosing easy green, I have used easy green but not every week. Ive seen nerite snails will eat the algae but i have soft water. I dont want the algae to smother out my plants and If anyone has any recommendations on how to get rid of this algae I would appreciate it very much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted February 5, 2022 Share Posted February 5, 2022 I think light is your culprit here. 10 hours at that intensity is quite a bit in a tank with nothing shading the Anubias. I run 7-8 hours in my tanks and still get GSA on my anubias. Other folks have recommended more shade and increasing the flow across the plants. I think it’s slowly working. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horde4life91 Posted February 5, 2022 Author Share Posted February 5, 2022 (edited) I have purchased a powerhead to help with flow, but what would be a good way to shade the anubias? I am gradually lowering light intensity and shortening the time the light is on. I could look into floating plants. Edited February 5, 2022 by Horde4life91 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveO Posted February 6, 2022 Share Posted February 6, 2022 You could try crypt wendtii green or red, both of which will grow tall and shade your anubius. Also dwarf sag can grow to the top and give some shade. I had a couple anubius get gsa so I moved them to the back out of direct light which cleared it up. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horde4life91 Posted February 6, 2022 Author Share Posted February 6, 2022 Ok, Ty. I have been wanting to try crypts anways since the only plants I've kept so far are anubias. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horde4life91 Posted February 6, 2022 Author Share Posted February 6, 2022 I should have probly included how tall the aquarium is, Its just under 2 feet tall. The biggest anubias is about 6 inches tall and the leaves spread out about 9 inches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick_G Posted February 6, 2022 Share Posted February 6, 2022 On 2/5/2022 at 1:56 PM, Horde4life91 said: I have purchased a powerhead to help with flow, but what would be a good way to shade the anubias? I am gradually lowering light intensity and shortening the time the light is on. I could look into floating plants. I’d go directly to 50% intensity with no blue light and 8 hours. Some Amazon swords would look good and provide shade. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horde4life91 Posted February 6, 2022 Author Share Posted February 6, 2022 Ok, keep red and green at 50 also? And I was looking at some swords. Thanks for your input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveO Posted February 6, 2022 Share Posted February 6, 2022 Maybe this will help you with your light. Mind you, my Aquasky is on a 16 inch only tall tank and yours is much taller. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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