Stupid?

[irelove]

Hi i recently started getting brown algae sticking to my plants and ornaments. This isn't a new tank, been running for about 3 years, it has live plants and I've never used water testing kits in all the 3 years its been running which I know is bad but······so I had a brightspark (stupid?) and bought another filter. Heard that the stingrays are good for controlling algae. Didn't take the old fluval filter out just left it in along with the new stingray. Its a 60ltr tank heavily planted and with about12 4-5cm fishes and two yamato? Shrimp. The new filter is 60ltrs and over and the fluval is 25 to 50. Should I leave both in or take out the old. Don't want to use chemicals to deal with the algae cause I'm against chemicals. PLEASE ADVICE

 

[Noahs ark6]

Hi i recently started getting brown algae sticking to my plants and ornaments. This isn't a new tank, been running for about 3 years, it has live plants and I've never used water testing kits in all the 3 years its been running which I know is bad but······so I had a brightspark (stupid?) and bought another filter. Heard that the stingrays are good for controlling algae. Didn't take the old fluval filter out just left it in along with the new stingray. Its a 60ltr tank heavily planted and with about12 4-5cm fishes and two yamato? Shrimp. The new filter is 60ltrs and over and the fluval is 25 to 50. Should I leave both in or take out the old. Don't want to use chemicals to deal with the algae cause I'm against chemicals. PLEASE ADVICE

it wouldnt do any harm with both the filters running together, but if it was me i would leave the fluval in the tank until the stingray is matured then take the fluval out, you could use it if you get another tank, as for the algae, if it is a glass tank you can use a razor blade to scrape it of the sides.
I hold the siphon tube next to the blade when doing it so that the algae gets sucked up straight away. Don't take the ornamants and plants out and scrub them because you would kill the beneficial bacteria which are helping to keep you're tank healthy. You could also invest in some snails, i suggest apple snails. They would help keep the algae under control, however, if you dont want loads of baby apple snails there probably not the best option. If you go to a pets at home (i personally dont like them) they often have loads of tiny snails in there tanks, if they were in a good mood they would give you some, or you could purchase a java moss or christmas moss (one that looks full of snails) and drop that in the tank. Because there small you can easily control their population. don't worry to much about the algae, it's normal.

Hope that helps, please update and let us know how it goes

 

[irelove]

Will do thanks. Let you know how it looks in a week and ill try and get some pictures up. Will try and do a partial water change on Wednesday cause class finishes early then so I have more time

 

[Noahs ark6]

Will do thanks. Let you know how it looks in a week and ill try and get some pictures up. Will try and do a partial water change on Wednesday cause class finishes early then so I have more time

Great

 

[RadaR]

See the algae guide in my sig.
Algae killer chemicals don't work. The key to no algae is not too much light and you want healthy plants.