My complete knowledge and experience fighting algae for 15 years. Part 1 of 2

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jarrod0987

Aquarium Advice FINatic
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As many of you know I am very interested in Algae in aquariums. Mostly the killing and preventing of it. I have been actively focused on it since 99. I have read many articles and study many subjects to also include ponds, waste water treatment and basic inorganic chemistry. I have recently read a book on Phycology which is the study of Algae. Honestly, it was written for a microbiologist to read and most of it is way over my head. I did, however, pic up some very cool tips that I don't think are commonly known in the hobby about certain types of algae. I decided to share those and all my other insights and experiences in one massive article.
I will first cover the general approach to algae and philosophies about it. Then I will cover specific types of freshwater algae case studies. Then the same thing for Salt Water. Reference Resources are at the end.

Algae approaches
the problem with reading about algae in the web is that just about everything in the aquarium as far as equipment and chemistry has been blamed for it. The truth is that there is no one thing that causes algae or a certain type of algae. There are defiantly some things that are major contributors and some things that are minor contributors. I will classify things in this way.
It is important to understand that different types of aquariums approach algae with different strategies. I will the generally accepted practices here. I will like to point out that just because something is commonly practiced or believed does not make it the best way or even right. Part of the reason I am writing this article is to stir up the hobby and get people to let go of old ideas and keep looking for new methods.
Generally speaking, in Fresh Water Fish Only Systems, the approach is to control nutrients with water changes.
Same Thing in Salt Water Fish only Systems but those people are also willing to use chemical means to remove nutrients from there water to a much lower level than water changes can provide. In Particular they love the use of GFO to remove phosphate. This has Helped a lot to keep aquariums clear of algae. Some of them also use combinations of Skimmers and Activated Carbon to remove organics. The cutting edge is to use Carbon Dosing to remove Nitrates. All these things have really helped us keep our Salt Water Aquariums clear of algae. They also use clean up crews to get the last little bit. Snails and crabs etc. They also use plants sometimes to remove the nutrients.
In Fresh Water Planted tanks people use a very different approach. Instead of focusing on removing algae they focus on healthy plants. When the plants are healthy the algae is usually just barley present if at all. People debate why but it seems to be the case. Some of them load up there water with certain ratios of nutrients while others add tiny daily doses of nutrients and never let them build up. These are the hardest systems to battle algae because you have to provide nutrients to the plant which algae also needs. Plant people will argue for decades over the many planted tank approaches.
In Salt Water Reef (Coral) systems people have traditionally taken a no nutrient approach. They use water changes and various chemical means to strip all the nutrients out. Until recently it was not possible to remove them all the way. Now that it is possible, we found it causes our corals are not healthy if we do that. So we now have to maintain low levels of nutrients to get good coral health, growth, and color. I would like to say that those of you who think Reef tanks are beautiful but you are afraid of the chemistry that it is all the same chemicals from the planted tank hobby. Just different levels and equipment. Don't miss out :)
Light
Light has long been blamed for algae. On of the first fish stores I ever shopped at way back in 98 had a switch by the counter to control the lights for all the tanks. When a customer walked in, Lights went on. Soon as they left, Lights went off. Also algae eaters were used.
To this day I have had managers at certain Chain Stores tell me that light is the cause. Just turn off the light and you won't have any. That's probably true but why sell me a light I can't use? Don;t worry. I love a bright tank and I have very little algae in all my tanks. I will teach you. For now just know that How bright, How long, and what color (Wavelength) a light is can have an effect. Light does not cause algae any more then any other one factor does. What causes algae is an environment that the algae prefers and light is a part of that. Replacing old bulbs and lowering the amount of daylight hours can help slow algae down. In my experience it has never really solved any of my algae cases. I classify it as a minor factor but I do concede that exposing a tank with nutrients present to daylight, bright light, or long photo periods can cause problems.
Case Study:
I recently talked to a fellow hobbyist who has a lot of experience with breeding. She was using Salt water bulbs over her freshwater tank for years with no problems. The myth is that this should have caused huge algae outbreaks because she was not using the right spectrum. I use those bulbs too because I like a white light vs a yellow light in my tanks. Myth Busted :)

Flow and substrate.
Some people believe low flow is a contributing factor to algae and have stated that increasing there flow got rid of there algae problem. I have seen similar things. With low flow the fish waste is no longer being suspended in the water long enough for the mechanical filtration to remove it. It settle to the bottom and rots. This releases loads of nutrients into the water. It increases over time until you reach a tipping point where the algae explodes.
Having inadequate pumps can cause this but so does Gravel. I classify low pump speed as a minor factor.
Substrate (Sand and Gravel)
When water flows over a fairly flat bottom such as glass or sand it does not slow down that much. When it flows over rocks or gravel or decorations it has to change directions. It bounces off and looses all it's energy so it slows down and all the waste falls out. I no longer prefer gravel in any of my systems for this reason. Nothing but problems. Also shrimp cannot get down into the gravel to eat the waste but they can turn over sand grains very nicely.
Some substrates can release high levels of iron or phosphate into the water. Some can release higher alkalinity which is a good thing. If your using plain sand or gravel you don't have to worry about this. I
I have had a lot of algae cases because of this property of gravel. Deep gravel is even worse. I classify Gravel as a major factor.

Temp
Something I found out years ago that no one ever talks about is that certain types of algae (mentioned later) prefer warm water. So keeping the temperature higher then you need to is a minor factor in certain cases.

pH and Alkalinity (kH)
pH and Alkalinity (also known as kH) are closely tied together. I am not going to get into that discussion here except to say the more alkalinity the higher and more stable the pH. Many types of green algae seem to die off in more alkaline waters. They seem to prefer acidic or lower pH water. I have heard many people argue bitterly over weather Alkalinity or Nutrients are the main factor of algae. I like my tanks at a higher (but still in safe range for my species) alkalinity. I have few algae problems in any of my tanks. I classify Alkalinity as a major factor (Especially in salt water tanks).

