Shaving Brush in Dwarf tank

[burblerboy]

I have a 3 gal. dwarf tank set up with 2 sponge filters, about a 2" sand bed, 10w power comp. conv. bulb, 1 mangrove, caulerpa mex., halimedia, the shaving brush and a cleanup crew with 2 pairs of dwarfs. My problem is that I can't keep the Shaving Brush alive. It will be ok for a couple weeks, nice bright green and then just start falling apart and decentigrating in the tank. all the bristles will fall off then they like fold in half and fall down or break. I do add a little Purple Up each week to help supplement the calcium and iodine as that is what i use in my pico set up. So, does anybody have any ideas what I may be doing wrong? If so please help. Thank you in advance.

 

[Brock Fluharty]

Not to go off topic here, but did you panacur your plants? If not, you run the risk of introducing hydroids into your tank, and killing your horses.

 

[fishymann]

chances are the panicur would kill the plant.

What are your parameters, how long has it been setup, how long is the photo period, and water changes?

Could be a bad strand of the shaving brush or water.

 

[burblerboy]

everything has been reading ok sg:1.021, PH:8.3, ammon.:0, nitrite:0, nitrate:.02., not sure about N,P,K. It's been running for a little over a year, just got the horses around mothers day though. I run lights for about 9 1/2-10 hours/day, also red led moon lighting at night. I try to do water changes (1 1/2-2 gal.) twice a week, but honestly happens more like once a week.

 

[burblerboy]

oh yeah, the temp stays between 74 and 76 F

 

[fishymann]

cut back on the water changes, just go once a week. Sounds like it may just be a band strand of the stuff sorry

 

[3fins]

Dude u can look at my gallery. I have a dwarf setup 3g picotope . i made if for my mom for mothers day. I bought a shaving brush and i did the same thing. Just fall apart. i dont no whats wrong with them.
But my guess is that the lighting wasnt enough.

 

[burblerboy]

3fins I was watching the thread on your moms tank as it went up, it looked nice. I wonder what's up, maybe your right about the light as this is the third one that's done it to me in the last year.

 

[Brock Fluharty]

Fishymann,

Which would you rather have dead? A macro or two, or lots of dwarfs?

Ayiyi...

 

[toastii_reef]

i agree with brock- (hey brock btw this is pygmy blah blah blah from seahorse.org )
and panacur if we are on that topic- should not kill most macros

 

[Brock Fluharty]

Shaving brush needs and aragonite based substrate, or calcium supplement.

 

[burblerboy]

yes, they're in about a 2" bed of aragonite and I supplement with Purple Up(approx.5ml/week) which should have adequate calcium.

 

[SherryCobySam]

Add a little calcium and magnesium.