Unwanted Algae

[soniawhite]

Having recently moved to a new area I have reset up my freshwater tank from scratch. The old fish are lodging in a spare tank at my old address. The cycle has been running for over a month now and I am testing the PH every couple of days. The readings are very erratic. Having added chemical cycle the levels come down temporarily but soon shoot up again. I have four new black Mollies in residence. A huge amount of algae has appeared and the water has an unpleasant smell, I would say it seems quite brackish. I have read that algae in itself is not harmful but it doesnt look very nice and I would like to get rid of it. I have undertaken a water change. Does anyone else have any advice for me please? I would be very grateful.

 

[rebrn]

The best way is water changes and scrubbing. However, that being said, I have 3 tanks and the algae is out of control in 2 of them I just can't keep up. I got some olive Nerite snails and they are doing an amazing job and helping to keep the algae in check. The good thing about these snails is that they don't breed in fresh water. They will lay eggs, but the eggs won't hatch in fresh water. Now these snails can also live in salt and brackish water, however, as your tank is brackish you may have the eggs hatching on you, so you will want to be careful you don't get a snail explosion. Most places that sell the Olive Nerite snails have already acclimated them to freshwater, but they can easily be acclimated back to brackish or salt water. You may want to contact some of the on-line stores and see if they have any that are already acclimated to brackish. They probably do as the eggs hatch in salt/brackish water. I ordered mine from here: http/www.bobstropicalplants.com/store/catalog/ They were the cheapest I could find that didn't require you to buy 20 or more. You can buy them from her either individually for $2 each or 10 for $15, shipping was around $7.00, she shipped them on Monday I got them on Wednesday all alive. Just make sure when you order from her you add a heat pack to the order (on a separate page from the snails), the heat packs are $2.00 but she will not guarantee live delivery with out a heat pack.

 

[waterdrop]

Algae is triggered by ammonia and light. If you're running light in a newly setup tank that is not fully cycled yet then you've got a perfect recipe for algae. If you've got plants that need the light, start with no more than 4 hours of light a day. Be sure you are running less than 2 watts of light per US gallon.

So you are performing a Fish-In cycle of your biofilter via 4 new black mollies? The members would probably like to know the volume of your tank, to try and determine if 4 mollies is a small enough bioload for a reasonable fish-in cycle. Are you using a good liquid-reagent testing kit to monitor the ammonia, nitrite(NO2) and nitrate(NO3 components of your cycle, in addition to the pH?

ps. Welcome to TFF!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Squid]

I find this info pretty usefull - HERE

Scroll down half way, it has picture examples and help..

Cheers
Squid