alge? on my decorations

[ibn219]

Ok my question is. What kind of alge is it? Its geeen and brown spots mostly on my rocks and ither deco. What will eat it? I keep ghost shimp and corydora swarf catfish but they dont seem to eat it. Thats my cleaning crew, is there a dwarf alge eater? Its not on my glass. Im thinking a sucker but plecos get too big im looking for somthing un the 2" range. I have a 26 gal. With 5 painted tetras 3 glass tetras 3glowlight tetras 2 neon tetras 2 gold fish also my cleaning crew and a dwarf african clawed frog ih and a guppy 1 ghost shrimp left 1 corycatfish. Im going to lfs next weekend to get another cory, a neon, some more ghost shrimp and a dwarf sucker any ideas. I know about painted fish i found out after i bought them i know i need more neons and glowfish they do fine in 3s and they school together when scared no i dont want snails i keep dwarf lillies and dont need a snail epidemic so any sugestions no lectures please

 

[tamtam]

Getting an algae eater to control algae is generally not a great plan. Typically there is no long term solution for something that will eat it and keep your tank algae free. While young different algae eaters will focus on the algae in your tank but as they grow they usually loose interest in it.

Wiping it off and focusing on why you have it is the better solution.

Look at your lighting schedule, see if you can reduce lighting. Is your tank newer? There is usually an adjustment period where algae growth is high and eventually it will level out.

There are so many types of algae it's hard to say what yours is. Brown stuff is usually diatoms, they feed off of silicates in your water and often clear up in several months of the tank running.

Even still if you have 2 gold fish in that tank than it's grossly over stocked as it is. Not only are they not suitable for the size of tank at all but they aren't tropical and should be in their own(larger) tank with proper water temp. Honestly you need to focus on getting those goldies in a better home and then fixing your numbers for all of your schoolers and shoalers. Then maybe you might have room for something else but it's not going to be a solution to algae. Wiping it off is the easiest more effective thing you can do

 

[Rivercats]

With your bio-load, and depending on your light, and age of tank, any andor all three can be attributing to your algae problem. Tam is right, you need to remove/rehome the goldies, do a 50% WC, and do a good tank cleaning, along with limiting your lights (depending on what type you have and how many hours you run them).

Your best bet is Nerite snails, you said no snails due breeding and over population BUT nerites can't breed in freshwater. So the snaisl you put in are the only ones you get and they are wonderful algae eaters, especially for brown diatoms. Another thing is there are different kinds, alot with wonderful patterns and colors. And there are the horned nerties, which are small and IMO really cool looking. These little snails will not add anything to your bio-load and aid in your tanks clean up. And not being preachy here but you really need to address the underlying cause of your algae problem.

 

[ibn219]

The goldfish were fry my moms pond had like 30 of them in the filter they would have died if thrown back to their 7 inch parents they are about 1½ now but they wont survive in that pond no plants 10 large adults and we have cold winters i dont know how the others have survived. my neons and glowlights do school together even tho their not suppose to i had 10 neons but they dont do well in my hard water glowlights are much hardier. I do 20% wc every week all my param are fine. I stick to the shrimp thanks. The tank is fairly new up and running for 2 months got through the worst of it. My daughters tank is a ten gall. Breeder but has a small soft shell turtle that eats guppies my tetra tank is much safer

 

[miller44444]

Nerites are pretty decent algae cleaners, from my own experience go for the "spikey" ones, they are faster. I also have the striped ones but they are very slow--somebody online compared them to an elderly janitor who spends an hour polishing the same square of floor.

Also if you can find a true Siamese Algae Eater, they are supposed to be the best, but I've had a very hard time finding one. There are two other species that look very similar to them, and you can't trust LFS to have them properly labeled