Nutrients (Level and Ratio)
We are now going to start a major discussion about nutrients and how they can lead to algae. This section is very controversial. What is not controversial is that pretty much everyone in the hobby agrees if you have way to many nutrients you will likely have algae problems. Unless you have no light at all. I don't like dim tanks and so I keep mine to the lowest level I can get away with and have healthy pants and corals. If I only have fish I try to strip them out completely.
Also the ratio matters. We have found that certain nutrients should be in a certain ratio. For example a 10 to 1 by ppm ratio for Nitrate to Phosphate. Example would be 10 ppm Nitrate to 1 ppm phosphate or 5 ppm nitrate to 0.5 ppm phosphate. Be aware that a phosphorus test is a little different and you have to multiply it by 3 to get the phosphate amount. We have seen that when this ratio is skewed or when nutrients are way to high that certain types of algae occur much more. I classify Nutrient levels and ratios as a major factor.
Water changes remove nutrients but also may bring them back in if they are in your tap. testing both your tank and your tap water will help you see what is happening. I have seen well water with Ammonia, city water with Phosphate, and have heard reports of nitrate in city water which is pretty bad for your health but attempts to call it in usually get ignored. The reason is most likely fear of legal action. Better just to deny it ever happened.

Next we are going to discuss specific nutrients and how much they contribute. This section is very controversial. I like that :) First I need to explain there are 2 main types of nutrients int he aquarium. I am going to try hard not to get to scientific. There are chemicals (Compounds) know as organic that have a whole bunch of atoms all in long chains and elaborate shapes. We can't test for them and most algae can't eat them anyways. Some are sitting on the bottom of your tank like uneaten fish food or fish poop. It would seem like they are unimportant but they actually are. The reason is because bacteria do eat them and over time they are broken down into the inorganic form (we will talk about next) which are available. It is like a slow time release of nutrients to the algae and plants over time. In some cases, you may find a tank with a huge algae outbreak but all your nutrient tests say 0. That is because there is a large amount of organics built up in the gravel or dissolved in the water. The algae eats this tiny amount instantly and so there is none left to show up on the test.
Activated carbon and Resins can help and water changes are also very important for this. I like ROX Carbon from Bulk Reef Supply. Some people say Chemipure is using this kind of Carbon along with other things like GFO or Purigen. I also love Purigen from Seachem. It does the same job but each can do a slightly different job. The particle size matters. There is a lot of overlap between these 2 products and some Cichlid keeps I know use both at the same time. I classify organics as a major contributing factor to some kinds of algae.

The next type of nutrient is inorganic and that is the only ones we can usually test for. Think of them as already broken down as much as they can be, dissolved in the water, and chemically active and available for algae, plants, or corals. The amount is important but also the ratio (Usually between Nitrate and phosphate)is important. I classify them as a major contributing factor to most kinds of algae but which one matters to which algae.

Ammonia
I am not going to cover the nitrogen cycle here. It is the price of admission. If you don't understand it go find out now. It is that important.
Like most of you I believed that my tanks never have ammonia because they are already cycled and my test kit shows there is 0 ppm anyways. Tom Barr has done a lot of research on this subject. Unfortunately his original news letters on Algae were lost and are unavailable anymore. he stated he has done experiments where he added ammonia to tank water and got green water. I have also found references to ammonia in scientific literature regarding this.
If a aquarium had no and inadequate bio filtration, or perhaps a bunch of fish were added all at once and the bacteria has not multiplied yet, algae can start to take over as ammonia builds up. What is interesting is that the API test kit may not be sensitive enough to see these trace amounts. Hanna instruments makes Ammonia Checkers now that are much more accurate and can read smaller amounts. I plant to get one some day and continue this research. For now I will say that if you see a system with green water and little biological filtration surface area (Such as bio Media, sponges, or sand) you may be looking at an ammonia issue. It probably effects other types of algae too. Some people say it is what makes a algae spore germinate into a bloom. We will talk about a green water case later on in the green water section. I classify ammonia as a major contributing factor to some kinds of algae and certainly toxic and should be addressed where ever found.

Urea
Urea is something that I never hear come up in aquarium forums at all. Tom Barr wrote an article stating when he added this to a tank he got "Stag Horn" algae. I have seen pictures but I have never had this type of algae in my tank. To add the Urea he added a lot of shrimp and snails from what I remember. Urea is a form if Nitrogen like Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate are. It may show up in these test but I cannot find any info on this. I also see Urea test kits are very expensive and must be refrigerated. I classify this as probably a major factor to some types of algae but we can't test for it so not much can be said for sure.

nitrite
Nitrite is part of the nitrogen cycle and will not be around long in our tanks. In salt water it can lead to certain types of red algae. Julian Sprung has a great book on Salt Water Algae. The only time I ever saw red fuzzy algae was in a salt water fish only tank that was cycling and had high levels of nitrite for weeks. Water changes were not practice at the time. There were no fish at the time so there was no risk. When the nitrite cleared the red fuzzy algae went away too. I classify nitrite as not likely to be a factor for very long if at all.

