The algae battle!!

[Mr Miagi]

Hi, i have researched a few options but i dont know what to do so i came to this forum cause i knew you would have some experiences you could share with me.

I have a 3ft planted fish tank. And i have an annoying battle with hard green algae, which im sure some of you are all familiar with...

Trouble is im not sure what to do. I bought 4 True siamese flying foxes 4 months ago, and so far, they have been OK. All they seem to do now though is swim in the water colom and eat the other food i put in for eveyone else. One "True siamese flying fox" turned out to be a species i have been unable to identify but he is no good at clearing algae either. Grrr..

I reduced the lighting time by two hours, and this helped a bit. But algae is covering my plants, having bad effect.

My thoughts were on some ottos, because i have only heard good things about them, what do you think? Will they take some algae of my plants or just the glass?? I have two Peacock spiny eels, so shrimp, i fear, will be a poor choice. lol

I hate putting chemicals in my tank, so i would prefer not to use medication.

Can i hear any other thoughts on my (and probably many more people's) predicament. Thanks heeps!

 

[Nospherith]

Try feeding your fish less, maybe skip a day, so that the SAE's will get hungry and start eating algea again (back to work! ). Maybe a bristlenose pleco would help with the algea as well.

 

[iggy01]

I have a 3ft planted fish tank. And i have an annoying battle with hard green algae, which im sure some of you are all familiar with...

Do you mean spot algae? If so I haven't heard of any cure for this, apart from scraping it off. If you are unsure of the type of algae you have, this page may help! Algae Types

Good Luck!

 

[Mr Miagi]

Sadly enough, after reading the useful link you gave me i have spot algae. Thanks for the useful link. It was a help.

But how do i get the algae of my plants without ripping them to pieces! Thats what i was thinking an oto would do! In a previous experience my plec ate the plants....saving me the trouble of removing the algae from them lol.

 

[Dubby]

If theres too much algae covering the leaves you can try dipping the plants in a mild bleach solution 1:20 for about a minute. You cant do that with plants that have fine leaves Then wash them in water and wash them again in water with dechlorinator.

Having different species of algae eaters helps as each species seems to have a preference to a particular type of algae. Choose from Ottos, mollys, shrimp, barbs.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Thanks people, i will definately introduce some new members into my aquarium.

 

[JamesTasker]

IME most algae eaters don't do very much in the grand scale of things. I scrape it off and leave the ligths off for 2 days, if I get an outbreak of bad algae

 

[wetwetwet]

What's your lighting period like?

I use a break in my 10.5 hours lighting period of about 4.5 hours in the middle of the day. Is supposed to help with algae control. Also has the benifit of having the lights on in the morning before work and quite late into the evening before bed



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[Tango]

Hi, you'll be needing siamese fox, not flying foxes.

siamese fox have a stripe that runs straight though the body right to the end of the tail fin. the siamese flying fox have a strip that ends at the end of the body.

even if you have the right ones they probably won't help to much with a heavy algae problem.

as mentioned, cut your feeding. by half i would say.

Also i would put some more plants in. some fast growing ones, you want the plants sucking up the goodness, not the algae.

Tango.

 

[clutterydrawer]

whats your nitrate reading? high nitrate readings can cause excess algae so reducing food or indreasing water changes can help combat algae. i dont know how effective this is on that evil hard green algae though, i have had bad experiences with that myself. good luck!

 

[Mr Miagi]

My lighting is a single florecent, 30w bulb with a reflector for about a 10 hr peroid each day. And nitrate is near 0. If my test kit is right that is.

Thanks for the advice, i do have the true siamese fox Tango. 3 of them! But one odd one. I plan to but in some more plants soon too, as soon as the lfs opens.

I recently trimmed my plants and took some out so maybe the extra light has encouraged algae growth? Im also thinking about adding some surface plants. What do you think?

 

[Mr Miagi]

Here are some pics. U can see then hard green algae. Its a little worse since these photos though