Pleco is eating my Sword plant

[MargieS]

This morning I noticed significant damage to several leaves on our melon sword plant. The rubber lip pleco is sucking the leaves dry, yet he doesn't seem to eat the cucumber or spinach that we give him. We feed an algae wafer about once a week. Anyone else experienced this? Any recomendations of what we can give him to get him to leave the plants alone?

A little history: It's a 29 gallon low light/excel planted tank that has been up about 4-5 months. (2x24watt T5HO bulbs) We originally had a bristlenose pleco that did a great job of keeping algae at bay. About 6 weeks ago after vacation we came home to the remains of bristlenose and horrible fuzz and string/thread algae on everything. We got a rubberlip pleco (and found out we need to feed him, he can't just survive off tank algae - so sorry bristle nose), but he barely made a dent in the algae. So we scraped what we could off the glass, did a 72 hour blackout, and sanitized the filter and decorations. Mainly there was algae left just on the plants, but rubberlip didn't seem interested in that. So we boosted Excel for about the past 7-10 days (heard it can kill algae, and at a minimum figured it should boost growth of our plants). String/hair algae vanished, so just fuzz still on plants. The last few days rubberlip is now eating the lower leaves of the melon sword. The leaf edges are still there with fuzz algae, but the smooth parts of the leaves look like see through lace! Rubberlip has been much more active the past few days. We like seeing him more, but it's unusual since we got him (about 4 weeks ago).

Besides rubberlip we have 7 Rasboras, 2 corys, and just added 5 Cardinal Tetra's Saturday. Besides the Sword plant we have 1 Aponogeton Boivninanus and about 8 stems of green Cabomba. We would like to add more plants, but can't seem to find what we want.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Jay]

Hey Margie...

Just a few thoughts...

A melon sword really needs more light and nutrients (NPK and iron) beyond Excel.

If the plant is in decline the pleco will find it attractive. Any pleco...I don't care what the LFS says, can go over to the dark side

100% 3 day blackout should have killed all the green algae. You might want to try again...100% black NO LIGHT. Resume dosing Excel at 3X initial dose and 2x every other day. A handful of Ottos (little sucker fish) will go after NEW green algae.

Excel will kill Cabomba. To really get ahead of the algae you need to cram the tank with plant mass...Try some really invasive stuff like hygrophila difformis, and Ludwigia. Plus some basic ferts.

[MargieS]

Thanks for the info, Jay. I'm wondering how my blackout didn't completely work. I used a super heavy black garbage bag and completely encased the tank, taping it shut at the open end. I was hoping my fish had enough air in there as it was close to air tight! Maybe I will try double bagging it next time? I'm going to wait a little bit though to make sure my new Cardinal Tetras are thriving before I do another black out.

[Jay]

This is the procedure for a blackout...

1. Clean and disinfect the filter

2. Fifty % water change

3. Dose Excel @ 2X

4. Black out the tank at 100% no light, no peeking, filter can and should run.

5. 50% water change...cram tank with stem plants. Get some Ottos.

6. Invest in some NPK from Seachem and start dosing along with Excel.

7. Bring $20 to a dark parking lot of your choice, and I will slip you enough baggies of dry ferts to last two years

I'm too lazy to go into my fish room and snap a pic of one of my tank that matches your description...Maybe tomorrow maybe the next .