Algea Attack

Bone53 · 01-22-2007, 01:32 PM

What is the easiest way to get rid of algea without using chemicals?

Tommy Gun · 01-22-2007, 03:22 PM

There are quite a few ways to manage algae. I dont think you would ever really be able to 'get rid' of it completely, but you can keep it minimal with relative ease.

The first method is probrably the most common and that would be to add a fish or invert which would feed off of it. Depending on what type of fish you have would determine what type of algae eater would work for you. If you find that your algae eater does not touch the stuff, you may have a case of cynobacteria which is often times look at as algae.

You can also do your best to reduce the nitrate levels in your tank as well as the phosphate levels. The best way to do this is to vaccum out the substrate well with each water change and do not over feed. A lot of flake foods add phosphates to a tank so it is best not to let it fall into the substrate or even limit the use of flake foods by using frozen foods more often, again depending on what type of fish you have would determine the types of frozen foods that you would feed.

You can also limit the amount of light the tank gets on a daily basis. To add to that, you can also do well by not allowing the tank to receive any direct sunlight as much as possible. You could try a 72 hour black out where you turn off the lights and cover the tank for three days. The fish would be fine and you would nto have to feed them at all during this time, which slow down nitrate build up over that time and as well as phosphate build up.

I am sure that there are many more options as well, but these tend to be the more commonly used methods that I see suggested and used regularly.

Bone53 · 01-22-2007, 06:50 PM

It started growing on my tank mabye 2 days ago, I do have a piece of driftwood that might be the culprit. Also I do have a pleco that sucks mostly on the wood. One main cause is probaly what you said about light. I have a turtle, so the heat lamp is on for about 10 hours a day. Its a 60 Watt bulb. I don't think I can do the blackout because of the turtle. I don't know if it matters but my water temperature is around 82-84 degrees all the time.

Tommy Gun · 01-23-2007, 05:09 AM

What color is this algae? It is more like a slime than the usual mossy-like algae? If so, it could be cynobacteria since it sounds like this stuff is growing pretty fast.

The pleco is really not the best algae eater available anyways and like you point out, some just would rather eat wood than algae. In fact, as they mature, plecos generally rely less and less on algae and start looking for uneaten foods and would even suck the slime coat off a slow moving fish if need be.

Still, you can do a lot to keep your nitrates as low as possible by doing more frequent/larger water changes. You may also want to pick up a phosphate test kit to see where you stand with that and then try to reduce them if needed. A lot of flake foods add phosphates and this just sort of fuels the fire for an algae issue. I dont think that water temp has a whole lot to do with things here at least because you have a relatively small window of temperatures to chose from that your fish would survive.

monicapatty · 01-23-2007, 04:24 PM

Hi, sorry for the late reply, i've been having problems trying to stay logged in. most annoying......
my algae is of the rusty brown color and never blue/green...it does grow really fast-especially after a water change. All my plants are of the plastic variety and i've replaced the flagstone with different rocks on advice from an aquarist because of phosphte leaching. When i clean everything (which is weekly) i use bleach on all the items i remove from the tank-then about 4 days later it starts all over again....all my fish are healthy-i haven't lost or added any fish in over 2 yrs. but this 125 gal tank is new since mid October. All the items added to it were new and the 2 aquaclear filters were stripped and cleaned prior to adding them to the new tank....so, any ideas would be appreciated.

the tank is in the basement fam. rm. and doesn't get any direct sunlight. my light timer is set from 6am to 10pm. thanks again, Pat

Tommy Gun · 01-23-2007, 04:37 PM

Quote:

my algae is of the rusty brown color and never blue/green

Cynobacteria, aka Blue/Green algae, does not in fact have to be blue nor green at all. In fact, the experience I had with it in my freshwater fish tank was with a light brown or tan colored version. Most notably, it was very 'slimey' and could grow back in a day if not faster.

Quote:

it does grow really fast-especially after a water change.

This is probably because when you do a water change, you are replacing trace elements that the algae would then thrive on.

If you feel comfortable doing so, you can dose your tank with a broad spectrum antibiotic like erythromiacyn (Maracyn, the origonal version, not maracyn 2, has it) which will kill off the cynobacteria and was how I dealt with the problem in my own tank. I only dosed half of the recommended amount though but still got great results and it has not returned yet.

You can also pick up a phosphate test kit to better monitor those levels and act accordingly.

Cynobacteria, like all aglae, is also photosythetic so a black out for 72 hours may help to at least reduce the amount of it in your tank if not kill it off completely.

The only problem with the black out and antibiotic methods is that once it is dead, the cynobacteria is hard to get out of the tank so I was forced to do more frequent water changes as I was vaccuming the stuff out of my tank.

Bone53 · 01-23-2007, 05:29 PM

Its green but it is not that bad, when it started I was a little worried. First it was on a little bit of rocks then it moved up a little to the side. i tried vaccuming the algae off the rock with no success. I have started feeding less flakes. Do you have a suggestion for a better algae eater?

Tommy Gun · 01-23-2007, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Do you have a suggestion for a better algae eater?

I am not really sure what would or would not be compatible with your turtle so you may have to look deeper into some of these fish but I really like the otocinclus catfish as algae eaters. I have two of them right now in my 10 gallon fry tank (should have at least three, but one died in transport) and they are cleaning up things amazingly well for being such small fish. There is also the siamese algae eaters and maybe a good snail, if compatible, that would rely more intensly on algae as a diet.

monicapatty · 01-24-2007, 10:56 AM

thank you for the options...i guess i'll give the antibiotic a try and look into some different flake food as well....there's not a whole lot that my clown loaches are really keen on, except snails of course! and that can get to be a very expensive diet, cheers, Pat

Tommy Gun · 01-24-2007, 01:27 PM

Try feeding frozen blood worms to your loaches. They will love them!