Algae? How to treat? With Pictures!

[jenjen]

Hey guys i have a well established 10 gal tank and i am having algae problems. In this tank i have an assortment of 7 neon tetras and two cory catfish. Ive had these fish running on two years soon. I run an LED light above my tank, use sand as substrate and i currently have one live plant, an anubias which i recently added to benefit the fish and cut down on water changes. I had an outbreak of cyanobacteria perviously and after reading online, i cleaned as much as i could, i turned off the aquarium light and cut the fish feedings down. This method really helped get rid of the cyano.

This new algae doesnt look like cyanobacteria, im not sure what it is and im not good at looking at pictures online to compare it to. Can someone help me diagnose this algae and tell me how to treat it?

Also, the tetra easy strips basically say my water is quite hard and on the acidic side. I was thinking about getting spring or purified bottled water to replace the water i remove when i do water changes? Any advice on this?

 

[SnailPocalypse]

 

[StevenF]

In general reducing lighting by ding a blackout is only a temporary fix. Feeding the fish an appropriate amount of food and anding plants will help but they alone will not do the job. Identifying the type of algae may help (from the pictures I cannot tell what it is) may help you locate specific advice on the web on ways to deal with it. But in the end it all boils down to controlling nutrients.

In addition to what you have done You need to insure your plants are getting all the nutrients they need. If plants are short on just one they will not do well and algae will take advantage of that and can take over the tank Howeer if the plants are growing well they will clean up the water enough that algae will have to compete with the plants for nutrients. Algae doesn't do well when it has to compete for nutrients.

Your annulus doesn't appear to be doing well. I would suggest a good complete fertilizer such as flourish comprehensive. That would insure that you don't have a nutrient deficiency. It has a little bit of everything that plants need. That plus the nutrients from the fish food should help out a lot. We also don't have a lot of information on your tank water or lights. Not much more can be said without that information.

For a list of all nutrients plants need use this link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_nutrition
The following link is about the estimative index, a popular method of controlling algae. The links following the text contain additional information about it.
https://www.theaquariumwiki.com/The_Estimative_Index

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

Heh. You lucky you have algae, my tank cant grow anything, get a otocinculus or a nerite snail, nerite snails do well in high ph's while otocinclus do well in lower ph's good luck

 

[NickAu]

Heh. You lucky you have algae, my tank cant grow anything, get a otocinculus or a nerite snail, nerite snails do well in high ph's while otocinclus do well in lower ph's good luck

I am sorry I disagree with that, What happens when they consume the algae? What happens when you put the otos or snail in the tank only to find that they wont eat the type of algae in your tank?

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

Then there's nothing you really can do, though I haven't seen any nerites refuse any kind of algae that grows on the surface of glass or rock, for ottos im not to sure I haven't owned one, I know from personal experience that Amano shrimp will deystroy algae as long as their diet is strictly limited to algae, they will take commercial food as long as they have the option

 

[NickAu]

for ottos im not to sure I haven't owned one,

Then please do not advise people to get them, Otos should be kept in small schools of at least 6 and require a minimum of a 20 gallon tank, They are not the easiest of fish to keep as they are fussy with water conditions and food.

Adding live stock to fix the problem is not a solution and can in fact make the problem worse by adding to the bio load.

 

[StevenF]

Plants typically need nutrients in the water to grow. If the nutrient are not there the plants will not grow. This frequently happens if people use RO or distilled water in the aquarium. Tyler if you cannot get plants to grow add fertilizer. SeaChem Flourish comprehensive is a good beginners fertilizer since it has everything plants need to grow.

JenJen if only one nutrient is missing or at below normal levels plant growth can slow or stop. Every time you add fish food to the tank you are adding nutrients. Since the plants are not growing because they cannot get enough of one nutrient, nutrient levels in the water build up. Algae unlike plants can grow with very low levels of nutrients. So if one nutrient is missing or at lower levels than normal, Algae will grow and plants will stop growing. So in your case SeaChem flourish Comprehensive might help your tank.

As to algae eating fish, snails and shrimp. They may or may not help. ottos and nerite snails have difficulty consuming hair algae to hard green spot algae. Shrimp can eat most algae but sometimes they don't like the last of the particular algae you and and will eat something else instead. I don't know of anything that can effectively eat hard green spot algae. In any case algae in some cases grow so fast that algae eating animals cannot keep up with it. So for most people algae eaters can't eliminate or reduce algae levels in a tank.

The best strategy to reducing algae or slowing its growth is to fertilizer with just enough for the plants and by adjusting the lighting intensity and hours on. Hopefully you can find the right settings that favor plant but not algae . Each tank is different so seldom will one recipe work for everyone. When that condition is reached most algae in the tank will die off. It is almost impossible to to completely clear a tank of algae but it there isn't enough you can easily ignore it and just enjoy the tank.

