ALGAE ATTACK

hi peoples, in most of my tanks almost overnight i have had an algae attack, its covered near everything, the only thing different i have done recently is change from rain water to tap water. i have some algae killer solution called pond clear but i'm not too keen on putting that in with my pleco's. i have a pretty decent collection now that i would like to keep alive of course.
i'm considering moving some bn albino's into each tank to keep it under control as i have about a squillion of them. any other clues peoples?
thanks, mick

Hi,

Sorry for that. Find that algae appears due to

1. too much food or feeding in the tank
2. too much light

I would control that first. I neer use algae killing chemicals. If you also now add more BN your bioload will increase and thus possibly more algae.
What kind do you have ?

peppermints, orange spots and albino's

not sure what kind of algae

lighting really isn't a big thing, only in my shrimp tank, my pleco tanks dont really get any lighting except a bit thru the window and the ceiling light when we're in there. i'll do another water change today just to keep them healthy anyways i think.

the algae must originate from a source. Do 20% water change every second day.
how much do you feed ? Do you have one day where no food is offered ?
cheers jk :thumbup:

i only give enough to be eaten overnight, if veggies i pull out the excess in the morning.
gravel vac and large water change weekly.
most weeks we do give them a day off food.
thanks for the advice i will get onto it. i'm putting backing on a few of the tanks now to stop excess light and doing a water change. thanks again

Hi all,

different i have done recently is change from rain water to tap water

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It is the tap water, it will be higher in nitrates than rain-water, due to agricultural run-off, and it may have orthophosphates added as well (to stop any lead or copper coming out of the water pipes). PIMS is the technical term - "Phosphate Induced Metal Stabilisation".

If you lower the light levels you aren't doing anything about the nitrogen or phosphorus, you are just removing the symptom of their presence (the algae).

Could you go back to rain-water? or possibly add some plants? I use Limnobium (Amazon Frogbit) or Pistia (Water Lettuce), but I'm not sure what you can get in Australia. I like floaters because they are easy to remove, when you thin them out you are removing the nutrients.

cheers Darrel

no, i cant go back to rainwater, no rain lately haha. i'm onto manually removing it myself and cleaning it up a bit more.

Hi,

Turn the lights off for a few days (4 days tends to do it) and completly cover the tank over this should kick it into touch without the need for chemicals, the fish won't care and can easily cope without food for a few days. However you need to rectify the actual problem or it will come straight back.

Its now commonly believed amongst planted tank enthusiasts that its ammonia spikes which actually cause algae blooms. Truth is algae really don't need an awful lot of nutrients to be present to thrive and its not usually the nutrients themselves which cause the problem they just exasperate an existing issue.

Did you treat your tapwater prior to its use with conditioner to get rid of chlorine / chloromines? Or have you cleaned your filters out recently? You may have killed off some of your filtration bacteria which would probably cause an ammonia spike which in turn could trigger the algae to bloom.

I assume your lighting has remained constant throughout.

Chris.

you could run a uv sterilizer? that will stop 90% of alge i had same problem on my 6x2x2 and i added a 36w uv sterilizer to my fx5 and it was gone in a few days

i do treat my water before adding, the only filter is undergravel and sponge filters, both on all tanks