Tetra Algae Control Broad Spectrum

[Faythee]

Anybody use this before ? I bought some today as I am having a problem in my 75 gal. with brown spots of algae on glass and ruining my silk plants. It says on the bottle not to use in tanks less than 3 months old. Mine is only 6 weeks old but I used my media from other tank and it is fully cycled. Wonder why they say this ? can I still use it ?

Also...I am setting up a 30 gal. and was going to use water from this tank ( before using algae control in it ) but am wondering if I would just be putting algae tainted water into the new tank ??? my tap water has ammonia in it so do not want to use it.

 

[Colin_T]

Never used it, however to clean the spots off the glass use a clean sponge and wipe it off. To clean the plants dip them in bleach for 10 minutes, rinse well and then put back in tank. Caution: the bleach might cause the colours to fade or the colours to run. Test on a small plant first.

Algae will grow anywhere there is light and water. Even in new water you will eventually get algae. Live plants help keep algae under cntrol but if you don't want them, just reduce the light and wipe any off with a sponge.

If you have ammonia in your tap water then you probably have chloramine in your water supply. If this is the case you will need to treat the water for chloramine. Chloramine is a mixture of chlorine and ammonia. The ammonia keeps the chlorine active for longer, up to a month. Most good dechlorinators will break the bond releasing the chlorine from the water. Unfortunately you are left with ammonia in the water. It is normally only a small amount of ammonia but it can still cause problems. Some people have the tap water in a holding container with a sponge filter. The filter develops bacteria the same as in the aquarium. This bacteria converts the ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate. Once this has happened you use the water for water changes. This water will have a small amount of nitrate in it but it isn't normally very high and doesn't normally cause problems.
You can also have floating plants in the tap water and they can utilise the ammonia to grow.

Ammolock is a water conditioner that breaks the chlorine bond and traps the ammonia so it doesn't harm the fish.