nitrate
In the old days, when we first got nitrate test kits, it was popular to believe that nitrate was a major factor in algae and we started doing everything we could from water changes to chemicals to control it. It turns out it's probably only a minor factor. I will say that having massive amounts of Nitrate do seem to lead to green hair algae. I will also say if you have a system loaded with nitrate you have a aquarium keeper who doesn't care about there water and so it's loaded with phosphate and probably organics too. Having super high levels of nitrate probably does lead to outbreaks. Having lower levels of nitrate (say between 0 and 20 ppm) will probably have very little effect at all. I thought for a long time how to classify this one. I guess the answer is "It depends". In cases of very high nitrate, say over 40 ppm) it's probably a major contributing factor. In freshwater systems under that it's probably a minor factor but watch your ratio. In salt water systems it seems to be a much bigger contributing factor. However if your levels are under 10 ppm it is probably not your the problem. Systems with undetectable levels of nitrate (and phosphate) are usually pretty spotless but can't support plants or corals.
I will say that it's ratio to phosphate does seem important . if the ratio is skewed one way or the other, various types of algae may appear. More on that in the case studies. The ratio might be a major factor. it depends on how bad it is skewed. A minor imbalance at low levels of nitrate and phosphate is very unlikely to matter.
Nitrate can easily be removed with water changes but probably not all of it. The closer you get to 0 nitrate the more impractical this way becomes. There are also ion exchanges like Purolite which trades Nitrate for salt (only works in fresh water). I don't recommend that one. There are biological media made for it like Seachem's Matrix or Denitrate. You could also use any porous stone like pumice or other ceramic products. These have no negative effects. There is also deep sand beds. In my experience they work for a while then stop. I believe this is due to fish waste build up deep inside them. A new technique is carbon dosing which most people insist is only for salt water because you need a skimmer. That is false. You can use it in fresh water. Water treatment plants do it every day. The issue is that it makes a black bacteria sludge. You have to have a way to take it out or it will break down and add the nitrates right back. My idea would be glass bottom and a power head pointed at it to keep it stirred up. Then use regular filter floss to mechanically remove it from the water. To be honest, it's a pain in freshwater and I would go with the Matrix/Denitrate type solution in fresh water. It does work amazingly well though in salt water. Take your nitrates down to 0 ppm easily. Don;t add too much or you can cause cyano bacteria outbreaks.
In Julian Sprung's book on salt water algae most of the red algae's are associated with too much nitrate and some nitrite. I will say that the advent of Carbon dosing and bio pellets tremendously with algae prevention and control.
A long time ago....
A long time ago, maybe a decade before bio pellets or carbon dosing was a product called Deniballs. It was a carbon dosing product as far as I can tell. I always wondered about it but never bought it. It was expensive and most nitrate management products back then didn't seem to work. We all wished for a nitrate product back then because we got tired of doing massive water changes on our big tanks to try to control nitrate. I realize now the answer was right there the whole time. Props to the inventor of that product. You were way ahead of all of us.

phosphate
This is a super controversial nutrient. It comes into aquariums from the food over time. It can also come in from the tap water. The thing I only recently figured out is that massive amounts of it can come form old rocks such as "Live Rocks" from a polluted system or "Base Rock" (dead coral that came from another aquarium). Often those people had no knowledge of phosphate and let the rock soak it up in water containing 100's of ppm's of phosphate for years. That will defiantly cause algae and headaches but it takes while for it to soak back out into your water again.
In the old days a planted tank system called PMDD came out and said that having phosphate that was too high would cause algae outbreaks. It does. However, people have misinterpreted that to mean any phosphate causes algae. That is not true. However, if you strip out all the phosphate from your fish only system, I highly doubt you will see any algae. We do that mostly with Poly Filter Pads or GFO. Doing that to nitrate may work but is much harder. Doing it to Iron or Potassium will not matter either. I recommend at the very least you have a Phosphate test kit and keep it in the proper ratio with nitrate. If it is a fish only system just strip all the phosphate out with Poly Filter Pads. I promise this will put the hurting on many types of algae. Especially the green ones. If you keep plants you need to have some phosphate.
In Julian Sprung's book on salt water algae most of the green algae's are associated with too much phosphate. I will say that the advent of Phosban reactors and other GFO products helped Tremendously with algae prevention and control.

iron
Iron is equally controversial as phosphate but much easier to deal with. It gets blamed for algae sometimes and especially in farmers wells that have high iron in there water. Iron test kits only test for the one form of iron that plants and algae can use. The good news is that it doesn't stick around long n aquariums where you are not adding it on purpose. It falls right out of the water. No deed to test it unless your adding it for your plants or if you suspect your well water is highly contaminated with iron. If you get rusty stains from your shower head and toilet you might. You could use a chelator like EDTA to fix that. You could also use RO water and mix up your own. That is a whole different subject.
I will say that Iron in massive doses can cause an iron bacteria that looks nasty. I have never seen it in an aquarium.
Planted tank people often add iron. Sometimes with other "Micro ferts" and sometimes by itself. Adding massive doses of iron could cause problems but not likely IMO. They just fall out of the water anyways. Adding the other micro ferts can though. More on that soon. The only time to add Iron is if you have a planted aquarium and I recommend tiny daily doses that set your iron level to 0.1 ppm Iron. I do not recommend dosing weekly.
I was all set to classify Iron as a minor contributor at best if at all. However :) Planted tanks are notorious for having traces fo algae that will just not go away. Sometimes they have full on outbreaks. Usually it's too much light and/or too much fertilizer (Nutrients) in those cases. There is a tank I have been testing for about 5 months now which had traces of a green stain type algae on rocks in higher light areas as well as well as green spot algae. I tired every level and ratio of nitrate and phosphate I could find anywhere. Nothing. Due to an unrelated issue I recently started dosing tiny amounts of only Iron (no Micro ferts) daily to set th elevel to 0.1 ppm when the lights come on each day. Suddenly the green stain algae vanished from off the rocks and the green spot algae has slowed way way down. Maybe done. I was not expecting that at all. Greg Watson says in his guide that algae is often the result of a deficiency and not a surplus of nutrients. So the story on iron may not be over just yet.

Metals (Micro Ferts)
Metals have been shown to lead to algae blooms in fresh water systems. This is something that has also been heavily studied in the mining and well industries. We are talking about Metals and Heavy Metals which are toxic to fish. I can;t tell you which one causes which algae etc. I can tell you that you don;t want any of them. Examples are Aluminum, copper, manganese, zinc, cobalt, lead, Mercury, Nickle....etc. You can;t test for some of them and if you tried you would spend a lot of time and money. It is impractical. You could send a sample in to Triton Aquatics and see all of them. This is the main reason why we do water changes in our tanks. These metals build up from tap water and fish food and over time become toxic. They also can accumulate from tiny amounts in tap water or from salt mixes. They also can contribute to algae for sure. TO remove them you can use aquatic plants. Certain products remove certain ones. GFO removes Arsenic and Aluminum. Cuprisoarb removes copper. None of them remove it all. Only plants and water changes will do that for you. The hardware store sells heavy metal test but people and fish are different when it comes to toxicity so I don't think it is useful. I classify metals as a major contributing factor.


