Algae ID and Help Please

Metta · Jun 29, 2022

Algae ID please. And best way to remove / prevent.

Low tech tank using a all in one fert. Four days fert one day off.

Had no issues for around 14 weeks. Bar slme brown algae which I can deal with this green stuff has recently came it’s a species only pea puffers tank but I do have 2 otos in there. Don’t want to add more due to the puffers but they’ve not attacked them as of yet.

Any advice welcome!

kiko · Jun 29, 2022

I've never seen my puffers go for the otos or hillstream loaches....endler tails yeah...
so yeah I'd throw a few more in there to clean that up and some adult shrimp...specially neocaridina as they usually breed faster than caridinas and the shrimp will help in a small way to clean up algae too and whenever they breed also provide for the puffers...

Metta · Jun 29, 2022

kiko said:
I've never seen my puffers go for the otos or hillstream loaches....endler tails yeah...
so yeah I'd throw a few more in there to clean that up and some adult shrimp...specially neocaridina as they usually breed faster than caridinas and the shrimp will help in a small way to clean up algae too and whenever they breed also provide for the puffers...

I’m worried that the puffers will eat the shrimp tho! That’s my biggest concern! What kind of algae is this?

kiko · Jun 29, 2022

they will the small ones...not the adult ones..to me looks like the common green spotted algae
and the sooner you throw the otos in there the better..as they wont clean up the spots themselves even on glass just the algae..you'll have to scrub those out eventually
the otos are very shrimp safe...hillstream loaches will pick at a small shrimp here and there not their thing but they will sometimes

Colin_T · Jun 29, 2022

It could be blue green algae (Cyanobacter bacteria). If it wipes off in a film and smells musty/ mouldy, then it is.

Metta · Jul 4, 2022

Colin_T said:
It could be blue green algae (Cyanobacter bacteria). If it wipes off in a film and smells musty/ mouldy, then it is.

It’s more like spotty, and a little stringy maybe?

Metta · Jul 10, 2022

Some more photos for you guys, I’m struggling to get rid of this and it’s getting worse I do 50% water changes weekly. I’ve just decided to turn light down to 5 hours a day at 75% to see how that goes. But it’s just multiplying

Lynnzer · Jul 10, 2022

I've just become a firm fancier of Amano shrimp for algae. Not sure what sort you have there mind you, but whatever algae was in my tank which was mostly hair algae and damn difficult to get rid of, the Amano devoured it in no time.
Don't know if Amano are puffer safe but they do get quite big so probably able to look after themselves. If they do the job then you're gonna love 'em to bits, and if not - well - nothing ventured, nothing gained.
My own tank was absolutely stuffed with hair algae. Cutting it back didn't solve the problem as it just grew again on the same roots, if it has roots, and it was so dense it caught a couple of fish that couldn't break out of it and died. Along comes Amano. munch, munch, munch. All gone in around 5 weeks to the extent that my Otos are struggling to find any algae to eat.
Oh, and keeping my lights off unless absolutely necessary was part of the solution but the tank does get natural light in the room from the shaded window.

Metta · Jul 10, 2022

Lynnzer said:
I've just become a firm fancier of Amano shrimp for algae. Not sure what sort you have there mind you, but whatever algae was in my tank which was mostly hair algae and damn difficult to get rid of, the Amano devoured it in no time.
Don't know if Amano are puffer safe but they do get quite big so probably able to look after themselves. If they do the job then you're gonna love 'em to bits, and if not - well - nothing ventured, nothing gained.
My own tank was absolutely stuffed with hair algae. Cutting it back didn't solve the problem as it just grew again on the same roots, if it has roots, and it was so dense it caught a couple of fish that couldn't break out of it and died. Along comes Amano. munch, munch, munch. All gone in around 5 weeks to the extent that my Otos are struggling to find any algae to eat.
Oh, and keeping my lights off unless absolutely necessary was part of the solution but the tank does get natural light in the room from the shaded window.

