How do you kill algae?

[csr mel]

here, ill do one better.
the brand is "algea destroyer" and made by aquarium pharmaceuticals.

i know alot of people here are very anti-chemical when it comes to fish and to a certain extent this is true. there are alot of uneeded products out there imo.
but algea destroyer works pretty good for me. it takes care of cloudy water real nicely and doesnt effect water chemistry. atleast not that i could ever measure.
fish dont seem to mind it either. i could never notice a difference in my fish, except that after using this, now i can seee them!

 

[yhbae]

Do you know how it works?

 

[csr mel]

sorry, ive no idea how it works.
you could probably call that company and ask them though.

 

[yhbae]

Thanks for the info, anyways...

 

[karrihug]

i had this problem in my 55 gal tank. i had to go out of town on a family emergency and had a friend coming at 8 am to turn lights on(i have lots of plants) and about 5 or 6 to feed fish and turn lights off. i was gone for 10 days and when i got back my water was crystal clear. i have gone back to my regular light schedule and the free floating algea has not come back.

 

[chatterbox]

why not get some fish from the store.that feeds on algae.ive seen them @ the store.

 

[Undawada]

I had a bad algae problem once, and I devised my own method that seemed to work.

I turned off the tank lights, and put newspaper over the tank to avoid any ambient light from getting in for about 2 days.

I cut down the fish feeding drastically, and only took the newspaper off a couple times, very briefly, to check the fish for stress and monitor the algae.

This seemed to wipe out the algae, and didn't seem to harm the fish. I know fish like light, but I reasoned it out as in the natural world, fish occasionally go a couple days low on light/food anyway.

I'm cheap and didn't want to pay $10 for the algae removal chemicals, besides I think natural methods are better for the tank health in general.

The only problem might be your plants.

Java fern/moss is pretty hardy and might live through it though. And if not, you just mentioned you have so much that you're throwing it out, right?

GL with your algae problem, HTH.

 

[yhbae]

i had this problem in my 55 gal tank. i had to go out of town on a family emergency and had a friend coming at 8 am to turn lights on(i have lots of plants) and about 5 or 6 to feed fish and turn lights off. i was gone for 10 days and when i got back my water was crystal clear. i have gone back to my regular light schedule and the free floating algea has not come back.

That is encouraging - perhaps I should continue to water change and stick to no light except feeding for another week or two to see if it makes any difference. I can see slight improvement day to day, but the water is far from what I call crystal clear...

 

[yhbae]

why not get some fish from the store.that feeds on algae.ive seen them @ the store.

I already have one of the best algae eater in that tank - bristlenose pleco. The problem is that no fish can eat algae that are free floating...

 

[yhbae]

I had a bad algae problem once, and I devised my own method that seemed to work.

I turned off the tank lights, and put newspaper over the tank to avoid any ambient light from getting in for about 2 days.

I cut down the fish feeding drastically, and only took the newspaper off a couple times, very briefly, to check the fish for stress and monitor the algae.

This seemed to wipe out the algae, and didn't seem to harm the fish. I know fish like light, but I reasoned it out as in the natural world, fish occasionally go a couple days low on light/food anyway.

I'm cheap and didn't want to pay $10 for the algae removal chemicals, besides I think natural methods are better for the tank health in general.

The only problem might be your plants.

Java fern/moss is pretty hardy and might live through it though. And if not, you just mentioned you have so much that you're throwing it out, right?

GL with your algae problem, HTH.

Perhaps that is a good idea - since the aquarium is in a bright room, I could try to block out much of the light during the day to see if it accerates the process.

I don't need to throw away those plants since I have other tanks that can easily accomodate more java ferns. I noticed they are not as sensitive to pH changes as fishes do...

Thanks for the idea!

 

[yhbae]

After about 3 weeks of almost daily water change, the water has finally cleared up. It is still slightly cloudy but I can now clearly see the heater at the back of the tank...

I am going to remove both lights (one normal, one actinic) and replace it with either Hagen Aqua Glo or Power Glo (a single 30w bulb) and see if that will stop from another algae bloom...

Man, that was fun (not!)

 

[amazingbioloboydp]

good for u!

 

[Link]

Turn your aquarium lights off for around two hours each day, during the middle of the tanks 'day period'.
Plants wont mind but it even helps to get rid of slime algae.
The olnly algae my tank gets is on the front glass and is caused bu the window on the other side of the room.

 

[yhbae]

Turn your aquarium lights off for around two hours each day, during the middle of the tanks 'day period'.
Plants wont mind but it even helps to get rid of slime algae.
The olnly algae my tank gets is on the front glass and is caused bu the window on the other side of the room.

I believe the algae bloom is caused by the lighting system because I have both community tanks placed right next to each other using the same timer and it only happened in one of them.

I use Hagen Aqua Clear 20w on the other tank, so it is less than 1w/g, while the one that just went through algae bloom had 2w/g where 50% was actinic...

 

[StrontiumDog]

I have just been away for 6 days.

I had no one to feed the fish and turn the lights on and off, so as per usual I just turned the lights off and locked the door and drove off.

Left the fish with no food, no light, just the filter running and the air stone (Anubias nanna leaves covered in algae)

Came home from holiday, fish all still alive, but the best noticable difference was the lack of algae on the nanna and the java ferns