Silicate (Dissolved Sand)
Silicate is actually a major cause of a specific type of algae known as brown diatom algae. Will talk more about that soon. There are test kits. Don't buy them. Here's why. Weather you have city or well water it will probably be loaded with silicates off the chart. The brown algae comes with every new tank and then goes away on its own or gets eaten by algae eaters. After this happens the silicate levels drop down to non detectable levels and the brown algae usually never returns. You sometimes do get trace amounts inside your tubing if light hits them. It's a non issue. Don't worry about silicate. I classify it as a major but irrelevant contributing factor to Brown Diatom Algae.

spores
Transmutation was disproved a long time ago. People used to believe that rotten meat actually transformed into maggot. Science showed that it was actually flies laying eggs in the meat when no one was looking.
Algae cannot magically appear. It comes from spores just like plants come from seeds or runners. Some of those spores can travel right through the air. Some cannot. They come into your tank on fish,plants,corals, rocks, or decorations that you add. Even used equipment. Using dips might help but most people do not bother. Some of the species of algae like nasty water with lots of nutrients but some grow just fine in "Good" water. They show up in the spores find there way into your system. This probably accounts for those mysterious difficult types of algae such as Black Beard that know one can figure out where it comes from. My advice is that you buy from a dealer who does NOT have algae all over his tanks. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen a old fish keeper with a store with dim lights and yucky algae all over his tanks. Has types of algae I have never had. I bring a fish home from his system and now, 3 weeks later, I have the same thing. be very discriminatory who you buy fish and especially plants or corals from.

germination
Germination (In my non educated terms) is when an algae spore decided to come out of sleeping mode and go into algae bloom mode. Some people believe ammonia causes this. I can't say much else but I wonder of there are other factors.
 
Part 2

Clean Up crew
People often use clean up crews like algae eaters, Snails, Crabs, and mollusks to get rid of algae. How many there are and what they eat is beyond the scope of this article. I will mention of few to get and a few not to get. If you have a major algae outbreak, most of the time a clean up crew would have to be very large to fix it and then die off from starvation after it's gone. It's better to keep a healthy system with little algae and a small crew to keep it that way.
In fresh Water
Otocinclus Catfish
love to eat Brown Diatom Algae. They also need Green Algae such as Green Dust Algae or they will starve after a few months. What I like to do is add them to get rid of the Brown Diatom algae then put a small piece of driftwood which will usually start to grow a tiny amount of green or Black Beard Algae which then keeps them fat and healthy without taking over my whole system with algae. I can't say it always works. It seems to work for me.
Plecco
This fish is often sold to eat algae but many of them grow large and there mouth is too big to get at the tiny places. My 10 inch Plecco did a great job of keeping the glass clean but that was it. I needed to feed him algae tablets to keep him from starving.
Bristle nose plecco
I love this plecco. They are small and stay that way. They are very similar to otocinclus catfish and are non aggressive. They can eat brown diatom or green fuzzy type algae. It's amazing how fast just like Otocinclus catfish.
Siamese Algae Eaters
These guys can eat all kinds of green and sometimes brown algae. There is more then one species that is sold as this name and some of them eat Black beard (Red) algae or Java Moss. It can be very hard to tell them apart. There is also a fish called a Flying fox that gets sold by accident under this name sometimes.

Flag Fish
They can be aggressive but do eat some kids of green hair algae.

Rosy Barbs
These will pick at green fuzz and green hair algae. They seem peaceful to me but may tear up your plants laves slightly.

Chinese Algae Eaters
I would stay away from these. When they are young they eat a lot of algae but as they get older they eat it much less and start getting aggressive. There are other choices. They also love to jump out so you need a top.
Mollies
They can eat some algae, mostly off vertical surfaces. They can be acclimated to salt water as well. It's not really a full time algae eater and they make a lot of babies which can overwhelm your system.

All fish may occasionally pick at algae of they are hungry but not enough to control it.

snails
some people insist snails are goof for cleaning algae such as green spot algae. They do it it but not very fast. I have tried snails of all kinds in fresh and salt water. Fun to watch but not useful IMO.
clams
These guys are amazing for clearing up green water and even regular water to crystal clarity.

red cherry shrimp
These do a great job of keeping the bottom clean in fresh water tanks. I recommend sand not gravel.

salt water
scarlet hermit crabs
These guys eat everything and can scale rocks. I have seen them lay waste to a horrible red slime (cyano bacteria)/brown diatom/dinoflaggalete outbreak in a week. You may need a lot and they will probably starve down to a lower population once the outbreak is devoured. I love these guys. The red slime is possibly toxic to them and I do find many of them dead after a few weeks.

Emerald crabs
can be aggressive to other crabs and known for eating bubble algae.

snails
Large ones are mostly decorative like the turbo snail. Yes he really does go fast (for a snail). Small ones are supposed to help with algae control but I never get them to do much.
clams
Do a great job of keeping water crystal clear. They can eat green water (AKA phyto plankton) no problem. Some people will buy live ones from a dish market and use them to clean up there salt water but be warned. Many parasites can come in this way and maybe harm your corals etc.

Pistol Shrimp/Gobby pair
Instead of stealing someone else article. Here it is:
Symbiotic Relationships: Pistol Shrimp & Gobies: A Safe Alliance

Peppermint shrimp (Candy Cane Shrimp)
This one is for eating Aptasia which is not really an algae.

Tangs
Yellow and other tangs LOVE to eat Green hair algae all day and night. When it runs out they can get skinny and eventually die. The solution is Nori which is sold for making Sushi in the Asian section of most grocery stores.

