Another Schooling Fish??

[MCF]

I have successfully established my Discus tank (5 discus between 2" and 3" diameter), ~15 white clouds and ~15 cardinal tetras. This is a 55 gallon tank (48" long). The tank has been up and running cycled now for about 6 weeks. Do weekly 15-20% water changes and everyone is eating, healthy and happy. The tank still seems a little 'bare'...is there another nice looking schooling fish that I could add to liven things up a little?

[sammigold]

Discus! :-)

[ILLUSN]

Rummy nose always look good, great indicater of water quality as well.

[sammigold]

Oh Im being silly..... maybe some rummy nose tetras they alway look nice, black widow tetras, serpae tetras, blue line columbian tetras (they grow bigger than the rummys though...

or how about adding to your cardinals as they always look fantastic in a very large school....

[MCF]

Cardinals do look cool...now another issue. I have 10 'dwarf cats' and they seem to be doing an ok job with some green algae I am starting to get, but the workers seem to be falling behind. Should I get some more cats? Also, on one white rock, I am getting some black algae...what should I do about that?

[ILLUSN]

black algae can be killed by squirting some florish excell directly onto it, as for your cats falling behing they'll get ALOT worse as they get older, maybe look into a CO2 system to help your plants out compeat algae, you could also try double dosing excell (the maintence dose NOT the inital dose) or add some REALLY FAST growers like wysteria or blue stricta to soak up excess nutrients so the slgae doesn;t get a foothold.

[Robdog]

I'd go with extra Cards. Stick another 30 in there and it would look great.

Probably best to address why you are getting these algae blooms rather than getting extra livestock to keep it in check.

[MCF]

black algae can be killed by squirting some florish excell directly onto it, as for your cats falling behing they'll get ALOT worse as they get older, maybe look into a CO2 system to help your plants out compeat algae, you could also try double dosing excell (the maintence dose NOT the inital dose) or add some REALLY FAST growers like wysteria or blue stricta to soak up excess nutrients so the slgae doesn;t get a foothold.

So any solutions that involve plants won't work....other ideas?

[ILLUSN]

how about a pouch of biochemzorb or nitrasorb in the filter.

that will take care of the excess nutrients, how long is your light on for? maybe try reducing it to maybe 6-8hrs aday.

[MCF]

how about a pouch of biochemzorb or nitrasorb in the filter.

that will take care of the excess nutrients, how long is your light on for? maybe try reducing it to maybe 6-8hrs aday.

I only leave the lights on for about 5 hours a day now.....