algae

[suspectdebbie]

How much algae is acceptable?? Should I scrub the cave thing that is getting algae?? The fish seem to be eating it somewhat.

 

[Aquascaper]

I personally clean the surfaces and plants in my tank when they look dirty, the rest i leave up to my plecs

 

[limelight]

My tank water is very clean, but I have noticed little green splotches of algae developing on the glass (in one particular area... which I am sure is exposed to the sun in the late afternoon). Should I be concerned? I do not see the pleckies doing anything about it!!! Perhaps I am overfeeding them? Help!

 

[luxum]

I only clean my front glass, i let the snails have the rest. Lots of algae is unsightly, but it is a natural thing for a tank to have a little. I wouldn't scrub the cave off unless it was a type of algae that nothing i have would eat, or if it was just growing out of control. I find in my tank that my snail population rises and falls with the algae, so if there are blooms on surfaces, i only see them for a few days until the snails catch up to it. Can you describe your algae? Some types are more desireable than others.

Limelight - it is the direct sun causing the algae in that spot. Try to prevent the sun from reaching the tank if possible, and/or be diligent about scrubbing that spot of the glass to keep it under control. Make sure you use a special scrubber designed for acrylic tanks if your tank is acrylic. Glass tanks you can use one of the green scotch scrubbie pads, just make sure it has never been used for another purpose. The green spot algae is very hard, it will take some elbow grease to clean it off, that's why your plec wasn't helping.

 

[LoveMyOscar]

...

 

[MRshouty]

We have algae on the castle thingy which our platys actualy only the female platys eat, and there is some on the glass in the back, I think i'll scrub it off the glass though.

 

[yhbae]

Same here, I let all algae be alone except for the front glass. Plecs usually take care of them quite nicely...

 

[suspectdebbie]

MRshouty and I don't have a plec, the platys do eat the algae though. There is no direct sunlight, or for that matter indirect sunlight in our apartment at all. It is what in Chicago is called a "garden apartment" in other word basement level so you have smaller windows that are higher up on the walls. That's largely why I was wondering about the algae.

 

[yhbae]

Platies do nibble at algae at times but they aren't really sufficient to clean up tanks from my experience. The tank with couple of bristlenoses are always clean and I no longer need to clean any of the glasses or decorations...

 

[Guppylover]

If you want smaller algae eater get a few otocinclus... they are really handy and mine got to work straight to work!

 

[yhbae]

I always recomend bristlenose plecos for algae control. They eat all sort of algae and they don't grow that big. They are also hardy and it is possible to breed them in home aquariums.

 

[*~*DaRk_AnGeL*~*]

I just scrub my tanks. It does get annoying but it has to be done unless I don't want to see inside my tank anymore and I do want to see the fish inside there.

 

[suspectdebbie]

Thanks for all the info!! MRshouty just added onemre platy and 3 more WCM. So now I'm wondering would I be able to maybe add one otto? It's only 10 US gallons. Also, I thought plecos got pretty big.