Too much Algae

[kdklovesfish]

I have a 55g and a 15g established fw tanks. Both have fake plants, pebbles/sand substrate and get tons of natural light. I have plecos in the 55g and otos in the 15g, and all the algae eaters are FAT! Both have mts. But, I still have dark green algae all over my plants. I was wondering if there is any kind of product that will kill the algae and not harm my algae eaters, mts or my other fish. I have cories, platys, guppies, skunk loaches and barbs. Any ideas?


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[kdklovesfish]

Nothing??


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[BLUEaquarium06]

what do you mean they get tons of natural light? like tons of natural light as in they are in direct sunlight?

 

[Mebbid]

Any algaecidal products carry a fairly hefty risk to fish. The only real way to fix the problem is by reducing the amount of light they get.

You could try a lot of floating plants to block the light but theres no guarantee there.

 

[kdklovesfish]

Darn! I was hoping there was an easy fix, but I was thinking light was the problem. Grr! My entire house gets tons of sun light, so both of my tanks are in the sun all day. I'll try keeping the tank lights off until dark and see what happens. Some day I'm going to convert to real plants. At least then the green algae isn't so apparent! Thanks for the response.


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[sidgolding]

You could try and get snails???


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[MICEY]

cover the side of the tank to block some of the sun
also do more water changes you probably have to much nitrates in the water
the glass can be cleans with a scrubber pad

 

[Jessy2363]

When I had algae I covered my tank with a blanket for 3 days and put APIa algae cure in my tank also. However.... I put less than the dosage said on the bottle as I have read heaps of posts saying algae fix killed fish. I don't actually think it's the chemicals that kill the fish though, I think it's the lack of oxygen due to algae dying at such a rapid rate. Anyway once I did all that and did a huge water change my algae problem went away. I have a cycled tank btw so that would help.
In order for it to not return I recommend heaps of real plants. I have lots of real plants and they seem to keeping it away now.



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[Britty]

I had heaps of green algae on my java moss and other plants. That was until I got a pair of male dwarf gouramis. They machined through the whole lot it in a week and keep at it in between daily feeds.

At first I thought they were eating the moss, but they only ate the algae. All the plants are fine.

That combined with split lighting timer pretty much keeps the tank free and clear now.

 

[kdklovesfish]

Thanks all!


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[MICEY]

puregen or chempure will help by removing nitrated algae need to grow

 

[Rivers2k]

Algea is a direct result of either over feeding or not enough water changes. Yes to much light aids in the growth but isn't the direct cause. Up your water changes to once a week and make sure all food is consumed in a minute or less.

How long have you had your loach if it has been a while and you still have MTS then you are majorly over feeding because the MTS are reproducing faster than the loach is eating them.

 

[Mebbid]

Algea is a direct result of either over feeding or not enough water changes. Yes to much light aids in the growth but isn't the direct cause. Up your water changes to once a week and make sure all food is consumed in a minute or less.

How long have you had your loach if it has been a while and you still have MTS then you are majorly over feeding because the MTS are reproducing faster than the loach is eating them.

Algae thrives from prolonged levels of light. It also grows on much lower levels of nutrients than plants do. As long as there is a nitrate and phosphate level higher than 0 then there are enough nutrients to feed the algae. Light plays a much much larger role in algae control than nutrient control. You could do daily 50% water changes and still have algae problems of you have too much light.

 

[Jessy2363]

Agreed


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[Jessy2363]

When I had algae I tried doing heaps Of water changes and it did nothing to get rid of it. Sometimes it just made it worse. My tank was so cloudy and green I could barely see the fish. The algae problem went away once I covered my tank up with a blanket for 3 days straight. So complete darkness. After that 3 days I then did my ginormous water change and tadaaa crystal clear water. My plants were all good thankfully. The algae just died and never came back. I do weekly 25% water changes now.


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