Algae wars

[Ismart120]

Ok, I've got a few problems with algae in my tank. I'm fighting with a few types and the tank is in the sunroom (only place it can fit/concrete floors that will support it) so it gets a fair bit of direct sunlight.

I'm running a UV filter which has helped enormously with the green water (still have a little but not nearly an issue) and the main algae eaters are 2 siamese algae eaters and a large (300mm?) sailfin, all of whom seem to ignore algae in any form.

How should I go about eradicating (or at least controlling) the different types, mainly the green slime/solid one and the BBA?

I don't have the funds to throw a heap of excel in there which limits it a little but I was thinking of a few other plecos (BNs?) to hit some of the brown and green stuff and manually remove/boil some of the wood and other ornaments? Looking at removing the sailfin too if this'll help (Any interest?)

Would more/faster growing plants help or would they too just be over ridden?

Here's a few shots of the different types and a full tank view

[Caryl]

Nothing will eat the slimy dark green one (cyanobacter).

Is there no way to cut the amount of light on it? Pull curtains, put up blinds, put card around the sides of the tank?

Plants would help but unless you cut the direct sunlight I fear the algae would take over even the fastest growing plants.

[calculator]

The only way to really control BBA is with excel, as not much eats it, and almost nothing will touch the older stuff, if you tank the ornaments with bra really bad on it out and scrape the worst of it off/ boil them to kill the bba you can get rid of most of it out of your tank and make things look nicer.

Getting rid of your sale fin plec would help, as they produce a lot of waste, that helps your algae grow.

[Ismart120]

I've got black card around most of the tank which helps keep a lot of light off but there's not much else I can cover at this stage easily.

Would throwing a blanket over it for three or so days kill much of anything or just be a waste of time?

How dangerous is the cyano? It's just come up recently, anything that might be causing this?

[alanmin4304]

You can get rid of it in a pond with barley straw and I think you can buy a liquid extract that may do the job in a tank. Eurethromycin will nock it as well but is prescription only med and will require a visit to the vet.Furan can be obtained from pet shops and does not require prescription and it will knock it as well. It is normally caused by an imbalance of nitrogen and phosphorus so adding nitrate may also control it. Too much waste is usually the cause and cheap fishfoods are usually high in phosphate.

[Ismart120]

Ah that would explain it - I've been using rubbish flakes for the last week as I ran out of any decent stuff and had those hanging around...

Will try a hit of furan if boiling the rocks its on doesn't work.

[alexyay]

We did a 4 day blackout and our cyano problem disappeared (not long after that we moved the tank inside and haven't had an algae issue since). Water movement also helps to get rid of the cyano. Dosed excel and got 5 SAEs (they ate all the tufts that I scraped off - they had a feast whenever I cleaned!) and got rid of most of our BBA. Having black card around the sides didn't really do much to get rid of the green algae though - not even in the dark spots :dunno: I'm afraid sun just causes it to all get out of control

[Adrienne]

Otos live to eat brown algae and BN will eat it too.

Cyano is a bacteria normally found in 'dead' spots of your tank, if you can adjust the spray bar to allow for more water movement it will reduce particularly if you siphon out the worst areas. Otherwise you will need to get something to get rid of it.

[Adrienne]

Otos live to eat brown algae and BN will eat it too.

Cyano is a bacteria normally found in 'dead' spots of your tank, if you can adjust the spray bar to allow for more water movement it will reduce particularly if you siphon out the worst areas. Otherwise you will need to get something to get rid of it as per Alan.

Pouring boiling water over BBA gives it a huge unpleasant shock. If you were able to follow it up with a small amount of excel syringed directly on to the areas of persistant growth you might be able to get rid of most of it.

[Ismart120]

Awesome, thanks for the advice on this:

The BBA is also on my anubias, chances of this surviving a boiling water treatment? Or even concentrated excel for that matter?

Will try boiling the ornaments and rocks when I get some free time at the very least. Have adjusted the spray bar a bit to see what happens but not too hopeful for the worse parts

[alexyay]

Awesome, thanks for the advice on this:

The BBA is also on my anubias, chances of this surviving a boiling water treatment? Or even concentrated excel for that matter?

Will try boiling the ornaments and rocks when I get some free time at the very least. Have adjusted the spray bar a bit to see what happens but not too hopeful for the worse parts

It should survive the concentrated excel - I've never had any issues with it. Or I spend a really long time just picking off every piece I can get (or on faster growing/larger plants I remove the leaves if I can afford to)

[Godly3vil]

A 1:20 bleach to water solution works just as good if not better than excel. Cheaper way to treat your plants and tank decor.

[Ismart120]

A 1:20 bleach to water solution works just as good if not better than excel. Cheaper way to treat your plants and tank decor.

Ok, will try this - what about with driftwood and it soaking in? An issue?

