Algae in Cichlid tank.....

[Guest]

I have a 10 gallon tank with a colony of Lamprologus ocellatus 'gold' in it and it's getting some algae in it. I have just the normal 15 watt lamp on this tank. Now I have a lot of experience with controlling algae in planted tanks but I'm at a loss with this tank. There is a ton of diatom algae and a bit of thread algae in the tank. I'm reluctant to put any other fish in the tank with these guys as they are quite territorial. Also the local water supply is quite soft coming from the tap at a pH of less than 7 and no hardness at all. And it would be a lot of work to take a fish from this water and acclimate them to the pH 8.4 kH 13-14 of the tank.

Any help here?

 

[Madame_X]

How about big snails, Rex? Think your cichlids would mess with those?

The only other thing I could think of is shrimp. I know my rams don't mess with my amano shrimp at all but maybe a different cichlid would make a meal of 'em. Maybe you could find some of the larger ghost shrimp that seem to be floating around right now. I know my ghosts eat some algae (but the amanos are better).

Wish I could offer more but my plecos have been the answer to most of my algae problems!

 

[ferret]

Black Mystery snails and such should be fine. I know larger cichlids can't really hurt them. I'd also consider moving to a 20GL depending on the size of the colony. 10G is possible but to my knowledge 20G is generally considered much better for a trio (1M/2f). Plus its add mkore water volume so its take longer for nutriets to build up.

I do not know of snails that will eat the stringy algae though..

 

[Voodoo Chilli]

Stepping up your water changes normally helps remove the excess dissolved organics in the water that are feeding the algae.