Should I Do This?

[Twoapennything]

I have a few spots of brown algae starting to grow in my tank, and earlier this week I had to clean off a bit of what looked to be blue-green algae. Should I just scrub the algae off with a scrubby pad and keep doing that, or will that make the problem worse? Will the filter catch the algae that I scrub off? I also have an anti-algae product by Tetra that I can use. What do you think?

 

[jsoong]

Small amounts of algae is normal, and manual removal is best. I don't like to use chemicals in my tanks .... <Also be careful of algaecides ... some are copper based, which will kill inverts - shrimps & maybe even snails.>

 

[mgamer20o0]

i would just remove it with a brush.

 

[corrado33]

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!

No really, BGA sucks, but it's pretty easily to remove manually (it stays in a nice sheet if you do it gently).

 

[HN1]

Small amounts of algae is normal, and manual removal is best.

+10

 

[Twoapennything]

Thanks, guys, for the replies. I'll just remove the algae manually. It's not a huge amount. But last time it started small and then took over the entire tank with brown, blue, and green sludge. I just want to avoid that.

 

[Deep Seven]

If you're having large algae outbreaks you might want to read up on algae control. Algae Control! - Article at The Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish <-- this link is a pretty detailed read on algae control.


P.S. I've seen better links but I can't find'm right now