Heater & plants

[Agent]

Greetings all,
I have a 200lt tank & running a 250 watt heater flat out (NSW), temp fluctuates between 28.5 to 30 dgrees, have looke at other tanks & they are similar, is this ok?
Also on plants, I have Ambulia but the leaves keeps on getting a brown algae on them, it still lives & grows but does not look so good, any ideas.
Regards,
Rob...

[mcloughlin2]

You may need too add another heater if the one you have is on constantly...

The algae is a pain in the a** but can be prevented by not having alot of natural sunlight on the tank and not having the lights on for more then 10hrs a day...

HTH

[Agent]

Thanks HTH, the heater is cycling I was concerned that the variation between low & high was too much, will make sure the lights are not on for more than 10 hours, there is no direct sunlight on the tank,
Regards,
Rob..

[Nathan]

what do u mean the heater is cycling?

[Agent]

Hi Nathan, I mean running on thermostat, cutting in & cutting out, make sense?
Rob..

[Phlipper]

Your heater should be turning on and off as you indicate, but the tank temp shoud not fluctuate at all, that's why it has a built in thermostat, maybe the heater is faulty, it's certainly big enough to cope with 200 litres.

As far as your Ambulia goes, browning from algae can be from a number of reasons, but it may also depend on the type of lighting you have, brown algae thrives in low light, whereas your Ambulia likes strong light, so the Ambulia is quickly outgrown by the faster growing algae. It may also depend on just how many plants you have in your tank, the more plants the less algae developes, a thickly, well lit tank will have much less problems with algae.

The idea is to have your plants growing fast and lots of them, but to achieve this requires a habitat suitable for lush plant growth with good regular fertiliser, good substrate, good lighting and Co2 is a great bonus..
......but all that is involved discussion, often to achieve great plants is more difficult than keeping fish themselves 8-)

[rsoares]

I second that :)
As for the algae, you could try to buff up your cleaning crew, with some SAE's and apple snails, to name a few. It won't fix the problem if the lighting is low or if you have few plants, but it helps...

[Phlipper]

Good additional post rsoares, there is no one method for controlling algae, it comes from a series of things, what I mentioned before as well as SAE's, Apple or Mystery Snails, Bristlenose Catfish to name a few. All these things work together to develope a micro eco system to help maintain a good tank 8-)

[Agent]

Thanks Philipper & Rsoares for the advise, I have never met such a friendly, helpful bunch of people as the ones on this forum. My neighbour has discus too and has had had 3 different brands of heaters, all having a similar temperature between cut in & cut out, any brands you have used that lessens the variance that can be recomended?
On the browm algae, I have 3 bristlenose & couple of snails, we'll see how I go in a few moths once the new tanks has settled in & plants are growing.
Regards
Rob..

[Merrilyn]

This is definately the friendliest forum on the net.

Good luck with you tank. :P

[Phlipper]

:) I LIKE IT 8-)

[Agent]

I think I have found the problem, what put me on to it is I have an air stone under a large root which is the central feature of the tank, at various times of day, the bubbles range from a dribble to quite fast, I can remember back a while when an electrician told the neighbours, we are at the end of a power grid and have large fluctuations (appliances were eratic, the kettle sometimes boiled fast & sometimes slow). I reckon this is why 3 different heaters are all doing the same thing & not remaining constant, it would fall on deaf ears if I complained to the powers that be, the fish will just have to get used to it!
Rob...

[Phlipper]

Ah ha ! that may explain it for sure..........it shouldn't really be a problem unless the temp drops very quickly, which I doubt it will. Temp changes are usually only a problem if the change is instant like if you put a bagged fish directly into a colder tank without acclimatising first, good luck 8-)