Algea

[madness]

i have green aglea growing all over my rocks my sand the tank every where what is good to get rid of it. i really want a shrimp and my lfs stock them but which would be best to get, or would snails and some kind of cat fish help. i would like to know what everyone else uses in their tank to combat this problem!

 

[fantailman]

I have a common Pleco he's great at cleaning up my algae and is great to look at but they do get very big.

 

[rdd1952]

If it's blue-green algae, it's almost impossible to get rid of. No algae eaters will eat it. The most likely cause is too much light (or direct sunlight) and overfeeding. Does the tank ever get direct sunlight? How long are your lights on each day?

 

[Baozer]

Not to worry. Usually, if your tank is situated near a window (even indirectly), its bound to grow algae at least for a while. But what you can do, is:

1. Make sure you only have enough light so that your fish are visible. Excess light will provide nutrients for the algae to feed on and increases the population.

2. Don't overfeed. Leftover waste drops into the gravel and if you dont have a bottom feeder, its unlikely the fish will go digging for it after his meal.

3. Make sure your tank was cycled before adding any fish in. You dont necessarily have to wait for weeks on end for it to finish. For my tank, I just let it rest for 2 days with the filter on and no fish in it. Added some supplementary bacteria and in a few days, was ready to put some nice convicts in.

Just follow what RDD said, I bet he's more experienced than I am