This Algae is Aggravating!

[dcallen]

Hi all,

I seem to have brown algae and a little green algae all over my rocks. I know that it will form and grow with lighting etc. but is there any way to get rid of this unsightly eye sore besides scrubbing it off the rocks? It really detracts from the overall look of the tank. As always thanks for the input.



70 gallon tank
Malawi Cichlids

[peifc]

Do you have algae eater? I used to have that problem too. Once I got the algae eater...my plant and rock are spotless. Hehe...the algae eater eats non-stop. If not algae eater, did you try to get algae control pill from fish store. Loach is great help too. If any crumble fish food falls under the gravel, Loach helps clean that up. After I have a Loach, my tank is cleaner. Clean up is easier too.

[JSchmidt]

Algae/diatom growth is natural and it's a losing battle to try to completely rid your tank of it. I've come to like the look of algae covered rocks in my cichlid tanks. They look artificial without a good coat of algae.

Jim

[dcallen]

Thanks for the input. No I don't have any loaches or any algae eaters in the tank. I have heard that some of them either get picked on or they pick on the fish. Is there one that's peaceful that would work in my tank?

[dcallen]

JSchmidt,

I will give you that it does look more natural. I wish it wasn't so prevalent in the tank though. I've looked at a lot of tank pics and it seems like the algae is not is bad in their tanks. Just an observation, I could be wrong about that.

[JSchmidt]

Don, my experience is that diatoms (brown algae) are worse in newly set up tanks and they tend to go away somewhat as the tank matures. They also tend to show up more in low-light tanks.

Green algae occurs more in tanks that receive a lot of light. Are your lights on a timer? How many hours per day are they on? How many watts of lights do you have (and what size is your tank)? Green algae can often be controlled (not eliminated) by adjusting the duration of lighting, and by removing nutrients from the water column. Keeping nitrates down will help, as will controlling phosphates.

Bristlenose plecos are reputed to be good in cichlid tanks for algae control, but I've not used them as I don't think they look right in a Rift Lake tank. Common plecos aren't a good choice; they become poor algae cleaners as they mature.

HTH,
Jim

[peifc]

Well, some algae does look great on some people's tanks. I used to have that algae on rock too, but when I moved the rock and plant to clean under the gravel. Well, I'm sure you can guess what happened. EWWWWW...

:)

My algae eater can swim like lightening speed when one of my male severum is trying to pick on him. My Loach doesn't give a care my Blood Parrot and Severums pick on her. She just want to eat. I've seen my Loach came between my fight Blood Parrots. She just looked at them and then swam away to mind her own business. The clown Loach is very funny to watch sometimes.

What I'm trying to say is that...Loach and algae eater might not have sharp teeth to fight back when it comes to aggressive fish, but they sure can swim and hide.

As for aggression in Loach and algae eater, I haven't see much of that. Their teeth are too small and sharpless to pick on other fish. They might nudge other fish a bit just because they wanna get to certain spot to eat.

My clown loach and algae eater can tolerate 6.4 to 7 pH and 72 to 80 degree temperature.

Here is some info for clown loach.

http://www.giveusahome.co.uk/allpets/fish/clownloach.htm

Here is algae eater.

http://www.giveusahome.co.uk/allpets/fish/algaeeater.htm

[TKOS]

The flying foxes I have in my parents tanks seems to like to eat the algea off of the rocks in the tank. You can generally get them big enough to take care of themselves and they are normally peaceful to other fish. Plus they are the funniest swimmers ever.

[dcallen]

Jim,

I have a 70 gallon tank with one 4 foot flourescent day time light on it. I have a nice power compact light left over from my salt water days that I thought about putting on in place of the basic light I have now. It would show the colors of the fish much better but it seems to me that it would stimulate more algae growth and probably raise the temp in the tank a degree or two. I don't have the light on a timer now but I plan on doing that today. I was going to leave the light on for maybe 8 hours or so. I have been doing 30% weekly water changes and my nitrates are very low and close to 0.


Thanks again,

[TKOS]

Do you have plants in this tank? I know normally people don't keep plants in cichlid tanks. If you don't have plants then that is another reason algea is growing well. Adding lights on a timer won't help and will just promote more algea growth. If there are no plants, I would suggest that you just keep the lights on when you want to admire your fish. The fish don't really need lights, they can find their way around without it.

[scholar]

I hope that's OK to piggy back on thsi thread. i do have plants and it is the algae on the plants that my small rubber-lip pleco does not consume.

What fish would eat the algae on the plants? :)

[peifc]

Originally posted by scholar
I hope that's OK to piggy back on thsi thread. i do have plants and it is the algae on the plants that my small rubber-lip pleco does not consume.

What fish would eat the algae on the plants? :)

Plastic plant? Hehe....

I have plastic plant. My algae eater clean that up real nice. :)

[Reiner]

I have a 80 gallon tank with 14 various african cichlids. For algea control I have a 4-5 inch big bristlenose pleco and it does just fine in there. Mine will not move all day long it just hangs upside down on a rock. He only swimms at night when all the lights are off including the light in the room. So I'm not really sure if the cichlids know that they have a Pleco in the tank with them.:D