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

I'm aware of how otos should be housed, just because I don't own a fish doesn't mean I don't know anything about them

 

[NickAu]

So if you are aware how they should be housed, Why recommend them to somebody with a 10 gallon tank?

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

I just mentioned they do a good job cleaning on surfaces, I also mentioned snails along with Amano shrimp.

 

[jenjen]

Thanks for the awesome advise! I will definitely get the seachem flourish and watch if that will kick my annubias into gear! From what I can tell I don't think it is the blue green algae it is some sort of brownish algae.

 

[StevenF]

Earlier I wrote:

The best strategy to reducing algae or slowing its growth is to fertilizer with just enough for the plants and by adjusting the lighting intensity and hours on. Hopefully you can find the right settings that favor plant but not algae

I recently leared you should also try adjusting your water change cycle. By adjusting your water change, more or leass water, or more or less time between water changes you will effect the nutrient levels in the tank water. That in combination with changes in lighting can help. At the start of February I skipped two water changes and my existing hair algae problem has significantly improved. I believe I cannot go much more than one water change every 3 weeks due to excess nutrient buildup or a nutrient deficiency occurring. I am using a fertilizer.

 

[Tyler_Fishman]

Plants typically need nutrients in the water to grow. If the nutrient are not there the plants will not grow. This frequently happens if people use RO or distilled water in the aquarium. Tyler if you cannot get plants to grow add fertilizer. SeaChem Flourish comprehensive is a good beginners fertilizer since it has everything plants need to grow.

JenJen if only one nutrient is missing or at below normal levels plant growth can slow or stop. Every time you add fish food to the tank you are adding nutrients. Since the plants are not growing because they cannot get enough of one nutrient, nutrient levels in the water build up. Algae unlike plants can grow with very low levels of nutrients. So if one nutrient is missing or at lower levels than normal, Algae will grow and plants will stop growing. So in your case SeaChem flourish Comprehensive might help your tank.

As to algae eating fish, snails and shrimp. They may or may not help. ottos and nerite snails have difficulty consuming hair algae to hard green spot algae. Shrimp can eat most algae but sometimes they don't like the last of the particular algae you and and will eat something else instead. I don't know of anything that can effectively eat hard green spot algae. In any case algae in some cases grow so fast that algae eating animals cannot keep up with it. So for most people algae eaters can't eliminate or reduce algae levels in a tank.

The best strategy to reducing algae or slowing its growth is to fertilizer with just enough for the plants and by adjusting the lighting intensity and hours on. Hopefully you can find the right settings that favor plant but not algae . Each tank is different so seldom will one recipe work for everyone. When that condition is reached most algae in the tank will die off. It is almost impossible to to completely clear a tank of algae but it there isn't enough you can easily ignore it and just enjoy the tank.

My plants grow just fine, I have osmocote ferts I use tap with de-chlorinater, my plants grow just fine, however I cannot get them to pearl yet, I've used DIY CO2 in my old tank
Never got any pearling action, it may sound ridclous but I actually want some alage growth, for shrimp and ottos, I used a halogen bulb in my old tank and my plants grew better than they did with my 6500k fluorescent soft blue bulb, strange

 

[StevenF]

My plants grow just fine, I have osmocote ferts I use tap with de-chlorinater, my plants grow just fine, however I cannot get them to pearl yet, I've used DIY CO2 in my old tank

My small 5 gallon light is currently running at 1200 lumens (about 10 lumens per square inch of substrate), no CO2 , Fertilized RO water and it was pearling well yesterday. It slowed down today. I believe I am running short on trace nutrients and just added some. In my opinion fertilization is more important than CO2 for plants. Growth rates slow down dramatically when nutrients (other than CO2 and lights) are in short supply. Osmocote was designed for use with terrestrial plants, not aquariums.

According to the smote website, Osmocote plus contains 11 nutrients. Plants need 15. Osmocote doesn't have calcium, chlorine, Nickel, and cobalt. With those deficiencies it is not surprising that your plants are not pearling. I have developed one philosophy regarding fertilizers. If it is not on the label it is not in the tank. And from my experience looking at fertilizers (most are missing at least one nutrient. An that includes fertilizers made for aquariums. Some people use the estimative index philosophy on their aquarium and that requires dosing all nutrients in slight excess to control algae. Even fertilizers specifically made for estimative index are frequently missing Calcium and chlorine.

In many cases tap water tap water will have calcium and chlorine. But in some cases it doesn't. Also water companies are not required by law to verify all plant nutrients are present in then water. And frequently they are not So my other philosophy is that if the water quality report doesn't list it, it is not in the aquarium.