Algae growth? How do i get rid of it?

[XhaLe]

Hey,
My plants (real and fake) have been growing a thick black algae like layer on them, wen i clean the tank i tried to pull it off but it didnt come off 100% and just grows back.

I jst wna know if there is any natural or chemical ways to get rid of it without having to take the plants out of the tank and scrub them...

Tom

[Alasse]

There are chemical solutions most definately. Really though you need to find the cause and fix that, or it will come back again.

Too much light (natural or artificial) and too many nutrients (overfeeding) in the water are the usual causes.

[XhaLe]

What are the chemical solution products called? Would you recommend using them?

The cause could be too much light...but how much is too much? I have the tank lights on for about 13-14 hours a day. Jst thinking about that makes me think already too much...the tank is in the corner of my room, there is no direct sunlght on the tank itself.

As for feeding i don't think i do overfeed them. i miss out every couple of nights cause im not home or simple forget.

[Alasse]

Go to your LFS and look for an algaecide, i havent had to use them so unsure of actual product names

I have a fully planted tank and i run my lights for a max of 10 hours (on a timer). So id say too much light.

Cut your lights back, or turn off and do a black out for a few days

[hotwinter]

I've been having a similar problem in my tank, except it's the colour of the water in my oscar tank. I have 2 oscars and a pleco and one heavy duty plant.

We tried thorogh water changes, black outs and little amount of light, gravel vacing often, the last thing I tried was doing the tank over from scratch, I cleaned it right back and let it go through it's cycle all over again before readding my fish...but no luck, couple days later the colour was back :(

[Woodsy]

There is a species of snail that has recently become available on the market, Notopala waterhousei "Waterhouse Snail", which seems to devour that black slime algae (or cyanobacteria, as some argue) like there's no tomorrow.
Avoid chemicals where you can. Your photoperiod is far too long for a tank that isn't hi-tech, and even then, it would be pushing the limits. The algae is likely due to the light and a nutrient imbalance.

[GoGuppy]

Gday Tom

I would cut back the lighting to about 8 hours a day and see if the algae stops growing back after you've removed most.
If it doesn't grow back then you could slowly nudge up the lighting period by say half an hour for two weeks at a time, and see how you go.
Cheers

[XhaLe]

I do agree that i am running my lights for too long...its jst i dont get to see the fish much as im always at work so lights on wen i leave and off shortly after i get home...so i guess thats why its running for so long.

I have thought about restarting the tank from scratch...i dno if i can really be bothered with the effort tho...

These new snails, do they devour only the algae? or will they jst eat thru anything like a garden snail?

For now i will cut back on the lighting to say 9? hours a day.

Thanks for your advice so far. Its been great.
I will let you know how things go.
Tom

[Woodsy]

They won't go for plants mate, just algae. Be sure that your GH isn't too high though.
To make your lighting issues easier, run down to Bunnings and grab yourself a timer for $5, set it for when you'll be looking at the tank, and you're laughing ;)

[wombat1100]

HMMMMM snails hey, i have always been cautious of snails as they seem to breed to excess in my experience, have spent hours pulling out and crushing snails as a result.
are these ones different woodsy?

[Woodsy]

Probably not mate :p
To be honest, they haven't been available to me long enough for me to find out. Everyone I know who has used them reckons they are the jizz biscuit. You know Dazz, loaches and gouramis eat snails...

[XhaLe]

UPDATE

I set my timer to run the lights for 9 hrs (10am to 7pm) and so far minimal algae growth is returning. Its hard to tell because i tried my hardest to clean the algae off wen i cleaned the tank but not all came off...so whether its continueing to grow slower or wat im not sure yet...i guess a little bit more time will tell.

I already have a timer on the tank :P its good cause i dont have to remember to turn lights on and off. Jst gotta remember to feed the fish before the lights get turned off.

I also had snail problems to begin with wombat. I went and got me a few clown loaches and bbye snails! Now one of them is particularly large and every now and agen wen i get new fish (tetras or small fish) one usually seems to dissapear within a few days and i have had a inkling its mr clown loach...

[wombat1100]

well done Xhale, good to hear you got it all sorted, i have my timer set so my tanks turn on in the morning wen i wake up then off all day wen I'm at work , then on again in the arvo/night so i can enjoy them and still only give them 8 hes of light a day. works well for me.
Dazz

[joz]

well done Xhale, good to hear you got it all sorted, i have my timer set so my tanks turn on in the morning wen i wake up then off all day wen I'm at work , then on again in the arvo/night so i can enjoy them and still only give them 8 hes of light a day. works well for me.
Dazz


That sounds good,now just add an auto fish feeder that feeds while the lights are on.
Now kick back and enjoy!!:)

[wombat1100]

If only i could get a self cleaner!!! god I'm lazy lol :)

[joz]

If only i could get a self cleaner!!! god I'm lazy lol :)


Well you know now that I haven't stuck my hand into my tank for about 4 years now.No hoses, buckets and dripping water.
Thats except for catching fish and cutting back plants that is.

Fully automated water changing,lighting and feeding!!

Aaahh! yes I'm a lazy sod...:biggrin:

[Woodsy]

You reckon you blokes are lazy, you should check out some of the project diaries on Aquariumlife. lol, I reckon there's enough effort in setting half of them up to warrant being a lazy sod afterwards though :p

[wombat1100]

Well Joz i think you need to share your expertise on a no maintenance system with the rest of us!
with detailed drawings and pics of course!!!! :)

[Woodsy]

lol, irony would dictate that he's probably too lazy for that :p
We'd love to see it all though Joz! We'll make you a crazed hobyist again yet!

