View Full Version : Algae in an African Tank
TheFanatic
01-21-2008, 9:46 AM
This is my first serious African Tank. I once had a planted 55 with Dafodil's and yellow labs. Usually go with South Americans. But once I saw some of the crazy Africans I could buy I converted a 110 gallon to Africans.
My question is, how do I control Algae? Can the exotic plecos I love in my S.A. tanks handle the water conditions and aggression of an African tank? Ottos? SAE's?
The rub here is that it is also a planted tank. I know, plants and Africans don't go together. I was able to pull it off with dafodils and yellow labs. Going with peacocks and am thinking that I can pull it off.
How do I put enough light in there for the plants to thrive and keep the resultant algae in check?
jpappy789
01-21-2008, 9:50 AM
Depends on the plants. Try some java fern or anubias and you wont need that much light anyways. Otos and SAE's are for sure a no. Some people can pull off having plecos in their African tank though generally I would advise against it.
TheFanatic
01-21-2008, 10:21 AM
Depends on the plants. Try some java fern or anubias and you wont need that much light anyways. Otos and SAE's are for sure a no. Some people can pull off having plecos in their African tank though generally I would advise against it.
Currently I have Amazon Swords and Jungle Vals. Was looking to add some anubias. Java fern would be cool too.
I was thinking a couple of bristle nose plecos could handle the aggression of the Africans.
ozgood
01-21-2008, 10:26 AM
I have a 75 gallon with a bristle nose pleco. He seems to be doing well; been in there about 6 weeks. I have a few Java Ferns in there. Been in there the same 6 weeks. They look all but dead. I mean, the roots seem to be alive but the the green leaves are all brown and partly/mostly see through now. There's no shortage of nitrates for the plants. Bright side is that the fish don't touch them.
I'm not thrilled with the performance of the BN pleco. He's cooll to look at but he can't seem to keep up with the algae. I've moved from brown algae to green in the past month.
jpappy789
01-21-2008, 2:19 PM
Bn's arent the best when it comes to algae anyways. Mine got all the brown (diatoms) but like ozgood ignored anything that was green, but JME.
TheFanatic
01-21-2008, 2:46 PM
Bn's arent the best when it comes to algae anyways. Mine got all the brown (diatoms) but like ozgood ignored anything that was green, but JME.
So, what do I do about the green?
jpappy789
01-21-2008, 2:54 PM
like any type of algae its best to find the source of the problem, ie too much lighting, nutrients (overfeeding), phosphates, ect...then just scrape it off.
TheFanatic
01-21-2008, 3:00 PM
like any type of algae its best to find the source of the problem, ie too much lighting, nutrients (overfeeding), phosphates, ect...then just scrape it off.
Gonna put the lights on a timer and have phosphate remover in the canister filter. I do fertilize. I'm hoping the reduced lighting and the phosphate removes will take care of business...
Gonna put the lights on a timer and have phosphate remover in the canister filter. I do fertilize. I'm hoping the reduced lighting and the phosphate removes will take care of business...
I think the fert will cause you problems, I used fert for my anubias and algae went mental (I use rowaphos and purigen in my filters), I've stopped using it and now just double dosing with seachem excel and it seems to be bringing the problem under control
kay-bee
01-21-2008, 4:35 PM
Bn's arent the best when it comes to algae anyways...
I guess 'performance' will vary. My BN's are superb and make short work of algae:
10gal mbuna grow out tank with major algae problem (with BN pleco just added to the tank also in the shot):
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/before.jpg
A few days later:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/after.jpg
I've begun intentionally 'harvesting' algae-covered rocks in a different tank for my BN's to 'snack on' since any algae in their tank is decimated and the mbuna's compete with them for the algae disks.
Algae coated 'snack' rock added to tank:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/nightbefore.jpg
About 8hrs later:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/morningafter.jpg
jpappy789
01-21-2008, 6:11 PM
Just goes to show you that it does come down to experience, I guess mine was just lazy or I spoiled him with too many wafers...
jpappy789
01-21-2008, 6:12 PM
I think the fert will cause you problems, I used fert for my anubias and algae went mental (I use rowaphos and purigen in my filters), I've stopped using it and now just double dosing with seachem excel and it seems to be bringing the problem under control
Ferts shouldnt cause you too many problems. Flourish works well for me.
Lupin
01-21-2008, 10:48 PM
Algae coated 'snack' rock added to tank:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/nightbefore.jpg
About 8hrs later:
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a259/y2kenny19/morningafter.jpg
Nice.:) I did this with my hillstream loaches.:perv: