Trouble With Nuisance Algae/cyanobacteria...

[AliRichardson]

I have just been reading over some of the sticky threads and the pests section is really striking home right now. Its a problem in my tank and can be more accurately described as an ongoing battle!

One natural method of controlling this growth that hasn't been mentioned as far as I can tell is the use of a Sea Hare. These things are incredible! They can chomp their way through alot of algae and its definitely only one per tank, otherwise they starve.

They are a little ugly unfortunately yet I wouldnt ever get rid of him. Will get a photo of mine as soon as I see him

 

[sianeds]

I think the best way of controlling nuisance algaes is to know why you have them. Once you know what's making them grow you can work to prevent them.

Right now I also have an outbreak of cyanobacteria. It's the first time in 8mths I've had any and the first time ever in the 55gal. When I had it in my 30gal it was a real PITA and I fought with it for months and months. Luckily it taught me some god ways of getting rid of it. My preferred method is to either scoop it out of the tank before it takes hold too much, or cover it with fresh substrate and deprive it of oxygen and light.

I am doing a combination of the two at the moment. I have also changed my rowaphos, have stepped up my water changes, cut down the feeding and knocked a couple of hours off the lighting. Hopefully these measures will have it under control pretty sharpish.

I'd love a sea hare but I'm scared of starving one as I really don't generally have any nuisance algae in any of my tanks. (a side effect of being at home all day fiddling with the tanks)

 

[SkiFletch]

Heh, somewhere around page 12 on my jouranl you can see my experiences with my sea hare(s). One thing I must caution you of, while they are FANTASTIC algae eaters, they are VERY vulnerable to powerhead intakes. Any and all powerhead inlets need to be covered with foam, inlet strainers are not good enough.

 

[AliRichardson]

yeah we had that problem once with a nem and once with a sea hare scrapping the poor blighters off those inlets was not something id wish on anyone!

now we are foamed up to the max

 

[SkiFletch]

Make sure you rinse that foam weekly. Clogged foam pads = poor performing powerheads

 

[JaminRat]

Not meaning to hi-jack this thread but as were discussing nuissance algae I'd thought I'd bring it up.

From what I have been reading there seem to be a few different approaches to dealing with it.
Both schools of thought start by identifiing the source and eliminating it. For most algae's this seems to be phosphate or nitrate and can be aided by regular water changes, rowaphos (or the like) and growing macro algae. There is also silicates to watch out for as these are also used in building the algae's structure for example diatoms. There is also the issue of ensuring that you are not adding more whether it be from over feeding or 'bad' water. The problem then stems from the fact that once the algae is there it keeps a certain amount of the 'pollutant' (not really the best word but the best I could think of) locked away so it can't be removed. Then as the algae dies back with a lack of food it releases the chemicals which then seem to be taken up by more algae quicker than they can be removed by other means. Thus we have a continuous cycle.

The main defence from this grow back is your CUC which consume the algae thus removing it and preventing it from releasing more phosphates.

This is where the info starts to get a bit confusing. Some say to just leave it alone and it'll starve itself out, others say to remove what you can with a syphon while doing water change, others to stir it into the sand bed and some even advise to gently brush it from the rockwork and remove it when loose. Then asuming you have chosen to remove it manually by whatever method is this a daily, weekly, monthly task. Should you pull it out as soon as you see it or let it grow consuming the phosphates etc then remove it?

Hope people can shed some light and sorry for the long post.

Ben

 

[AliRichardson]

thats a very good point actually.

The algae does have the benefit of consuming excess nitrate and phosphate thus in theory keeping the water quality healthier. this is at the cost of having a nice looking tank.

Any other thoughts on this?

 

[JaminRat]

Another good cuc member is a Money Cowrie unlike the tiger cowries these don't prefer coral to algae and don't release toxins should they pass away but are great for taking care of hair algae.