algae!

[Tostada]

Everything's going well with my 30 gal. hex, but now I've got algae growing in about a 12" thick band in the middle of the walls. It's not on every wall, but it goes about half way around the tank. It's not totally out of control, but you can tell the glass looks dirty from across the room.

Last week I built a new hood. The old hood just had one 15" light, but now I've got two 15" Aqua-Glos, one 18" Sun-Glo, and two 12" cold cathodes. So I've gone from a little under 0.5 WPG to a little over 1.5 WPG. So I'm sure it's the extra light that did it. The algae started showing up on the gravel just a couple days ago, and now it's on the walls.

Should I just get something to clean the algae off manually when I do a PWC once a week? I don't really know what that entails, but people make it sound like it's a lot of work "scraping."

I've got:
1 male betta
1 gold gourami
1 large gold mystery snail
5 panda corys
6 swords

I also have some MTS which stays pretty well hidden. The mystery snail makes a few algae-eating laps around the tank, but that's not going to keep it under control.

I don't think I have enough room for anything that would do a decent job eating algae, but it'd be nice if something could help. I certainly don't have room for a regular pleco, and most of the small plecos I see aren't reliable algae eaters. I don't think I want CAE because they get big and mean. I could get a couple ottos.

I'm new to this, so I'm just looking for some general advice which hopefully doesn't involve me spending an hour with my arm in the tank every week.

Is algae just an aesthetic problem, or is there something actually dangerous about it?

What about those magnetic cleaners? Do they really work?

I guess I'm concerned because I can't even get the scum off the lid. I'll take the light off and scrub the thing, and it looks OK, but then when it dries it still has scummy spots on it. The scum on the lid isn't the same as the green algae on the side of the tank, though, so that's probably a totally different problem.

 

[Guest]

otos are really fun. i like em. just make sure your water quality is good. they are a bit touchy

 

[joannde]

I don't think ottos eat green algae. I have 7 mystery snails and have no algae. Is your tank planted ? Can you describe the algae ? (color, ease of removal, etc). Here's some info you might want to read to see what type of algae we're talking about:
http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/algae.html

 

[odessadude]

About the algae

How long are you running the lights in a day?

You gotta get on top of the situation, even if you have to take 30-60 minutes a day to get in the tank and get it right.

 

[Tostada]

It's kind of brownish-green spots. There are some very small clear filament-like things stuck to the glass, too, that I can see waving in the current.

joannde: That link worried me, because I thought it might be green spot algae, but I just stuck my arm in the tank and it wipes off very easily just brushing my finger across it.

I have the lights on for 10 hours a day. If that's bad I can turn it down, but I have some anacharis in there that the swords and shrimp like to eat, so I'd like to keep that growing as much as possible.

 

[Purrbox]

Since you've got live plants, it's a matter of getting your nutrients balanced. Other than increasing the amount of light your providing, what else are you providing for your plants? (ie any kind of carbon or ferts?) Most likely you need to dose a little more ferts, or increase your plant mass.

 

[Tostada]

I just got back from the LFS with an algae brush to find my 4 large MTS have emerged from the dirt and started cleaning the glass. They're doing a pretty good job. And my panda corys are doing a lot of poking at the algae on the gravel, but probably not actually eating too much of it.

Since you've got live plants, it's a matter of getting your nutrients balanced. Other than increasing the amount of light your providing, what else are you providing for your plants? (ie any kind of carbon or ferts?) Most likely you need to dose a little more ferts, or increase your plant mass.

I'm not using any fertilizers or CO2 injection. I just have 3 bunches of anacharis with an Eco-Complete substrate and some gravel on top (actually it was 2 bunches, but I already cut some off and made a 3rd bunch).

 

[Purrbox]

If you increase the amount of plants that you have and start dosing some Potassium and Micros (Flourish Potassium and Flourish Comprehensive would work well), you should be able to get the algae to go away. Unfortunately by increasing the light with so few plants you gave the algae the green flag.

 

[Tostada]

Plants suck out the nutrients that the algae needs, so having more plants keeps the algae away?

 

[J-D]

I think I have the same type of algae - greeny brown and wipes away quite easily. I have a green scrubby thing like the one I clean my kitchen pots and pans with and I just wipe it off with that (I don't clean the pots and pans with the same one ) once a week when I change the water. I was thinking of popping down to the lfs this weekend as they always have golden apple snails for sale...will they eat this algae? My whiptail catfish isn't interested, he prefers to snuffle around the substrate and driftwood.