I want to take a minute to talk about water sanitizers like Hydrogen peroxide, Glutoraldahyde, and Flourish Excel (Probably just glutoraldahyde). This has become very popular to treat algae int he last few years. Make no mistake they do kill algae very quickly. Just adding it to the water does nothing in my experience. You have to spot treat it on the algae. The problem is that it also damages leaves of plants. Perhaps someone can get a solution that works just right. I did not have much luck. It always burned my leaves. I would use it in the proper dosage to spot treat a fish only system all day long. Be careful, it's dangerous for your good bacteria if you use to much. In planted tanks if you have a plant overrun with black beard or green spot algae just cut off that leaf before it spreads.

Surface Type
One of the newest things on the salt water side is algae resistant synthetic rocks and equipment. Most algae needs a porous surface to get locked onto. Certain smooth surfaces do not have this. You will notice most kinds of algae cannot grow on your glass.


Specific types of algae and case studies.

All algae is not the same. You have to identify what it is before we can talk about treating it. Having good water chemistry is a great start but sometimes it still appears. First use google to figure out what you have. Then you can proceed. You need to kill algae with a 2 pronged approach. Step 1 is getting rid of what is already there. My scrubbing, chemicals, clean up crew or sometimes....just waiting. Step one is optional but it really speeds things up a lot. Step 2 is to change the environment so that it does not return. Light, CO2, Nutrients in the water, type of substrate etc. This prevents it from returning.


The Algae Cycle
Before we get started on different species of Algae, I want to talk about something many aquarists are not away of. This information comes from my own personal experience as well as many others who have been around a long time back before there was as much emphasis on good water keeping. Which is really what good aquarium keeping is. I call it the algae cycle. It starts right about the time the nitrogen cycle ends in my experience.
Let's say you have a new aquarium (Fresh or Saltwater) all set up. You add a fish or 2 to get things started. No water changes or very few. That is, unfortunately, how we used to do it back in the old days. We thought we had to "Age the water". Some people do it now with the use of chemicals to protect the fish from ammonia and nitrite which is much better and perfectly fine. Right about the time the nitrogen cycle finishes you start to see brown dust or dots appearing in your tank. All over your rocks and decorations etc. This is brown diatom algae and happens every time. In fresh Water it's usually dark and sticks well to the rocks. In salt water it usually seems like a dust and you can easily swish the water near it to make it come off. This happens in every new tank. More about diatoms next. The cool thing is, if you wait, it will go away on it's own. Maybe a month. The bad news is, that's not the end of the story.
As the brown fades away you notice a green algae coming in. It is not cyano bacteria. it is more like a green stain on everything. Sometimes it wipes off easy but sometimes not. Good news is, it goes away on it's own too. Perhaps after a month. This doesn't always happen to me but it seems to be the tanks with algae eaters (Put there to eat the diatoms) also eat this. So I think it happens but I just can't see it in those cases.
Lastly (Especially in salt water tanks), as this green algae fades away, Green algae may appear. It does not. This is the time to start looking at your nutrients. It will not go away without your attention. In the case of yellow tangs.
If you keep your nutrients at proper levels and do your water changes you may never see these later stages. I also drop in the clean up crew when the brown diatom algae gets heavier and they make the tank pretty clean within days or weeks.

Types of algae

Green Water (AKA Phytoplankton in salt water.)
This large is a single celled free floating algae that makes your water turn green. In the early stages it might just look like cloudy or hazy water. When it gets worse you can see the green color. It reproduces very quickly and can be pain to get rid of ounce it appears.
Tom Barr and others have found Ammonia can be the trigger for these blooms. They are also common in ponds in the spring. For myself I also find that Direct sunlight or way too much light has a big role in this. I also have found a correlation with too much phosphate. Once I tried using a 7.0 pH buffer which was loaded with phosphate and the green water came on very fast.
To kill green water you can use algaecides made for it if you do NOT have inverts like snails or crabs. I don't really like that way. Also, UV sterilizers are great at killing it. Do a big water change first then implement your solution.
To keep it gone you need to control nutrients. Testing for them while you have green water is pointless. The tests usually read 0 ppm. Green water eats them very fast. Once you kill the green water then add more bio filtration and make sure you phosphate is not too high. May as well check nitrate while your at it. I have read in my Phycology text book (Listed at the end)that many species of green water love eutrophic water. That means water with a lot of nutrients. However, there are a few species who live in acidic water with low nutrients. So the answer would seem to be make sure your alkalinity is as high as you can safely do for your species and manage those nutrients.

Case Study:
In the worse case of green water I ever saw, the customer had a 20 gal tank. It only had 3 small fish. It got small water changes on a daily basis. It was in a store window and was exposed to daylight which was very bad. It also had no bio filtration at all. A perfect recipe for Green water IMO. The customer was using a product that contained copper and Lanthanum chloride. The copper kills the algae (And also any snails or crabs) and the Lanthanum chloride binds up the phosphate and makes it unavailable to the green water. By the way, testing green water for nutrients is usually pretty pointless. It east them so fast the test always reads o ppm. the drops the customer was adding did kill the green water but then it would return in a week. UV lights are great at killing green water without harming plants or invertebrates. Then add more bio filtration to get rid of ammonia. Also make sure Nitrate and phosphate levels are being managed. The store closed before I was able to hep the customer. She did say the fish tank water was making her potted plants turn very healthy and grow like crazy. That means a lot of nutrients were present.

