Orange algae outbreak in the Oranda tank

[Sati]

Well I mentioned a couple of times that I have zero algae in my community tank and it's finally come back to bite me in the butt. My community tank is still algae free. I guess it just has a great crew of cleaners but I still have to drop pellets for them all the time so they don't starve.

Then there's the Oranda tank. It's 29g and contains 3 orandas. The tank is fully cycled and the water parameters are stable. There's nothing else alive in there except the fish. I have a couple of very large rocks as well. The weird part is that the algae is the same color as the rocks. It's not brown, it's orange. I scrub it off the glass and off the two large rocks but it keeps coming back. I don't know what to do with it. I keep thinking it'll work itself out.

Then I have brown algae in my puffer tank. That seems to have eased up and doesn't seem to be getting any worse though.

Just watch what you say. And if you have no algae be quiet about it!

 

[madasafish]

Hmmm... really strage, that. I've had brown/orange algae before... but not *really* orange. Any chance you could take a pic, or are you waiting for Christmas to get a digicam? I wonder if the algae is somehow assimilating the orange pigment from your rocks...

I'm afraid that despite my greatest efforts, I can't keep brown algae out of my 55. I've tried less feeding, more gravel vacs, everything. So I did the next best thing and bought otos. They're life-savers. And since they're so small, they add very little to your bioload.

 

[Sati]

Hi Madasa :]

My BF's family bought us the Cannon A70 so it's in California and won't be near my tanks until Ben gets back on January 4. I'm sure I'll still have the stinkin algae then though! I could try to take a pic with my mom's palm pilot, heh. Yeah, it's definitely orange though... no doubt about it. I'm not concered about it harming anything. I'm just sick of scraping it off the dang glass.

 

[madasafish]

Hehe. Or if somebody has a camera phone! Honestly, they put cameras in everything nowadays...

It's like the Simpsons episode where Homer's brother Abe comes back and invents the baby translator:

Says Homer: "I dunno, Abe. People are scared of new things. You should have just taken an old invention and put a clock in it." Same idea...

 

[foxtrot1027]

Are you feeding them goldfish flake food? The food contains natural color enhancers like vitamin c, beta-carotene, and other chemicals which are designed to help the bright orange color of goldfish. The algae is most likely benefiting from the same properties. My oranda\ryukin tank gets the same thing once in a while, esp on the filter.

 

[Seven]

Get some snails to clean it up? It seems to be risky business keeping multiple snails in the same tank, but I have two pretty good sized snails (a little bigger than golf balls) in my 10gal that keep the algae under control for the most part. Theres still specs of it, but nothing like what it used to be.

 

[Sati]

I feed them sinking mini sticks (pellets). They are orangish (sp?) in color but they eat every bit...

Any why risky to keep multiple snails?

 

[Seven]

Lots of baby snails I suppose.

 

[William]

Yeah, but if baby snails [ assuming we're talking about Apple snails ] were around 1) You'd know from Eggsacs, 2) They probably won't last long after hatching since they seem to be a snack everyone loves.


My female betta was juggling and eating some of my babies yesterday

 

[foxtrot1027]

I keep two large apple snails in the Oranda\Ryukin tank. It is fully planted and Ive had no baby snails. Unless the Goldfish have been snackin on the eggs and I just never see them. Also, I keep a few spotted Cory's in with them who keep the bottom clean.