Good way to slow down algea growth?

Seattle206

Seattle206

lets get blown...
Oct 27, 2004
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Seattle, WA
Hello my fellow hobbyist, I havent been here for minute now.

Anyways, my algea probelm has gone out of control. I do a 20% water change twice a week, along with a good scrubbing throughout the tank. After about 2 days or so, the nasty hairy algea comes back. I also have 2 plecos in the tank and they are useless. Are there any medications I have use to slow it down? My tank is kinda near my window, but the sun doesnt shine directly at it.
 
First of all algae is caused by excess nutrients in combination with light. So one of these has to be rectified. Looking at your fish ,not taking into consideration their size, oscars in particular are very bio demanding fish. What I mean by that is they require a lot of food and produce a lot of waste. So that being said it sounds like the problem is excessive nutrients. What's your nitrates and phosphate's reading? I would also look at doing 30-50% water changes with those fish. Medications are a quick fix and most of the time they don't fix anything, just make matters worse, so I don't recomend using them. :)
 
Just add some fast growing plants to out compete the alge for nutrients. Hornwort or duckweed would work, but duckweed a pain to remove from a tank once established.
 
PurpleSmurf said:
Just add some fast growing plants to out compete the alge for nutrients. Hornwort or duckweed would work, but duckweed a pain to remove from a tank once established.
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Those fish will destroy those plants, especialy in a tank that size, whether it be frustration or just for the fun of it. Fast growing plants are a great idea but if you where going to do that, I would suggest a separate refugium with the plants and lights. :)
 
Water changes are your best bet, 50% 2-3 times a week would help immensly. You may want to consider cutting back on the amount of light on the tank... how long do you have your lights on?
 
No, long at all. Maybe about 4-5 hours each day. Sometimes I dont turn them on at all.
 
More water changes or you might contemplate using another nutrient reducing method.
 
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