Cyanobacteria (Green Slime or Blue Green Algae in Fresh Water and Red Slime in Salt Water)
This algae looks like a dark green slime (fresh Water) or red slime (Salt Water) all over the rocks and gravel and often comes right up the side of the tank. It spread very quickly, especially in fresh water. It comes off very easy in the fresh water case and you can vacuum it out. It comes back very fast. It is actually not an algae at all but a cynao bacteria. So it behaves somewhat like a bacteria. It also loves low flow areas and warmer water. it does do photosynthesis but I have read many posts that doing black outs or decreasing the photo period did not help. My Phycology test book says about have of the species must have organic carbon sources like fish waste and the other half can use that kind if they need to. In may experience doing massive water changes and using activated carbon did not help. However, Dr Tim Hovanec, maintains organics play a large role in this type of algae. Dr. Tim has very high credentials indeed and is a Microbiologist as well. I believe no one knows more about bacteria in aquariums then him. My experiences have not been the same but his product does work. More about that in a bit. A shockign thing I read is that this kind of algae sometimes has the ability to move!! Some are toxic but most are not. Many health food fanatics buy Spirulina powder which is blue green algae.
Some people used to believe that ammonia caused this algae. The reason was because tanks with a lot of it sometimes tested positive for ammonia. The truth is reversed. Cyano can take nitrogen right from the air and turn it into ammonia. Because of that, trying to take away nitrate will not help with this algae.
This kind of algae would prefer warmer water to colder. That is typical of bacteria. More on that in the case study. I would turn the temp down to the lowest safe level for my fish if I was treating this outbreak.
My Phycology textbook also states this type of algae hates bright light and prefers low light. It says that bright light can kill cyano bacteria. My experience has been different. See the case study below. I am prepared to admit that perhaps extreme bright light might kill this algae but it is probably more about UV then the visible light spectrum. Changing bulbs and also doing black outs did not seem to help much even though it is a photosynthetic organism. This is consistent with it liking low light,

Phosphate has shown to be a big factor in this kind of algae. In the case study below it is how I finally beat the Green Slime without medication. It was a fish only system and I used Poly Filter pads and an API test kit to bring phosphate down to 0 ppm. It faded away after that. In that tank I had always did maintain low nitrates. Phosphate were off the chart when I discovered them.

In fresh water, green slime algae cannot hang on very well. it must be in very low flow areas. If you increase the flow it will peal right off. This may not be practice for keeping the whole tank clear but it helps if you have a certain spot that always has cyanobacteria.



Cyano is hard to beat once it gets started. In the past I have just used phosphate removal and mechanical removal to get rid of it. It salt water, the Red Hermit Crabs in salt water to get rid of it. Some strains are toxic and might kill those animals.
A better way that I am now aware of is to use products made to kill it. One product is made by UltraLife for a long time now. Red Slime Remover is for Salt Water and Green Slime Remover works in fresh water. It works very fast and is safe for planted tanks and reefs. I believe it is a antibiotic even though I think the package says it is not.
Demo/Review here:

Chemiclean is also available.

You can also try antibiotics such as Erythromycin or Kanamycin (Sold as Kanaplex by Seachem). These can work well. Old timers used to do this. Some people will tell you it will kill your good nitriying bacteria in your bio filter. Not likely. Depending on who you listen too most of the bad bacteria are gram negative and the good ones like the nitrifiers are gram positive.This gets disputed a lot and I'm not a bacteria expert. The medications are geared to one or the other but can sometimes do both. That gets argued over too. When I have used Kanaplex in the proper amounts I have never see it kill by bio filter however you should monitor ammonia etc.

If you don't want to use a chemical and would prefer a natural solution then Dr. Tim makes a products called Refresh for both fresh or salt water. It works slower but it works.

Demo Here.

Case Study:
75 gal African Cichlid tank that had 2 full length Fresh Water T8 Bulbs and very little flow. There were only 3 juvenile cichlids and 1 10 inch plecotomus in this tank. Crushed shell gravel and some bio filtration. 90% (no, that is not a typo) water changes were done weekly. Nitrate was around 5-10 ppm and phosphate was unmonitored. It turned out to be off the chart. Tank had been established with no issues for about a year and then a massive outbreak of cyano bacteria came and would not leave.
I knew hardly anything about algae back then (around 2000). I ferts got new bulbs as recommended. That did not help. I knew water changes were not the issue. I lowered the temperature from 76 F to 73F and found the rate that the blue green algae grew back was cut in half. It took about 3 days to regrow at first but after the temperature lowering was more like 6.
It was easily to remove 99% of it with just gravel vacuuming. I realized the deep gravel was trapping a lot of fish waste. Even though it got vacuumed every week that is where this algae seemed to always start from. So I removes most of the gravel and just left a light sprinkling of it. That also helped a lot but not the end of the battle.
Finally, I discovered information about the link between phosphate and algae. I bought an API test kit and it was off the chart. Started using the green colored Poly Filter pads in the box filter and it was reduced to 0 ppm. I had to change them a lot. Now the Cyano bacteria almost completely stopped coming back at all. It was almost nonexistent as long as I kept up with the somewhat expensive poly filter pads. If I let Phosphate creep up off the chart it came back.
Now days I would use Green slime remover to kill all it's spores as well as the phosphate remover. I would also use Activated Carbon or Purigen in a tank with this problem just to help but I don't think it would be much more then a small help. Chemi-Pure Elite is a great product for this specific problem or you could make your own with ROX Carbon and GFO from Bulk Reef Supply or some other distributor. I would also make sure I had much better flow. I also recommend sand or bare bottom. No Gravel bottoms.

Brown Diatom Algae
This one is the most common and also the most easy. All new tanks get this algae after a month or two. Exception might be a tank with no light. It goes away on it's own about 1-2 months after it appears. Or you can add algae eaters. I recommend Otocinclus Catfish or Bristle Nose Plecco for fresh water and Scarlet Hermit Crabs for salt water. It can clear very fast in Salt Water if you used good RO water to make your salt mix in which case just wait a week before you spend a lot of money on cleaners. I like clean up crews in all my tanks anyways but I don't want them to starve. The Phycology textbook says that in nature they may bloom if there is an increase in light such as in the spring time. They can eat either organic or inorganic carbon.

Case Study:
Every tank I ever started.


