I need help with my plants!!!!!

[bettabreeder]

Ok so i have some plants and i believe that they are amazon swords. they are a great plant the only problem i have is that when ever i put them in my main tank they become over run with hair/ green algea! I don't know or have anything to prevent this. any help from the experts would be amazing. thx

Brendan

[charlie]

Ok so i have some plants and i believe that they are amazon swords. they are a great plant the only problem i have is that when ever i put them in my main tank they become over run with hair/ green algea! I don't know or have anything to prevent this. any help from the experts would be amazing. thx

Brendan

From that statement, it appears when you remove them they are fine?
Are you adding anything to the main tank ? eg fertilizers, if so what & how much
What is the lighting on the tank ? is it the 18 gln tank in your signature?
How much fish in the tank & how much & often are you feeding?
How long has the tank been operational ?
Have a read about algae & causes in this link
http://www.rexgrigg.com/Algae1.html
Regards

[bettabreeder]

Ok no i am not adding anything to the tank.
i think that it is a 15watt bulb/ tube thingy
yes it is the 18g with my apistos there are 3 but i havent had plants in with them yet. i had plants with my siamese fighting fish and they got really bad. i feed my fish 2 times a day with as much food as they can eat in two mins no more.
the tank is under a year old so it hasnt been cycled as much.

[charlie]

At this point , i would be only guessing as to what is causing the hair algae. Hair algae is usually caused by excess nutrients & since you are not adding anything to the tank, it would be apparent that the nutrients is coming from food , even if the fish is eating it in 2 mins  twice a day , they have to excrete after they eat. Another issue is how often do you do water changes to dilute the nasties in the water column, also form your statement, it would appear you don`t have enough light for proper growth of the swords, i would suggest reading the info on this site & it will put you in a better position to figure where your problems lie.
Regards
http://www.rexgrigg.com/
http://www.aquariaplants.com/
Regards

[bettabreeder]

well it looks like i dont have enough lightning i will try and get some better lighting and hopefully create an amazon bitope.