[Godly3vil]

Would work on driftwood as well but then I would leave the driftwood either soaking in a tub of highly concentrated water with loads or chlorine remover or out in the sun until you can't smell the bleach anymore. For plants and decor don't leave it in the bleach solution for more than 3-4 minutes, especially plants.

[Ismart120]

Ok, update:

Before:

After:

Boiled water and a scrub over most things, trimmed the plants back a heap, cut off all the dying anubias after pouring boiling water over them (Will see if it survives...) and have sold the sailfin who has been replaced by two very small BNs.

Will dose the crypts with excel when possible to get rid of the BBA on them but already looking 10x better algae wise, left heaps of green and brown around though so the fish can graze happily

Gonna try for a planted set up (Why not have a challenge with cichlids?) - best plan of attack? I was thinking ambullia or the likes with some other bushy plants around, get the crypts up and running, keep the anubias where possible, grow a sword or two and maybe a moss or ricca type on the wood pieces?

Thoughts?

[Morcs]

With cichlids i wouldnt go with stems, youll end up pulling your hair out.

Stick with crypts, anubias etc. Tiger lotus and amazon swords do ok with cichlids and they grow to decent sizes with good root systems - harder to dig up

As for the BBA, given the amount you have, i would dose the entire tank with 2x recommended dosing, and cut feeding.

Then after about 2 weeks start spot treating the stubborn bits with a small syringe - at point blank range. Itll turn red and die off really fast - just make sure when doing a lot of spot treating that you dont end up dosing the tank too much.

[Ismart120]

With cichlids i wouldnt go with stems, youll end up pulling your hair out.

Stick with crypts, anubias etc. Tiger lotus and amazon swords do ok with cichlids and they grow to decent sizes with good root systems - harder to dig up

As for the BBA, given the amount you have, i would dose the entire tank with 2x recommended dosing, and cut feeding.

Then after about 2 weeks start spot treating the stubborn bits with a small syringe - at point blank range. Itll turn red and die off really fast - just make sure when doing a lot of spot treating that you dont end up dosing the tank too much.

Right - dose the tank 2x in one go or a few days/week apart? I've put one dose already, will spot the worse places as well. (Also, are you talking about the amount in the first set of photos or the last one I posted?)

Cichlids with stem plants - are you referring to them being dug up or eaten? I was going to weigh them down to allow roots to grow through if just the former.

[karina]

Severums love to eat plants and JD's (thought I saw one in your photo) love to dig.

Your best bet plant wise is Amazon Swords, java fern and anubias. The severum does not like the taste of these.

Get large specimens if you can as they will handle a slight beating until they get established.

FYI ambulia is a stem plant and far too fragile for your cichlids.

Good luck!

[Morcs]

Right - dose the tank 2x in one go or a few days/week apart? I've put one dose already, will spot the worse places as well. (Also, are you talking about the amount in the first set of photos or the last one I posted?)

Cichlids with stem plants - are you referring to them being dug up or eaten? I was going to weigh them down to allow roots to grow through if just the former.

I still dont think an established root system on a stem is adequate...

As for excel, you do it in one hit usually, seeing as though you have dosed already, do not dose anymore until youve done a few waterchanges, then do a double dose.

Otherwise you can go round and just do some spot treating to add to the dosing youve already done.

[AQUARIUMSUPPLIESNZ]

Your problem appears to be the direct sunlight. This is rocket fuel for Algae of all kinds.

Step 1

The cheapest and easiest way for you to fix this problem is to draw the curtains/blinds during the part of day where direct sunlight might hit the tank.

Step 2

Take out your ornaments and give them a good scrub - no chemicals - YOU HAVE DONE THIS

Step 3

Vacuum your substrate to remove any waste - food for algae

Step 4

scrape algae of any surface you see including glass

Step 5

Do a substantial water change 50%- reduce the nitrate level in your tank - again food for algae.

Once the above is done, you can add fast growing live plants. The reason I say fast growing is because these plants compete for the same nutrients algae does and as a consequence will starve the algae from nutrients.

For example Indian fern.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

[Ismart120]

OK, slight update:

I've been reducing the light as much as possible which seems to have had a small effect

Haven't introduced any new plants yet; will be getting some of those in the near future hopefully.

Did a good vac of the gravel and cleaned the stuff trapped in some of the anubias bunches; may have killed a few of these off in the process but meh

Still have algae on the back wall but this is just green stuff, not too worried at this point and the BNs are getting into some of that

Doing a large water change this weekend and will double dose with excel then (again)

Was thinking ambulia plants as they're fast growing, kinda nice looking but I wouldn't be too concerned about it being eaten either

I've tried a few amazon swords before but apparently my Sev and JD (yep, saw right, also have a convict in there) seem to like chewing on those so haven't had huge success just yet. May try some planted indian fern if anyone has anything spare?

Thanks for all the help so far too

[AQUARIUMSUPPLIESNZ]

I have some indian fern spare, but you will need to pay for the courier costs to yours. Since I am in Auckland I suspect it might be cheaper for you to just buy from your local shop.

Let me know your thoughts.