Algae Problem

[sweet_pea3454]

Hello everyone,

I am am having a lot of problems with my 55 gallon tank and algae. It is the freathery kind. It is getting so out of control I have never seen it this bad, the sun does hit it from the one window, but the tank has been in the same spot for almost 3 years and I have never had a problem like this. I have been cutting the time my light is on by about 3 hrs a day and shutting the blinds so it isn't hitting it. I am wondering what a good algae eater would be to put in there to help get things under control. I have a pelco and I added more otto's today but don't think they will do a very good job on the feathery stuff. Any advice would be great.

 

[fatheadminnow]

Do you have any live plants in your tank?

Do you have Co2 in your tank?

If so to either, what are your WPG?

-FHM

 

[sweet_pea3454]

Do you have any live plants in your tank?

Do you have Co2 in your tank?

If so to either, what are your WPG?

-FHM

No I don't and when I checked my levels everything was in the normal range.

 

[fatheadminnow]

mmmmm.... unless someone else says something different, I would say that it is natural light, but since it is not direct; that is weird?

Hopefully someone else with a little more knowledge than me will come on here and give you more advice.

-FHM

 

[OldMan47]

A tank getting some natural sunlight and having no plants to use up nutrients is an invitation to algae. You might be able to reduce the algae a bit by using your lights only when you are in the room to watch the fish. That would at least remove some of the light the tank is getting. An option is to consider using fast growing plants to soak up the nutrients in the water. If the plants growing are only limited by their ability to find enough nutrients, there will be none left to grow the algae.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, agree with OM47. Its often said that a tank with 70% or more of the substrate planted in live plants has a very low tendency to get algae, especially if water flow is good in the aquarium to help limit micro-pockets of ammonia... just as an illustration of the plants vs. no-plants scenerios.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Dave Spencer]

Uh oh! What limiting nutrients are we talking about?

OM47 and WD, you could just be agreeing on providing algae nirvana. Plants do not "soak up" nutrients. I can shift about 5ppm of nitrates in a day with heavy planting of fast growing weeds at max growth rate.

Phosphates can be used as a limiting nutrient to slow plant growth, as can light. People using PPMS pro use low phosphates to slow their tanks down, but find GSA a pain. Anything else limiting your plants induces algae.

Dave.

 

[waterdrop]

Sweet-Pea you may be in luck!

To speak for myself, I consider algae reduction to be an un-mastered skill on my part and I admit to only trying to help beginners here in bits and pieces on the subject. Dave is one of the experts from over in our plant section with much, much more experience in answering algae questions, so perhaps he'll have a go at your problems.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[bitteraspects]

its easy. keep your tank clean. WC is the best defense against a dirty tank in all aspects. also, overfeeding could be an issue, but again, easily remedied by frequent WC

 

[sweet_pea3454]

its easy. keep your tank clean. WC is the best defense against a dirty tank in all aspects. also, overfeeding could be an issue, but again, easily remedied by frequent WC

Thank you for the no help here. My question was what is a good algea eatter that I can put in my tank that is going to eat the feathery algea. My cory's and pleco are not touching it. I can't put plants in my thank because my fish attack asd destroy them as soon as I put them in. They won't even wait for me to get my hands out of the tank.

 

[bitteraspects]

Plecos are not the end all answer to algae. While a common pleco will eat the algea, they will also produce more waste than the rest of your fish. It doesn't solve your problem, just trades it for another one. And even then, your 55g is too small for a common pleco.
What you need to do is keep up a frequent cleaning schedule and possibly move the tank out of direct sunlight.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, I agree with this. I think this is what tripped me up too, I don't tend to think of putting fish in to eat algae as very high on the list of things that will take care of an algae problem.

But you've created a very special case for yourself with fish that won't let the plants along, a tank in some direct sunlight and a situation where you don't want to completely block that sunlight all the time.

Perhaps while continuing to query for and obtain better algae eaters, you should still try some of the cleaning suggestions. There are a lot of people who pull their rocks and decorations out weekly in the midst of the water change and scrub them down with stiff brushes, not to mention cleaning the inside glass and doing the gravel clean. Are the strands of algae happening on objects that are not removable?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[bitteraspects]

or if its in your budget, add a uv sterilizer to the tank. this will kill or stunt any algea spores floating in the water, this will not, however, remove algae from glass and decor, only floating particles. you will need to clean the glass and decor yourself, and once clean, it will take care of the rest.