Frankly, I Dont Care If Its Bad, Or Wrong!

[Rorie]

I have been so frustrated with my tank. I had BGA for ages, finally got rid of that, but my carpet plants still were not growing, so i tried more lights, which worked, but that lead to a HUGE amount of algae over everything....and the problems went on and on....

SO, after having spent so much money on equipment, i decided to try the natural approach, and got 12 zebra nerite snails to 'cover up the problem' as i will be told i am doing.

WELL, 4 hours in and look what they have done already!! I could never have expected them to work that fast! I am not sure i will have enough algae to keep them going in the long term. 360L tank - what you think?

Below is a photo of their progress, the second photo is just an over view of the tank (Taken with my phone) to show the extent of the algae after having cleaned the worst off this weekend.

I am SOOO excitied about MAYBE FINALLY getting to see my dream tank! And hopefully the grass will keep growing too.

So yeh, i dont care if its covering up the problem, i have given in! And look forward to seeing the finished product!!

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Haha seems like at least you found a solution, the snails benefit and so do you...

Look there is always gonna be an underlying problem, but this is a hobby not always a profession for everyone, so going down the easy route is ok sometimes

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I don't think it's wrong or bad at all. You have found a natural solution to a natural problem. Don't most waterways get more than 4-6 hours of sun a day for stretches of the year? Sure they do. So, the result of that is algae (and if it weren't for algae, we'd have a hard time living on this planet, btw). The algae provides food for a host of different species. Using one of those species (which coexist with your fish) is a good solution. It may not be the solution that some here would recommend, but that's their opinion. It isn't like you are using some sort of a chemical algaecide that could harm your other plants or fish. You found a very good solution, in my opinion. Granted, the snails may turn and eat some of your plants instead of the algae, but you can cross that bridge when you come to it. Perhaps you will need to switch out some of your plants to match ones that the snails don't prefer so that they stay focused on the algae. In my opinion, a tank without some algae just doesn't look natural. You don't want it on everything, and certainly not on the glass, etc. But, if you can have it controlled by snails is a perfectly acceptable solution to me.

 

[Tizer]

Just find a happy snail balance I was impressed with my Golden Apples Snails, it only need 3 and they polished off some cucumber!

 

[soybean]

I wish I could grow that much algae for my otos! Who's to say this is wrong? What suits one person and their tank doesn't suit someone else - I like your solution.

 

[Caprichoso]

Algae is a natural thing, yes, it can be unsightly at times but it's not like you wouldn't see it in nature. I have algae in my tank but I don't really mind as it's not choking out my plants, plus my shrimp, oto's, gourami and platy's graze off of it. I like to keep the algae off the glass but other than that I'm not too worried about it. There's nothing wrong with getting a bit of help from snails, shrimp and other creatures to help clean things up. Now, I don't think it should be a solution to over feeding and lack of water changes but I think otherwise it's very okay

 

[twodoctors]

I have very similar problems with both my tanks. My snails and shrimps made light work of the problem, to a point where I actually leave the lights on 16 hours a day so I get some algae that they can all feed on. I also deliberately over feed the smaller tank as my barbs mop up virtually all the food and my corys, shrimps and snails have nothing else to feed. My barbs are growing very well to say the least!

Adrian

 

[L_Plates]

Thats amazing work by the snails right there!

Nothing wrong in my eyes with your solution. It sounds like you have tried many things and finally found a winner

Look forward to seeing more of the tank after the clean up squad has worked its magic.

LP

 

[Ludwig Venter]

12 of those snails....or 1 x BN..... would also have done it in record time.....

 

[Rorie]

I have ottos, but they just were not doing that great a job. And then they got a taste for discus mucus, so they were moved to my other tank.

I added shrimp, but the discus ate them i think haha.

Snails, well they are as hard as 'shell'! So lets hope that this time next week i can get some photos of a pretty tank

Thanks for the support!

 

[L_Plates]

From what we can see your tank looks great

Keep us posted.

LP

 

[Inchworm]

They are nice looking snails too.

 

[Squidward]

Something to bear in mind for the future.
If you deworm your Discus, you will have to take the snails out first, as the dewormer will probably kill them.