a few weeks ago i began seeing a giant growth in algae in my tank! The algae looks like slime and is blanketing my gravel. it's light green in color and not hair but slimy. when i gravel vac it comes right up but it grows back sooooooo fast. my plecos wont touch it for some reason. what can i do to get rid of it? I have live plants in the tank and they are also starting to die because the algae is growing their leaves! i had to rub them off today! I asked my LFS and they told me to cut down on the lighting. right now they are on for about 11 hours a day. I was told to keep them on this long by another LFS when i bought my live plants. the system was fine for a few months but now its nuts! should i just cut down on lighting or is there something else amist?
Algae Problem need help!
- Thread starter ado124
- Start date
Ive read that a complete black out for a few days is often the best way to deal with algae. Just put a sheet over the tank. Dont know how your plants would feel about that though, especially when they are weak already by the sounds out of it.
Does the tank get a lot of direct sunlight?
Does the tank get a lot of direct sunlight?
nope, no direct sunlight. yeah im a little hesitant about blacking out the tank. i noticed that when i reduced the amount of time the tank stays lit the algae seemed to reduce slightly.
Help us help you. We'll need your water parameters (ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,ph,kh).
Do you add any type of fertilizer?
What type plants and substrate?
How much light and what size tank?
Do you add any type of fertilizer?
What type plants and substrate?
How much light and what size tank?
Dont black out the tank.
Blacking out the tank for more than a week will get the fish stressed and prob kill off most of your other plants.
There are water treatments that will get rid of algae but before you do anything like that check that it wont hurt anything else in your tank and also that it is the right thing.
Is it Blue-Green, Slime Algae?
Its not a real plant but is a cyanobacteria. This is the worst algae that can infect your aquarium. It is fast growing, inedible to just about all known algae eaters (toxic) and kills plants by smothering them and cutting off their access to light. What makes it worse, is it can infect even aged aquariums that have little or no excess nutrients. It can make its own nitrogen, so depriving it of N, P or K through water changes usually has no effect on controlling it.
Try a treatment of erythromycin. It is an antibiotic sold under different brand names as fish medication. Just put in a standard treatment as indicated on the box for fish as per gallon of aquarium water and the slimy algae should be gone in a few days. To stop any antibiotic resistance, maintain the treatment for the course as indicated, keep going until after the slime is all gone. If not, it may come back again in a few months and the antibiotic may now not work or not work as well.
Any more questions, dont hesitate to ask.
Blacking out the tank for more than a week will get the fish stressed and prob kill off most of your other plants.
There are water treatments that will get rid of algae but before you do anything like that check that it wont hurt anything else in your tank and also that it is the right thing.
Is it Blue-Green, Slime Algae?
Its not a real plant but is a cyanobacteria. This is the worst algae that can infect your aquarium. It is fast growing, inedible to just about all known algae eaters (toxic) and kills plants by smothering them and cutting off their access to light. What makes it worse, is it can infect even aged aquariums that have little or no excess nutrients. It can make its own nitrogen, so depriving it of N, P or K through water changes usually has no effect on controlling it.
Try a treatment of erythromycin. It is an antibiotic sold under different brand names as fish medication. Just put in a standard treatment as indicated on the box for fish as per gallon of aquarium water and the slimy algae should be gone in a few days. To stop any antibiotic resistance, maintain the treatment for the course as indicated, keep going until after the slime is all gone. If not, it may come back again in a few months and the antibiotic may now not work or not work as well.
Any more questions, dont hesitate to ask.
Thanx for all the responses!!
My tank is a 120g i have 4 flourecent bulbs and ithink they're 42" each. they used to be on 11 hours a day.
My substrate is gravel and the plants i have in there are 1 red lotus, and 2 jungle vines(?) i forgot what they're called but they're similiar to onion plants. The tank has a 8in arowana, a 6in pleco, a 2in pleco, a loach and a flying fox.
The water parameters seem fine but i have high levels of phospates, i've always had and always will because of the tap water i use. i use kent freshwater plant supplement and i also use those plant tablets (i forgot the name) too.
Upon further research i think my problem IS cyanobacteria. i believe it is part of the reason why my arowana seems a little stressed lately. i recently did a water change and am hoping the growth will stop but it doens't seem likely. What medication should i use and is it safe for my plants? loach?
Thank you again for all the info guys.
Andrew
My tank is a 120g i have 4 flourecent bulbs and ithink they're 42" each. they used to be on 11 hours a day.
My substrate is gravel and the plants i have in there are 1 red lotus, and 2 jungle vines(?) i forgot what they're called but they're similiar to onion plants. The tank has a 8in arowana, a 6in pleco, a 2in pleco, a loach and a flying fox.
The water parameters seem fine but i have high levels of phospates, i've always had and always will because of the tap water i use. i use kent freshwater plant supplement and i also use those plant tablets (i forgot the name) too.
Upon further research i think my problem IS cyanobacteria. i believe it is part of the reason why my arowana seems a little stressed lately. i recently did a water change and am hoping the growth will stop but it doens't seem likely. What medication should i use and is it safe for my plants? loach?
Thank you again for all the info guys.
Andrew
It wont be too hard to get rid of...First of all get it out of your tank. Moving the fish prob wont be nececairy but if you feen you need to then do, just get as much as possible out. Then do a 30% water change and add Erythromycin phosphate with 200mg per every 10 gallons. Maintain the treatment for the course as indicated on the box. It should be fine for all fish. Just check they haven't added anything else. The info will all be on the box.
To keep it away remember to do your regular cleans and water changes and make sure you only give them just enough to eat. No more than this is nececairy, as any left over will help the algae grow again.
awesome, i just hope this medication isn't going to cost me an arm and a leg!
according to the instructions on the internet i need to do about 4 doses. at 12 tablets a dose thats 48 tablets!! it shouldn't cost more than $5 a pack right? i saw this one site sellin the tablets for $30!!! :sad:
i actually do a 25% water change every week and if i miss a week i'll do a 40% the next week. i also only feed my fish once a day and make sure they eat everything i give them. Thanks again for all the input though!
i'll stop by the local fish store and give this a try.
according to the instructions on the internet i need to do about 4 doses. at 12 tablets a dose thats 48 tablets!! it shouldn't cost more than $5 a pack right? i saw this one site sellin the tablets for $30!!! :sad:
i actually do a 25% water change every week and if i miss a week i'll do a 40% the next week. i also only feed my fish once a day and make sure they eat everything i give them. Thanks again for all the input though!
i'll stop by the local fish store and give this a try.