[joz]

Your right proably to lazy.;)
But really it all centers around around having a drain point behind your tank through the wall or floor.
Then a water inlet just behind your tank aswell.
On the inlet I have it attached to a high grade water filter ( though not as extreme as RO) and a battery powewred garden water timer.

Then at the moment I am using the overflow from the wet/dry outlet in the tank.

The timer comes on once a day and trickles into the tank at a rate of about 20 litres a day,not much in a tank that holds nearly 1000 liters.
Any excess go down the overflow into either the garden or drain.

In my fish room I had 60+ tanks on this system but with the addition of PVC taps at about the 25% level.
So I could walk through the fish room turn on all the taps on all the tanks in the room.Within about 2 mins I could drain 25% out of 60+ tanks.
Then I'd walk through again close them and refill from my heated storage tanks which were mounted at the highest points in the room and would therefore heat through because the room was heated not the tanks.

Each tank had airdriven filters built in that were made with drilled glass partitions on the side of each tank.
Depending on the size of the fish in each tank the inlets were either not covered or had sponge pulled over each 1/2" ploy tube inlet for fry..

The fish room had 150mm stormwater pipe drainage around the whole fish room with inlets about 1 meter apart which I would use specifally when I was siphoning the bottoms.
Because of the amount of cleaning involved with Discus breeding it had to be time efficient.Well if you could call 1-2 hours of maintenance everyday time efficient..:rolleyes:

[XhaLe]

WoW that sounds like a pretty massive operation...my tank seems puny at a tiny 78L in comparison :S

[aquariumleasing]

I hate to be the sceptic amongst the group but we have battled this algae for many years. it is actually a red algae. I can never remember its name but have it written down somewhere if anyone needs it. It is that black algae that grows in stubborn little tufts.

What we have found does NOT work:

We put a tank into near darkness for 1 week - no effect.
We turn over large rocks so the badly affected surface is buried in the gravel. Return 4 weeks later and the algae is unaffected - still growing on the UNDERSIDE!
Some helpful measures might help. From nice to not so nice:

Prune all affected leaves and bleach any ornaments - 10 minutes will do it but soak well in fresh water before returning them to the tank.
Flying foxes (siamensis / Asian type) graze on it.
Apparently Seachem Excell double dose will knock it (refer Eastern Districts Aquarium Society - Plant Study Group). I have not tried this yet.
Bleach will kill it (and anything else). You might even try a 10 minute bleach bath (1 part bleach - 10 parts water) for higher level plants (anubias, etc) which have been affected. The algae dies (goes white)but the plant usually recovers - although a bit stressed.
I do not recommend this next one - although I have used it with mixed results. COPPER! We have dropped in copper scourers (1 for every 200 litres) and it definitely kills the algae. But it can do the same for your fish. Especially scaleless fishes like loaches. And goldfish don't like it either.The algae is a real pest. Woodsy - where can we get those snails to try out?

[Woodsy]

If Dave is back from his fishing trip, you can get them at www.aquagreen.com.au (http://www.aquagreen.com.au)
Just a note there too mate, most of the blokes I know from the EDAS-PSG would tell you to bump up your nitrates to get rid of it. Double dosing with Excel can cause plants such as Cryptocoryne species to die back. I have certainly experienced this, but diluted it out before waiting to see whether it would kill the plant completely. What I experienced was very similar to what you would see with crypt melt, but happened a lot faster.

[aquariumleasing]

Thanks Woodsy. I have ordered a batch of snails today and will trial them on a couple of problematic tamks.

by the way, I found the name of the blighter - it is a red algae from the rhytophyta family - commonly called brush algae. Interestingly it lives in wild fast flowing rivers with constant but little CO2 and nutrients. Can't starve the bugger out! I have an article by a guy called Neil Frank which I can scan and forward to anyone interested.

[Woodsy]

Yep, I'm keen as mate, that would be great :)

[XhaLe]

hey aquariumleasing,
how are the snails going? worth trying?

[XhaLe]

Ok, so the algae has grown back...really starting to frustrate me now...still waiting to hear from aquariumleasing to see how those snails went...?

[wombat1100]

Mate the only way i got rid of the same problem was to buy about 50 algae eating glass shrimp, they have kept it under control ever since, its still there ,but minimally now. u have attended to your over lighting problem so u know its not that. no fish seems to eat it, we know that , so maybe if your fish aren't too large and will eat the shrimp, they might be the go?
Dazz

[lairdy91]

I have had trouble in the passed with the long green strands of algae i read somewhere ages ago that if you have a fairly heavily planted tank and persist to remove the algae by hand eventually the algae will give up competing with the plants for nutrients and will die off. I tried this strategy (and added some algae cure) and it worked although there was algae left in the filter pipes but wasnt noticeable , not sure if it works for the black stuff though???

[silent_rock_faery]

HMMMMM snails hey, i have always been cautious of snails as they seem to breed to excess in my experience, have spent hours pulling out and crushing snails as a result.
are these ones different woodsy?


I have a massive phobia of snails, so my tank will never have them.
when i got snail infested by a plant i bought i couldnt look at the tank and had to get someone else to pick them out.

random fact for you :p