From what I’ve seen and researched no shrimp can be kept with the pea puffers. I do have some otos maybe I neee to buy more otos there the only thing that seem to work with the puffers

Alice B · Jul 10, 2022

Lynnzer said:
I've just become a firm fancier of Amano shrimp for algae. Not sure what sort you have there mind you, but whatever algae was in my tank which was mostly hair algae and damn difficult to get rid of, the Amano devoured it in no time.
Don't know if Amano are puffer safe but they do get quite big so probably able to look after themselves. If they do the job then you're gonna love 'em to bits, and if not - well - nothing ventured, nothing gained.
My own tank was absolutely stuffed with hair algae. Cutting it back didn't solve the problem as it just grew again on the same roots, if it has roots, and it was so dense it caught a couple of fish that couldn't break out of it and died. Along comes Amano. munch, munch, munch. All gone in around 5 weeks to the extent that my Otos are struggling to find any algae to eat.
Oh, and keeping my lights off unless absolutely necessary was part of the solution but the tank does get natural light in the room from the shaded window.

I had an Amano that lived to be 8 or 9 years old, just loved it. Can't find one now.

Lynnzer · Jul 10, 2022

Metta said:
From what I’ve seen and researched no shrimp can be kept with the pea puffers. I do have some otos maybe I neee to buy more otos there the only thing that seem to work with the puffers

I had various other species of shrimp in my tank along with 6 otos. They didn't make any progress destroying the algae at all. They did eat some of course but it grew quicker thaqn it could be devoured. The Amano were terrific. I'd just try a couple to see if the puffers go for them. If not you have a winner. I mean if you went out and bought so called algae control stuff in bottles it'd cost about the same anyway.

Metta · Jul 10, 2022

Lynnzer said:
I had various other species of shrimp in my tank along with 6 otos. They didn't make any progress destroying the algae at all. They did eat some of course but it grew quicker thaqn it could be devoured. The Amano were terrific. I'd just try a couple to see if the puffers go for them. If not you have a winner. I mean if you went out and bought so called algae control stuff in bottles it'd cost about the same anyway.

Do you know where I can find these adults?

kiko · Jul 10, 2022

Amanos won't clean that...grab around 6 otos they will clean it.
As for being safe mines a community tank and I have pea puffers and rainbow forktail to control population they will mostly go for baby shrimp.
The forktails won't touch shrimp if you feed them enough.
I actually have that algae on my tank and it grows when I use a kind of Chinese algae wafers. Which I use everytime the algae is fading away as it serves as food for the otos and a little for the shrimp.

kiko · Jul 10, 2022

Metta said:
From what I’ve seen and researched no shrimp can be kept with the pea puffers. I do have some otos maybe I neee to buy more otos there the only thing that seem to work with the puffers

I have crystal black and amanos in my tank with a pair of pea puffers. Amanos are actually bigger than pea puffers. As for crystal blacks. 99% of the baby shrimp will get eaten but since this is a community tank it's expected...
If people actually want to breed shrimp they gotta use sponge filters in a small tank like 5/10 gallon as other filters will kill shrimp here and there

kiko · Jul 10, 2022

Metta said:
Do you know where I can find these adults?

from what I saw on google https://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/amano-shrimp/ sells them with free delivery in the UK and https://deltaaquarium.co.uk/product/amano-shrimp-2/ too
as for a number of algae eaters...I got a 45gal not heavily planted and I keep 3 amanos...around 10 crystals with a couple fire reds...6 otos and 2 hillstream loaches.
and here's how my tank looks...

fish tank.mp4

Watch "fish tank.mp4" on Streamable.

streamable.com

you can see the algae fading away on the back glass...same as the OP...when it fades too much I add these wafers:

these are sold as shrimp food algae wafers and for some reason this type of green algae always shows up when I add this to my tank.
So it's what I use to grow algae for my oto's and hillstream loaches

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