Firstly, thank you so much for watching! I certainly would love to do some stuff with Lucas should I ever make it out his way, or he make it out toward Seattle. I'm hoping long term to visit some of the conventions and that would be an excellent chance!

The blue guppies are beautiful and I like them but I have some red ones that I think are awesome and I'm trying to improve the color even more .Really surprised at how red some of the females are too.

@@twistyrides5859 I could not have said it better. I absolutely love Bentley's approach to fish keeping and how he delivers the information. I believe in my approach of Do what you do if it works for you and it seems to me that he has a similar approach.

Working on a CO2 video, but to shoot it the way I'd like, I have to push it out a bit. Cheers!

CallMe Blew depends on how powerful it's flow is, personally I would put it center of one of the sides about middle of the tank in height to create a river like side to side movement, then put it on a timer and run it in intervals so they aren't always fighting flow. Like on for 2 hours, off for one, repeat a couple times then off when my lights are off. Gives ample rest time and some time to play around in flow. Hope that helps!

thank you for the reply, i'd never heard of or even considered putting it on a timer thats a great idea!

A very good mentality and pretty similar to what I do as well!

There are some chemical filtration options to help handle excess phosphates like the pads made by Acurel or Phosguard from Seachem. Here's a link to various options: amzn.to/3wOYVzn (disclosure: this is a paid link and as an Amazon affiliate I earn a commission from qualifying purchases... please FTC don't fine me - thanks!) Other than using a chemical option, your plants will eventually be able to handle additional phosphate once they get in better shape and battle off the algae, you can supplement this by adding more aggressive growing plants like water sprite, water wisteria or rotalas as their much faster growth rate will absorb more phosphate along with other nutrients and help battle not only the excess, but the algae as well.

Dave Hammond my typical fix the few times I've had it was more water changes. Like 25% every other day or every 3 days. If it's stubborn, try dosing erythromycin as that commonly beats it.

A little follow up as cyanobacteria is less "an algae" and more a bacteria, it can be really tricky (or more accurately pain in the rear) to get rid of, but if all else fails, try using an anti-bacterial and make sure to do a really good cleaning of your filter(s)' mechanical parts (sponges/etc).

Staurogyne Repens

@@BentleyPascoe Thank you Sir. Did you get the email I sent you with the light controller on Wish?

Diatoms typically are easy to remove and look more like mulm. Other algaes tend to be stringy or adhere better, but rarely is brown algae not diatoms

Happy to help! I would start with some pretty easy stuff personally, get your feet wet so to speak then as you get comfortable, branch out if you want some changes. Java Fern and Anubias are some of the best rhizome type plants which both look great and are pretty easy. For stems, I would look at Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus, Water Wisteria and Water Sprite are all great starters. For some color, look at Ludwigia Repens, Cryptocoryne Wendtii in either Bronze or Red, Dwarf Aquarium Lily or Red Tiger Lotus. If you like a grassy look, try Vals in the back, dwarf sag or pygmy chain sword as a foreground/midground plant. As for light, if your budget allows it I can't think of any light other than a Fluval 3.0 that I would want to lose (unless I need to go very very very high tech), but if you want a cheaper option look at a Beamswork DA FSPEC (Amazon or Ebay). Were I setting up a starter, no CO2 29 I would do something like this: Pogostemon Octopus (back right), Java Fern Windelov or Needle leaf on wood (center), Lugwigia Repens (Back Left), Crypt Wendtii Bronze (front right), dwarf aquarium lily (front left). If you have a rock feature, you could remove any of these plants and just glue some anubias nana petite, anubias golden coin (rounded dark green leaves) or anubias nana golden (lime green leaf color for new growth) to it. As for where to buy: I personally have bought several plants in the starter range from Aquarium Co-Op as they actually take the time to convert the plants they get in from immersed grown to submerged leaves - this drastically reduces melt of plants and they carry pretty much everything I've listed here. You can go with other options that are likely cheaper, but if you were to do so, I'd highly suggest reaching out to a local club or looking for local plant nerds first. Hope this helps!

Bentley Pascoe thank you Bentley I will do exactly what you say and I will purchase from aquarium Co-op I would buy the Fluval 3.0 light but it only comes in a 24-inch and then you have to stretch the brackets to reach 30 in so I wouldn't get complete coverage

That light will give good coverage, it has a wider spectrum of light than most other lights, just center it on the tank and you'll be doing great (I use a Fluval 2.0 on the same size tank and it's amazing light, 3.0 just has more control and automated sunset/sunrise + on/off features). Cheers and let me know how you like everything!

Bentley Pascoe what do you think about scarlet temple for my set up?

Steve's Aquatics it's a good red plant, just make sure you dose additional iron to keep the red.

So typically when we see algae in the way you're describing it usually means that there's some major imbalance happening and almost always it is way too much light. So if you have a light that you can dim down, we might want to dim that light down some and see after a couple weeks. The rate at which the algae is growing. If it's slowing down and our plants are still doing okay then we're on the right track.

@@BentleyPascoe I use the fluval 3.0 and I’ve watched your videos. I’ll lower my settings and monitor and see what happens. Thank you! Love your content!

Courtz courtz shoot me an email and I'll do what I can to help out.

Grasypeak I would get a load of Amano shrimp and a couple bristle nose plecos. The amanos destroy hair algae.

Duppy , Sounds like a plan for the end of the summer, when I’m home for more than a a day every two weeks. Too difficult to coordinate right now.

Amano shrimp is a good suggestion. I would assume you've set up some pretty specific dosing (for food) instructions as well as timers on your lights. If not - try that. Minimize the light to 1x 6hr period or 2x 4hr periods (with about 3 hours of off time or more between the on periods). This can really help prevent further growth, then a good removal should fix the issue.

Duppy I thought bristlenose plecos munch on plants? At least that’s what Cory from aquarium co op has said.

@@erick6102 they can, but not all plants. Usually tougher plants like Java fern and Anubias get left alone. If they aren't getting enough food, sword plants are usually what a pleco will eat as they find those in nature.

Typically in something this complicated you'll run a pond pump with UV steralizer to mitigate/prevent algae build up plus regular cleaning. It's tough with sturgeon I imagine.

Very true. I have an UV steralizer, but with this weather in europe the steralizer I have can't beat the algea anymore. And it doesn't work against string algea. Plus, sturgeons are big dum dums, it's very tough. :P