Well, my new Betta (Beau) is doing really well so I just thought I'd show you a photo of his new home. A bachelor pad with just two amano shrimp for company.

That looks really nice Mary. I am really glad for you that all those problems seem to be passed now. What do you think was happening there - is the BiOrb still in use?

Thanks Diana. It is - I now have six male blue neon guppies in there that look spectacular when the light is on at night. They play "follow the leader" around the bowl. They're thriving thankfully so I have NO idea why the Bettas didn't survive...

That said, I did take out the glued rock arch and replace it with a new one so maybe that was the problem...

All your tanks look sooo clean Mary I dont know how you do it with so many tanks! Nice pad for the betta he looks happy.

Thanks Kelly. The planted tanks have Otos so they do a great job in keeping the tank clean. In the non-planted tanks like the one above, I just give the glass a quick wipe with a sponge or toothbrush at each water change and that's enough to keep it clear.

I just cant get rid of the hair algae so thinking of going plastic fantastic!

have you used Hair Algae remover kelly?? I used it and it kills it off, get sucked in by your filter and the rest will just come off if you pull it

I was plagued with hair algae in the 90L tank. I overdosed with Seachem Flourish Excel, did a three blackout in the tank - no lights, no feeding and that got rid of the hair algae. Now, I dose the tank twice a week with the Flourish Excel and it's never returned.

Got the flourish but just been using it as it says and its done nothing. Tested today and got way too much phosphate in the tank so will have to get a remover. I thought this algae was not effected by light Mary did the 3 day blackout help as this is an easy thing I could do?

Well it worked for me in conjunction with the overdosing of Excel. At each water change when the water level was low, I also sprayed the algae with a mixture of water and Excel. I can't remember the exact ratio but I think it's one part Excel to three parts water. I just used a plant spray water bottle and it was quite effective.

I will give it a go then thanks. I am also looking to upgrade the lights so the plants can grow better to win the algae battle. Failing all this it will be plastic plants lol

Well IME once you sort out the algae problems in planted tanks with the Flourish Excel and also algae-eating fish such as BN plecs and Otos, you won't have any problems. Whereas in the non-planted tanks, I'm forever cleaning off brown algae 'coz there's no plants to compete for the nutrients...

I have heard that the coldwater tanks have more of a problem with algae - unfortunately non of the algae eaters are compatable, although I know that some do put hillstream loaches in coldwater tanks.

Monitoring the amount of light and not feeding too much is the only way I know of keeping it at bay.