plant munching planaria

Question
Hello Karen,

I have a few questions about some maintainence problems I've been having...
I have a 29 gallon setup with 5 black skirt tetras, 1 blood fin, 7 glass blood
fins, 3 green corys, an upside down cat, and a pleco. It's planted in live plants
including aponogetons, java fern, and hogwort. All the fish seem healthy and
energetic...the plants are doing okay. I'd really like to get the plants looking
healthier and more vibrant. I do have a CO2 reactor going; is there anything
else that would help the plants grow? There's also a bit of brown algae on
some of the leaves. Is there any way to get rid of that?

I've had some trouble keeping the water clear and a planaria explosion so I've
been doing a 20-25% water change every week and cut back on feeding. The
planaria seem to be coming out on the glass more, which I've read means
they're having to look harder for food. When they run out of food will they
start eating my plants? I've seen them on the plants and there's an noticable
amount of damage already. Or could it be some of the fish having a snack?

Thanks so much for reading my questions... any help will be very much
appreciated.

Sincerely,

Dondi  

Answer
Hi Dondi, your main concern with plants is the amount of light they require. Aponogetons do best with a medium/high lighting level. Java fern can grow in just about any lighting level and is a slow grower anyway. Hogwort (or do you mean 'Hornwort') this plant grows quite fast under almost any type of light, however the brighter the better however.

Some algae is ok, even in a planted tank. But if it starts to take over this must mean there is some imbalance. Such as a sudden increase in nutrients and pollution. The best thing to do is to either increase you water changes and scrape as much of the algae as possible or increase your plants. Add very fast growing species to outcompete the algae for food.

Planaria show up where there is an excess of food and waste decaying in the gravel beds. This rotting waste is their food source. Do water changes everyday for as long as needed to get rid of the food source. Daily 50% water changes would be good.

Best wishes!
Karen~