23 April 2016

algae is slowing encroaching

in my bigger aquarium. I had to rub brown algae off many leaves again. Removed a few more crypt wendtii leaves and pulled out quite a few vallisneria that had black tufts appearing.
Lifted out the buce godzilla to remove another leaf with BBA appearing, and while I was at it, rubbed the surfaces all firmly with paper towel bits. I was surprised how much brown came off, and how much nicer this plant's color is now. That tells me I'm still getting more algae than I had realized. Maybe it is still too much light? I've put another plastic strip back over the LEDs.
Have found that looking at the plant leaves from below, or at an angle where they're backlit, allows me to spot the BBA easier.
Here's the buce 'midnight blue'. You can see its newest leaf on the lower left.
To my alarm I also found a tiny tuft of BBA growing on a pebble of the substrate (I plucked it out and threw it away) and also on the root hairs of some windelov fern. So lifted that one out and tried to clean it off. Gahhh.

Pulled out a bunch more thread algae this week, too. I can't quite see it in the lower areas of the rotala indica, but I can feel it- so I run my fingers gently pinching between the stems and even though I can't feel the algae threads between my fingers, I can feel and see the resistance when I pull and disentangle it from the rotalas. It's an odd sensation, fishing blind for it like that.
The good news in this tank is that subwassertang I tied over an upturned pot is starting to grow out. I like that. But the other subwassertang bunches have fine hairs of algae on some of their margins- I hope its not more BBA but it probably is...

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