Green hair
There are different kinds of Green Hair algae both in fresh and salt water. Some are like a fuzzy carpet. Some are a longer fuzz. Some are like a tangled up mess of green hair. Some are very long individual green hairs which some of us refer to as green thread algae. In fresh water they can often come in tanks with high nutrients. Especially Nitrate or Phosphate. In salt water is the same. However, there are types that live in the same water that is considered good for plants. They are parasitic and attack plants that are unhealthy. In planted tanks focus on healthy plants and have some decent green hair algae eaters and you should not have too many problems with green hair algae. A very old planted tank expert I trust once told me with green hair algae you need to change the chemical conditions and that species will go away. It was not a very satisfying answer but probably about right.

Case Study's:
A 20 gal planted tank about 6 months old. Originally had long threads and hairs growing all over a Java Fern that was buried to deep. I pulled the plant out and the algae vanished within days. By the time I added the Rosy barbs to eat it, it was already almost gone.

Same tank. Every time Phosphate got up above 1.5 ppm green fuzz would cover all the brown "Roots" that float off the Java Fern. When the level drops it vanishes. Nitrates were at various levels throughout that 6 months.

A 6 month old Salt Water tank about 20 Gals. Had massive long Green fuzzy hairs all over the live rock which is notorious for leaking phosphate when they are used. These were. A yellow tang made short work of it. Rocks were clean. I had no knowledge of Phosphate back then. Removing the nitrate with a nitrate pillow from Fluval seemed to lower nitrates a lot even though it is not supposed to work in salt water. It's a long story to do with ion exchanges and densities. You could also use Purolite - A520E. I do not know if it mattered much because the Yellow Tang would have eaten it anyways. I don't recommend the Purolite type products for fresh water because they release salt into the water. There are better ways mentioned up above in the nitrate section.

Black Beard Algae.
This one is mystery. We do not know why it comes or goes for sure. Getting rid of it is very difficult for most people. Many of us planted tank keeps have traces of it but never get a full blown outbreak.
I found very little info about this on the web. Tom Barr states that injecting CO2 up to 30 ppm can make this algae go away. He states Low CO2 or Unstable CO2 causes this and explains the science behind it if your interested in enzymes etc. I have never injected CO2 so i cannot say if it works. Excel does kill it as does Hydrogen Peroxide but it also damages the leaf so I would just take the leaf off. Same advice a very experienced old planted tank guru told me. Don't let it spread.
In the Phycology test book it says it is one of the few fresh water red algae's. It is called Lamanea. It does have spores and so I think it spreads from aquarium to aquarium by plants and other things moved from one to the other. I do not believe it is common in the air because it does not seem to appear in very many fish only tanks. It does appear a lot in planted tanks in my experience.
The book also states it needs bright light and so will grow in clear water or close to the surface. Also, that it needs high flow. In a fish only system I would kill it with Hydrogen peroxide or Flourish Excel spot treatments. Do it slowly over time. Don;t overdose.

Case Study:
20 gal planted tank established for about 8 months. Some new plants were added from a store which had some Black Beard in it's system. It appeared despite good nutrient levels and ratios. Only peroxide and excel killed it. It would have been easier just to remove those leaves. It hangs on in traces but has never had a big outbreak.

Dinoflagalete.
This is mostly only present in salt water aquariums and is pretty rare in my experience but I always keep my alkalinity somewhat high in my salt water tanks. People who have reported large Dino problems also sometimes say they have a little lower alkalinity then I keep. The ones I have seen look like a giant brown blob with a hard to describe shape. It feels like jelly and does not come off easy at all.
The Phycology text book says some interesting things about them. About half Have no chloroplasts (No photosynthesis) Other half are faculative and can switch to that way. That means they get there carbon from fish waste most likely.
They don't need inorganic nutrients dissolved int he water. They actually have mouths and they eat bacteria or even other algae. In nature there might be a diatom bloom in the spring which can result in a Dinoflaggalate bloom. Some are poisonous but most are not. They prefer warmer water and not so much cold water.

Case Study:
40 Gal Salt Water Tank. Established for around 5 months. Good skimming and filtration. Moderate fish load and bright lighting. That tank owner was experimenting with carbon dosing (Vodka) for nitrate reduction. Dynofloaggalets showed up with a vengeance.
It is not uncommon for people who experimented with Vodka dosing to experience cyanobacteria outbreaks due to excessive dissolved organic carbons. The dinoflaggalets eat these. Also the tank still had some brown diatom algae present which I am sure contributed.
An interesting side note was that spot treatment by hydrogen peroxide killed a giant mass of dinoflaggalets very quickly. Within 15 minutes it's color dulled a lot. Within 2 hours it was floating in the top of the aquarium. Unfortunately, it all grew right back. This customer was not experienced with nutrient management and was not dealing with phosphate at all. Even though Dinoflaggalets do not eat nutrients directly there does.
To fixed it I added an army of Scarlet Hermit Crabs from GARF. They laid waste to it and within a few weeks it was all clear. Never came back even though the hermit crab population decreased quite a bit.

Red Fuzzy Algae.
Red algae is mostly a salt water phenomena. Julian Sprung attributes most of them to high nitrate or nitrite in his book.
Case Study
50 Gal Salt water fish only tank. Only ever saw this Red Fuzzy algae during the nitrite phase of the cycle. When the nitrite was gone the red fuzzy algae disappeared and never came back.

If you would like to read and see some great info on algae and other subjects I recommend these sources to start.

My Favorite companies to deal with online are listed below.
All these companies will talk to you about your tank problems. If your going to take there time, please give them your money too. I gave them mine :D Some people may feel that this is an advertisement. It is not. It is my endorsement. Most of these people have been willing to give me far more hours of there time and expertise over the years then the money I spent on there stuff. Which was a lot. If not for there help and products, this article would not be possible.

