hi all, had the oscars in my tank around 2 weeks now and they are very happy, however, over the last couple of days I have noticed a copper/bronze like sheen starting to cover the artificial backdrop I have (fluval compressed foam board type i believe - artificial limestone)

I actually think it looks cool, but wanted to make sure it wasnt anything sinister.. water tests show all is ok, i DO have some driftwood and bogwood in the tank, altho this has been treated properly apparently.. I also have a bit of rock also treated..

I did a small (about 15%) water change last night, and cleaned a small amount of thin algae off the fron of the tank..

I feed the fish (about 5") 3 times a day, maybe 8 pellets in the morning, a sprinle of dried krill at tea time, and 1 small cube of bloodword late on, is this too much?

can get pics later if it'd help.. the fish seem happy so i'm hoping its nothing to worry about..

all the best

Tony

p.s. it may help to know i put my lights on about 8am and turn them off around midnight, is this too much???

Can you post a pic hun?

I cant at the minute as I'm at work, but the best way i can describe it is its like the backdrop has been sprayed with copper paint lol lol

may sound odd, but it sorta looks good...

i will get pics tonight (in about 4 hours) and post them up on this thread..

all the best

Tony

Its difficult to say without a pic. I would say brown algae as a possibility but that usually occurs from too little light. Can you post your actual test results please. Did you cycle your tank?

As for your lights, you only need them for you to see your fish, they can see perfectly well without tank lights. Too much light and you will get a lot of green algae. Try having your lights on in the evenings for 6 hours or so. If you have live plants you will need them on longer

ok, heres some pics, seems like theres brown and green algae, I will leave the lights off til around 6pm and see how it goes.. i suppose my lack of an algae eater doesnt help..











and as a comparison, as my tank was 2 weeks ago..



also, i think the tank is cycled, i used water and media from a cycled tank, plus the additives as recommended..

test figures are ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates around 40, ph has dropped from around 8.0 and is now around 7.2

hope this helps, and thanks

Tony

That does look like brown algae to me, but that feaken looks awesome!!!

it dose look really cool!!!! i think it should be fine

Its does look like brown algae. You can always scrub it off. See how things are after a couple weeks with less light

You test results are good but you need to do a water change soon as you dont want your nitrates to go any higher than 40

Nickisue wrote:


+1!!!

yea the stuff isnt hurting your tank, if anything its eating the fish waste. looks good too!

cheers for the advice guys, much appreciated..

I dont think I'll scrub it off as its on the wood as well, so I'll try less light for a while and see what happens...

also, I'll do another water change, as I said already I did a small one, but had a bit of a filter issue, as in am i supposed to turn the filters OFF while doing the change??

I have a juwel 300 tank with a built in filter, and also a fluval 405 (which should be fine as the inlet is way down in the tank...

its the built in filter I'm unsure about wether to turn off or not??

what sorta percentages would people recommend me to change? I'm sorta leaning towards a max of 20%, but am open to suggestions...

all the best

Tony

do a 50% tony that is what the experts on here say to most people

that is just simple brown algue i get it all the time with my live planted tank cause of the light i use but its fine just get a healthy pleco and things should be fine i have a bunch of lil ones that eat all over the stuff like crazy and leave my plants alone i would not worry its ok.