Attack Of The Algae, HELP !

[Dalray]

Hey all,

For some reason i am having an algae issue, and i never had an issue before. So its a Thick Dark green type of algae. Its taking over everything. Rocks, Glass the top, and there is even hair growing on some of the plants.

WHY OH WHY is this happening lol. Any help would be appreciated. Should i just leave this tank for some algae eating shrimp?

[Morphine]

Huge water changes no lights and black out the tank I would

First try before you treat with peroxide like you were saying in that other post also removed all the algae you can from your water glass ad rocks

[vince0]

add apple snails or nerites? or both? they do a great job of eating algea. Most of the time algea is caused by an imbalance in your water chemistry. So you can eitehr invest in tests kits to figure out what the imbalance is, or get something to eat the algea lol.

[jvision]

Is this a heavily planted tank, or more like a tank with some plants in it?

If it's heavily planted, you probably have a fluctuating CO2 level and/or lack of NO3. Could be that your light is on too long (14hrs should be max, 10 is probably enough, might need 8 for a while).

Lighting is also the most likely cause for non-planted tank.

To get rid of it, remove as much as you can manually. If the affected leaves of the plants are old, remove the whole leaf (plants should be pruned regularly). Do a big WC (50% or more), and reduce light to 8-10hrs per day. If you start to see algae, repeat these steps - do it before the algae gets too bad.

You can also add Ammano shrimp. Ammano himself, says you should have 1 shrimp per gallon - so find a sale and get as many as you can afford! They are about the best things going for attacking thread-type algaes. If you want a fish to help, mollies are great too.

[jesp]

Sounds like Cyanobacteria to me. If you pick it out of the tank does it smell horrible?

HUGE water change.

Black out for 3 days. Like towels covering the tank so NO light gets in at all.

HUGE water change.

Repeat as needed. (Careful not to kill other plants with too many black outs).

This sucker will come back time and time again unless you keep up your water changes. I just found some on a tiny part of my tank and I DO NOT want this taking over. I had a big problem with it in a planted tank of mine last spring and the stuff was terrible.

Good luck!

[Crystal]

I always have some Diva duckweed (pinkie finger-nail sized duckweed)in all my tanks (heavily planted, or no plants), it goes crazy before the algae does. Easy top remove with a net, and too large to get sucked into the filter. (I agree, the mini duckweed is horrid).

Best of luck getting rid of the algae.

All the above are good ideas, blackout, water changes, lighting, Co2, nutrient imbalance, etc.

[Dalray]

Thank you for the advice, as for now the plants and fish are gone and time to get this done. All thats left is my 12 assasin snails.

Amano shrimp who has some?

[angie]

if that doesnt work you could try picking up a uv sterilizer they clear up algae in a hurry also help to protect against diease

[jvision]

You could send Charles a PM to see if Canadian Aquatics will have them in time for the Edmonton Group order - it's coming Monday.