Plants to stabilize 2 Gallon tank and prevent Algae growth?

[Hamzerii]

Hello,
I made this 20 x 20 cm tank at the start of the year, but algae took over really bad, it was growing really fast, covering every surface so I gave up and took out all the plants as they were covered with some sort of hair algae.

• The lights were on for around 6 hours and on the lowest setting. (It's in a high setting for the picture)
• I didn't do many water changes as there is no livestock yet.

I'm going to try again and replant the tank.

What are some things I should do differently?
- I think I should plant heavily from the start, would this help?


At the beginning ^

(Algae got much worse after this ^)

Also, I had no way of removing the algae from the pearlweed as everytime I'd try to pull out a piece of algae using tweezers, it would pull out the plant with it.

 

[Scaperinc]

That looks to me like diatoms and water changes is the only thing that can fix it , you can try a fork to clean plants.

But diatoms don't last this long or never have in my case 2 months at most.

Also perlweed as far as I know is a demanding plant which require co2 and high light for optimal growth (I might be wrong)

 

[G H Nelson]

Apply the below tutorial or get some floating plants!

Thread 'Using stem plants as a filtering aid at Start Up!'

19 Nov 2020

The subject of using fast-growing stem plants as part of a filtering aid has cropped up a few times recently.
This idea has been around for a long time so not new, it has benefits, especially for a new setup.

1. Improves water quality.
2. Reduces excess light.
3. Reduces diatoms.
4. Reduces Nitrite.
5. Reduces Nitrate.
6. Helps reduce algae outbreaks.
7. Indicator of a Nitrate shortage.
8. Oxygenates the water column.
9. Increases beneficial bacteria.
10. Plant cover.

Using fast-growing stem plants as a floating plant filtering aid has always worked well for me!
Although every aquarium...

• G H Nelson
• Replies: 0
• Forum: Articles / Tutorials

• 

 

[PARAGUAY]

I would plant lots of stems and do daily water changes for two weeks

 

[Hamzerii]

I would plant lots of stems and do daily water changes for two weeks

Thank you, yeah I think that's where I went wrong: low amount of plants + aqua soil + rare water changes

 

[richardcunliffe]

Nice layout though, the stones with the crevice looks cool. Various house plants are also good for soaking up extra nutrients, though the scale might not match your scheme, I enjoy the look of it.

 

[ValleyMykel]

I've done quite a few nano's. They are much easier than you think, but it doesn't follow the same rules as larger aquariums.

One thing I always never recommend is to use any soil that is rich too with nutrients, like pond muck, bare dirt/potting soils, or active aquasoils without a sufficient barrier like a sand cap. In my opinion, there can't be any realistic way for algae to get this extreme if that aquasoil wasn't releasing lots of nutrients. Unless your water source was very prone to algae issues, or every plant went through an extreme melt phase before fully adapting, you would have still only gotten a very minor algae bloom, which would quickly go away with a bit of waiting.

Smaller aquariums work better without heavy amounts of nutrients dissolved in its water, at least in the beginning. And loads of plants covering every surface of that aquarium isn't as necessary as you may believe. In fact, its actually worse if you don't specify if those plants are able to quickly adapt, or have already adapted, to being submerged. By using trimmings from established aquariums, rather than gel cultures, you are less prone to melt and issues with organics in the water.

I actually have a nano bowl here at work that is just simply sand+pearlweed trimming, dead tree leaves, and a few mineral buffers that I quickly put together in under 10 minutes with snails and shrimp and it has never experienced problems with algae like my soil based ones.