No, but moss-balls arent great for combating algae.
Not only are they slow growing, but they are actually made of algae themselves. The algae from the moss ball seem sto have spread in my tank
. Not that I mind, as it looks quite natural.
For combating free-floating algae in the water (assuming all your water stats are fine) there are two ways of going about it.
If you have no plants in the tank and don't want any, then I would combine 3 things.
First, do a big water change to remove most of the algae so it doest pollute the water when it dies. Also remove chemical media from the filter that could interfere with the next step.
Secondly, add some kind of algaecide to the water to kill off most if not all of the algae. I really don't like doing this since algaecide ingredients should be toxic to fish and possibly filter bacteria too, but have heard of lots of success with it.
Thirdly, add a small external in-line UV unit or one of the cheap UV internal filters to kill off any remaining algae cells. The smaller cheap units should do fine for just getting rid of algae, also heard of alot of success with this.
If the UV unit turns off, the algae could come back.
The best way of controlling algae IMO is lots of healthy plant growth, but in a tank where the plants arent established yet I would do the following (I've been reading Diana Walstad's Ecology of the Planted Aquarium - very good book):
Firstly, do that big water change to remove as much algae as possible at the start.
Secondly, add activated carbon to the filter to remove some nutrients the algae are after. This will need to be changed as often as possible until the algae is gone, I would change it every couple of days, a week maximum.
Next, turn off one of your lighting tubes if possible (as in, only if you have more than one tube), if not, ignore this step.
Fourth, add as much floating plants as possible, this step is very important, and may even work on its own. Duckweed is great because it grows very very fast, but water lettuce and
Salvinia spp. are easier to remove if you want rid of it once the other plants are flourishing. I like frogbit because it grows about as fast as duckweed but is larger.
Once the algae is gone and has been for a week maybe, remove the carbon. Once the non-floating plants are flourishing, you can remove some or all of the floating plants.
Having lots of easy fast-growing non floating plants will help a lot, I recommend
Hygrophila polysperma.
I also in general recommend hornwort, it's supposed to be great at combating algae because it grows fast and I've read on the web that it in particular produced lots of anti-algae chemicals.
I've used hornwort alone in small tanks with no filters to get rid of green water algae.
/www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_freshwater_algae.php
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