Algae: Is It Bad?

[ghhghh]

Ok my dad and I were just having a discussion about algae,
because we were looking at my tank and the glass is claean apart from the
back window which is covered in a thin layer of green algae for my
hillstream loaches to munch on.
But what we were wondering was if algae was bad for the fish at all,
also I heard that plants during a cycle just makes Lots of algae but will
plants survive a cycling tank?

 

[Truck]

Algae is fine in a tank, it will not harm your fish.
what does PTA mean?
Plants will survive a cycling tank, the ammonia is a food source for them, although if it's a fishless cycle then you will get algae because of the lighting. So it's bed to add plants after.
Otherwise you could fully plant the tank say 80% substrate coverage and then add some fish, because the plants will use the ammonia for food, and there will be a little ammonia left which the bacteria can then use as food, when you add some more fish, the bacteria population will increase.

 

[ghhghh]

Algae is fine in a tank, it will not harm your fish.
what does PTA mean?
Plants will survive a cycling tank, the ammonia is a food source for them, although if it's a fishless cycle then you will get algae because of the lighting. So it's bed to add plants after.
Otherwise you could fully plant the tank say 80% substrate coverage and then add some fish, because the plants will use the ammonia for food, and there will be a little ammonia left which the bacteria can then use as food, when you add some more fish, the bacteria population will increase.

Sorry about the PTA thing
it's
my iPod touch which automatically puts words it thinks
I'm going to put, just edited it out!

So plants will survive a cycle. Planning on using laterite.
But bac to the main thing is algae bad for my tank?
For the filter or anything, or is it just a harmless thing that people
scrape ofto make there tanks looks nicer?

Also would the plants be a good
idea to add first to make it safer to add fish quicker?

 

[Truck]

It's not bad but It may kill your plants if there is loads of it blocking light.
you can get rid of it, buy limiting light and stagnant ammonia, and increasing flow.

 

[ghhghh]

So if I scrape off the algae as it appears then should I be good
withe plants?

 

[Truck]

Just remove it, if it grows back then something is out of balance, what type of algae is it? You can identify it on the following link:

www.theplantedtank.net

 

[ghhghh]

Thx for the link
this is all just planning for when my new tank
arrives in two days

 

[razer121]

It's not bad but It may kill your plants if there is loads of it blocking light.
you can get rid of it, buy limiting light and stagnant ammonia, and increasing flow.

sorry to sound abit dumb but, what do you mean by "stagnant ammonia" i ask as i have a alge problem with one of my plants (algae is about an inch of just 1 leaf!)

 

[Truck]

It's not bad but It may kill your plants if there is loads of it blocking light.
you can get rid of it, buy limiting light and stagnant ammonia, and increasing flow.

sorry to sound abit dumb but, what do you mean by "stagnant ammonia" i ask as i have a alge problem with one of my plants (algae is about an inch of just 1 leaf!)

ammonia that lingers due to poor flow, do you have algae that is hairy? if so I would put it down to poor flow.

 

[loraxchick]

algae in no way affects your fish.
if you are planning on fishless cycling, dont plant it until the cycle finishes. only begging for horrid algae outbreak on your plants with all that excess ammonia in there. if you are going to really have it planted (as in 70% substrate planting) add fish right away, test daily and do appropriate waterchanges.
many folks discount the amount of ammonia that plants can deal with. just stock lightly at first, really palnt it up and increase as per testing levels tell you to.
just my thoughts/experience.
cheers

 

[razer121]

ive a fluval 3 (the newer ones) and the flo is pretty #41#### strong lol, if it was any stonger then the poor little fishys wouldnt be able to stay in one spot lol

 

[Truck]

But is the over all flow around the plants good, IIRC the fluval U filters have one outlet which is quite direct, where as say a powerhead or spray bar would distribute it evenly.

 

[razer121]

hm, well i could do a rescape and see what happens, trust me though the algae is on the wall at the back in direct contact with the flow! the floor, is supposed to be sand but is covered in thick bright green alge, no matter how much i suck it up or clean the algae of it comes back

 

[Truck]

Could you ID the algae on the following site?

www.theplantedtank.net

 

[razer121]

i would but i cannot find the site....it brings back a search page lol