Keeping Algae at bay doesn’t necessarily mean you have perfect water conditions: Or does it?

[@underdogaquatics940]

DOC, I'm having a wonderful day, and I hope you are as well. The best way to keep algae at bay is to grow plants. PERIOD. I had a tank that kept getting a plugged prefilter (it's a fine sponge) and I kept trying to pay attention to clean it more often. Finally I just adjusted the substrate so there's enough depth where my plants are growing and stopped trimming them (Val) and the algae all disintegrated on it's own and the fish ate it up. I initially also threw in floating plants but those didn't do well so I removed them. But no more light is going to waste. Whole top is covered with jungle val. There's even less flow, and I'm even more negligent about the prefilter. Still... no issues.

[@christopherlamar9285]

My humble opinion would be the kitty litter. I feel like that being a inert substrate help so not too many nutrients, and it also absorbs from my own personal experience. The kitty litter would absorb what I would put in and release it to my plants when they need it Nice natural tank😊

[@nikhilkharkar1753]

Hello from India!

[@CatharinaShields]

I'm not a fan of "green water" but it looks as if the anoxic filtration system is working! Kitty Litter seems to be working well against algae! I've set up an anoxic plenum filtration system in 5 of my 6 fish tanks, with my 55 gallon being just one week up & overstocked. The nitrates are still high in that one, @40ppm. I feed all my fish 3 times a day. In 1 planted 29gal tank (11 Tiger Barbs and 8 Zebra Danios) *the nitrate is 0*! They've been in there for 3 weeks now. In my 10gal WCMM (7 White Clouds) and 20gal Platy (15), it's 20ppm. In my 5gal grow-out with a single juvenile black ranchu, it's 10ppm. All tanks are very well planted. Last water change for all of them was last week Sunday. They'll get a 20% water change each today. Nitrates are slowly going the right way! Thank you for your knowledge, Dr. Novac! It's made the hobby great again!

[@christopherlamar9285]

Very strong cycle 🫡💪🏽

[@arturproc7047]

One mote thing: does anyone have experience with bentonite, diatomite or werkumil? In Poland its used zeolite as basis and sand on top.

[@Terboven-Aquaristik]

Good Video, greetings from Germany 👍

[@anoxicfiltrationplenums]

Thank you very much!

[@kdr1048]

The soil and the plants are out competing the algae. Soil is feeding the plants and they are growing well

[@gertinewoord1887]

Maybe the amount of vallisneria ? Dont they produce something that makes it difficult for algea to grow.its just a guess.greatings from holland and i hope you have the answer.

[@ladyt1866]

He’s got green water ( almost) fish will love it . Idk how he doesn’t have algae all over everything , but I’m jealous 😅.

[@missyflutter5562]

@@ladyt1866 I have this problem in so many tanks but ALL my stock is healthy and happy it’s just more difficult to see them 😅

[@eltondeliz3267]

The dirt can provide the high reading two.

[@mr.sardine]

The PHD!!! degree aquarium specialist is showing us how to do things 😂 He got very high self esteem 😂 got credentials 😂 and let’s not forget about his personable personality 😂 Thanks for the video. KITTY LITTER FOR PRESIDENT!!

[@Sinserg]

Can we see your tank?

[@arturproc7047]

Dear Dr Novak, as in Poland kitty litter is made mostly of bentonite, could you share your experience with using bentonite ? Im looking also for altrrnative to latrrite (also not available here).

[@deneng0259]

Organics from the potting soil and fish food. Also 15 hours light. Does he have a plenum?

He said in the video he's not running a plenum - just a sponge filter and a power head.

[@Heidi.lin...69]

Fish eat algea plants are Growing quickly puts o2 in the water.. I couldn't use tetra I stick with fuvall bug bites

I was thinking that as well. Guppies (especially females) will eat algae, although he said he also feeds them 3 times per day, so I'm not sure how much room they'd have for "salad, " as Corey calls it.

[@icarlsw34]

I wonder how having a low pH less than 6 effects algae growth.

[@aravinias]

From my point of view: He should turn the sponges facing downwards and the water outlet ejecting it horizontally over the surface.

[@justinarobles3060]

For me is the kitty litter

[@thesolaraquarium]

ahhh… could it be alkaline water? From my experience algae prefers soft water (especially the green stringy filamentous algae). You mentioned in a video a while back about ‘biogenic decalcification’ which is interesting to me as I do not use CO2 injection to grow plants. Walstad talks about ‘hard water plants’ accessing bicarbonates in the hard water. My guess is these plants are hardwater plants. Valisneria definitely is. That is maybe its advantage over algae in this tank? I avoid soft water. Prefer moderately hard.

[@gregorynull5630]

I don't know why he has low algae, my only guess is the amount of light he has, grows less invasive types of algae.

[@thesolaraquarium]

yep I agree. Should be an algae explosion. Fish food galore, fish galore, sunlight, soil, 15 hours of light…. total mystery to me

[@wongwong1709]

is it about the snail eating algae?

[@davidspangler-dk8ug]

Could CO2 level be it?

[@nikhilkharkar1753]

May be due to plants the nutrients are less, else nitrates would have been out of the roof and an algae farm

[@nikhilkharkar1753]

May be due to the plants the nitrates are at what they are, else the nitrates would have been out of the room and an algae farm. Amazon and vals being root feeders are getting nutrients from the potting soil and boosting their growth, helping to uptake the nitrates from the water column.

[@smack09]

Maturity of tanks substrate, filtration, plants, live cleaners and quantity of water..

[@anoxicfiltrationplenums]

Yes, those are all key factors in controlling algae.

I'm still relatively new to fish keeping, so my observations should be taken as such. First off, I'm surprised how well the guppies (a hard water fish, as I understand them to be) are handling such a low pH. I also wonder, does low pH inhibit algae growth? I realize that at that pH level, ammonia would no longer be a concern either.

[@mauricetan483]

The guppies are eating the algae