Aquarium Dude Posted September 1, 2006 Report Share Posted September 1, 2006 I have a 50 l tank with a shark adv filer with 210 cm3 of filter volume. Recently I have lost a betta and a albino catfish, the betta showed signs of a problem but the catfish died mysteriously I also have what I think is a severe case of blackbeard algae but even before that my filter is getting very sludgy in just a week. I did wonder if my filter wasnt up to the job and that I should upgrade. Any help would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caper Posted September 1, 2006 Report Share Posted September 1, 2006 Hi, A few more questions so people can help: How long has tank been set up? (awhile since have the algae problem?) How often/how much water changes? What are the water parameters? I'm not familiar with that kind of filter but I'm sure others will be. Have you given it a good cleaning? Sorry about your losses Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquarium Dude Posted September 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2006 The tank has been set up for about 8 months, I do a 20 percent water change twice a week. The water quality was quite alright before the algae, but I dont know about now. The filter is a fairly cheap one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me love fishy Posted September 1, 2006 Report Share Posted September 1, 2006 Hiya, have you checked your water lately for the usuals? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ljtan55 Posted September 1, 2006 Report Share Posted September 1, 2006 In my old tank, I was using the same filter (the one with the magnet right?). I unwisely put the tank right next to window and it became so full of algae that the filter got sludged up, and the water started getting murky and cloudy. Ammonia levels went through the roof, and I lost a hillstream loach. So I guess it was more of the algae problem than a filter problem. Did you clean the filter with tap water by any chance? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquarium Dude Posted September 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2006 Yes its the one with the magnet but no I clean the filter sponges in old tank water. I am pretty sure that it is black beard algae , its all over driftwood and plants, and looks really awful, even before the algae the filter got very dirty. The tank is across the room from the only window but it only gets lots of sun for about 3hrs in the morning, though even then its not directly on the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magenta Posted September 1, 2006 Report Share Posted September 1, 2006 If I remember right the best thing for black beard algae is a Siamese Algae Eater - there are a couple of stores here in Chch with them at the moment - our closest LFS is Organism and they always have them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquarium Dude Posted September 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 1, 2006 I was going to get a "s a e" but read that you need to have a huge tank even to keep one? Have I been mislead? Would the algae go away if I moved the fish to a new tank and re cycled my main tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magenta Posted September 1, 2006 Report Share Posted September 1, 2006 i have one in my Ar120 - 285L and one in my AR510 - 80L. They dont grow too huge, so that isnt a problem - I've never heard of them needing a big tank... Ours are both around 8cm long by now, arent aggressive or anything, adn do a pretty goos job on the algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smidey Posted September 2, 2006 Report Share Posted September 2, 2006 BBA, I have just sucessfully got rid of BBA. I, from advise from others here, used "Flourish Excell". Initially you have a larger dose followed by one capful per day. It started to turn the BBA red after three days then it turned white after a week. It also reduces time cleaning as it gets rid of all the other algaes that tend to grow on fittings in thr tank. I manually removed all that i could, scrubbed rocks etc. It is primarily a plant fertiliser but has excellent side effects. Smidey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquarium Dude Posted September 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2006 Im not sure about the double dose of flourish excel, from reading this site some people have success and some end up with a tank of dead fish. My Lfs sold me something called aquarium science algae clear the bottle makes it sound potent enough, I will try it anyway but has anyone tried using this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharn Posted September 3, 2006 Report Share Posted September 3, 2006 right on aquarium dude. ive read alot of reviews on using the double dose, some are fine but some end up with lots of dead precious fish :-? id rather not risk that. generally a normal dose will slowly kill the BBA algae anyway from what ive read on the whole double dosing thing. also if you were to double dose you would want to slowly increase it and be able to have someone watching your tank all the time during the double dose just to make sure someone was there to do a water change if something went wrong. the dose smidey is talking about in the normal dose on the bottle, and it obviously worked for him/her Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted September 3, 2006 Report Share Posted September 3, 2006 I got rid of black beard using double dose but it took about 2 months and I lost some guppies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aquarium Dude Posted September 16, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2006 The algae clear product I used does semm to have worked, after cleaning all the ordaments in the tank I have been dosing as per the bottle once a week and it is clearly disappearing. One concern I had was that it does start coming back on the heater after a week, but another dose fixes this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted September 16, 2006 Report Share Posted September 16, 2006 I think that works best on green water-- free floating, single cell critters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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