Thread Algae

[Mlrust1816]

I have a fairly healthy population of thread algae developing, I know SAE's eat these up for me, but my schedule doesnt allow me to get one till later in the week.

What possible problems can this thread algae population present?

 

[TankGirl]

The thread algae itself will not necessarily cause problems, unless you are trying to grow live plants, in which case it can utilize the nutrients in the water easier than the plants, which has given it a foothold (if the plants were drawing all of the nutrients themselves you would not see any algae issues).

If you have no plants then you can try to control the algae by starving it of nutrients, which usually means reducing available nutrients in the water with more water changes and cutting back your lighting schedule. Adding more fish that will eat the algae can help, but by doing so you are increasing the nutrients in the water with the additional fish, so keep that in mind. Good luck! (BTW, a toothbrush or a tubing brush works well to snag the filaments)

 

[Mlrust1816]

I do have a plant and now that you say that the hair algae arived soon after the plant was added.

I have just recently learned that Rainbow Cichlids will eat this algae. So im thinking of getting one of those as a nice addition to the tank.

Would a Rainbow Cichlid be ok in a 20 gallon tank with two Bolivian Rams

 

[TankGirl]

You might be okay, since they are extremely mild-mannered as far as cichlids go, but since the Bolivians will be much smaller it is iffy. They ultimately reach about 5" and definitely require vegetable matter in their diet, so supplement the algae with spurlina-based foods for herbivores.

No doubt the plant introduced the algae, as you suspect.