Bulk Reef Supply
Saltwater and Reef Aquarium Supplies - Bulk Reef Supply
Red Sea Systems
Red Sea coral reef & marine Aquarium systems complete reef solutions
Acrylic Tank Manufacturing
Google

For water testing:

Aquarium Pharmacuticals Inc. (API)
Had it not been for them, I doubt the hobby would have ever taken off in the Untied States. They were the first and still the go to people for most of the water tests I do.
API Fishcare: Products

Lamotte
They have some great tests no one else does like Potassium and more accurate tests for Nitrate, Calcium, Magnesium etc. Good for research.
LaMotte Company :: Water Quality and Analytical Testing Equipment Manufacturer

Hanna Instruments
Hanna Checkers are AWSOME and easy to use. Very accurate. No more hard to read color charts. They also have many more expensive meters that test for almost anything you can Imagine.
pH Meters, Refractometers, Photometers, Titrators, Turbidity Meters, Controllers & Fertigation Systems| Hanna Instruments USA.

There are a few others but they have asked me not to use there name in any guides I write. You know who you are :D

(These resources are not all just about Algae. They are about whole aquatic systems. It is neccessary to understand the whole system to talk about algae). Google and YouTube are full of information. These are just to get you started.
Phycology Text Book (Only for peopel who love reading about the inside of cells)
http://www.amazon.com/Algae-Introduction-Christiaan-van-Hoek/dp/0521316871

Julian Sprungs salt water algae book (Must read for a reef tank IMO)
Amazon.com
Diana Walstads Book and Forum
Amazon.com
El Natural - Aquatic Plant Central

Tom Barr's Forum
Forum - Aquarium Plants - Barr Report

Of course there is Also here at APC of course :D
 
Holy crap. I didn't read it yet, but I promise you I'm going to set aside a good 30 minutes to read your two posts. I'm intrigued.


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Holy crap. I didn't read it yet, but I promise you I'm going to set aside a good 30 minutes to read your two posts. I'm intrigued.


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Thank you for your time. Would you like to hear something Hilarious? When I sat down to write it I actually thought it would be about 20 minutes to write and another 10 for spelling LOL. Think I misspelled Algae as Alage every single time I wrote it.
 
Thank you for your time. Would you like to hear something Hilarious? When I sat down to write it I actually thought it would be about 20 minutes to write and another 10 for spelling LOL. Think I misspelled Algae as Alage every single time I wrote it.


That is exactly why I promise you I will read it completely in the morning. I'm intrigued, and in awe, that someone would spend that much time to type something that I'm interested in.


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Excellent work. I have a lot to comment on and hopefully contribute. For me, my experience and from research it is about balance. Unfortunately this can become a problem in aquaria due to the direct intervention of hobbyists. Mostly, what we do with are tanks simply does not occur in nature. I would be going more down the biological route rather than the chemical route. I do agree that dissolved organics do have a huge role to play in algae, particularly if the amount going in is overwhelming to the system. The system has to be able to remove what is going in. The system should be able to maintain the balance in its own.

I would have expected to see allelopathy given a mention. Many scientist believe that there's a biologically induced chemical war going on within our tanks with each species being able to suppress the other be releasing hormones and toxins. The same way in which terrestrial plants make themselves less tasty to predators.

In the wild algae is essential for life and to a certain extent it is essential in our aquariums and plays its part in keeping the balance.

I'd have to agree with the gravel statement. I've seen it first hand. Normally I recommend it but it does look like it could cause problems however. In an aquarium there really shouldn't be that much waste collecting on the ground. It's not that we are not cleaning enough, it's probably more that we are feeding too much of the wrong kind of foods. Fish food is essential ground up fish with bulking agents added to it. This is why is holds so many nutrients but it's not the kind of food we normally see in the wild. Fish are able to obtain all their nutrients from algae and insects or other fish that have eaten algae or insects etc. Could providing fish with more live food prevent the over addition of nutrients from fish food? Tanks with lots of inverts (they are there for a purpose) may not see such problems as uneaten food can be further reduced.

What about growth sites for algae? Why does algae seem to grow on poor plant growth? Is the dying leaf a good host to soak up nutrients? Perhaps the dying lead releases a chemical that induces algae. Then you have to look at why the leaf is dying. Because the balance is not right.

Plant species grow where they grow because they have adapted to the conditions over such a long period. This does not mean that they will not appreciate more favourable conditions. That species only exists because of the conditions it has evolved in.

In my opinion, every parameter matters. Sometimes simply just adding more plants can tip the balance in favour of the plants. I believe, excess nutrients in the form of dissolved organic compounds is massive in inducing algae growth and it is a direct result of imbalanced tanks of which everything plays its role.

Chemical ratios just don't seem to do it for me. Mainly because everything I've heard such as high phosphate and nitrates plus low flow and fluctuating co2 haven't caused any algae in one particular tank I have that breaks all of these rules.

It has to be overstocking fish, under stocking plants, over feeding, not providing the right conditions (if which there are so many to consider) for plants growth. Keeping excess nutrients in check etc.




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Great read.

It struck me on this that it would be useful to have this condensed to a table with a link for case studies.

So you could have fields across for algae factors and fields down for algae types. E.g. perhaps sunlight is important for green algae but BBA doesn't care. So someone could look across and say I've got BBA, this is what could be important. Or ph, etc. Just an idea.
 
It is a good idea. If someone knows how to make one it would not ruffle my feathers any :D
 
Well you could also do it as a profile?

Say:

Algae x

Ph preference range -

Lighting -

Temp -

I'd try as a range or as a series of factors that people could look at and see if they get a fit.

Plus good pics.
 
Well you could also do it as a profile?

Say:

Algae x

Ph preference range -

Lighting -

Temp -

I'd try as a range or as a series of factors that people could look at and see if they get a fit.

Plus good pics.

I never took pics back then. I am looking into the table idea. I think it is a great idea. Have to work 14 hours the next 4 nights. Night 5 is reserved for sleeping :)
 
Fascinating reading. Thank you for taking the time. I need to find a good way to access this in the future.

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Fascinating reading. Thank you for taking the time. I need to find a good way to access this in the future.

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Sent you a PM. I could send you the raw text or a .PDF if you wish.
 
Jarrod0987 great read once again!

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