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Algae

Sat, 04/10/2010 - 17:45 — g_good

I have alot of algae in my tank. I keep the front glass clean but the sides, back&gravel are covered. It is even over my live plants. The occupants of the tank are a parrot&a pleco.

I was thinking of leaving off the light & covering the tank with a blanket for a few days. I would lift the blanket just long enough to feed the parrot. What do you think ?

Comments

Sun, 04/11/2010 - 09:36 — g_good

Natural Light

I did have my aquarium placed where it received natural morning light. The shades have been drawn for about a week now. I also had a C02 injector which I took out a couple of weeks ago.

Where do I go from here ? Cover the aquarium for a few days & take a chance on losing my live plants, leave things as they are with no light, drastically reduce the amount of light ? What would you do with this green algae ?

Sun, 04/11/2010 - 18:37 — kickazzkatie

Re: Natural Light

u could get an algea mit or scraper at the pet store, clean it up urself then see if it gets better without the window light. that way u could turn the tank light on and not lose ur live plants. also it can be an experiment to see if the window light was ur problem. if u clean it all up, and theres a shade on the window and it comes back then we have to think of what else it could be.

Tue, 04/20/2010 - 18:51 — g_good

Blanket

I did blanket my tank for 3 days. The algae is gone & the plants are healthy. I am blocking the natural light. I was giving my tank 10 hours of light with 80 watts .@ the advice of a member, I am cutting my wattage by half ( 40 watts ) for 8 hours. I have it set from 4 till midnight. It is nice to watch the aquarium as I drift off to sleep.

Sat, 04/10/2010 - 23:42 — Peanut

Re: Algae

You treat green algae and brown algae differently.

Green algae you would take away the light as well as stop overfeeding. The algae feeds on the excess nutrients of the over fed food. I've even heard stories of ppl having too much aeration in the tank which caused them to have a problem with algae. Those are the main things green algae needs. I never had a algae problem until I moved my tank near a window. The natural sunlight makes a huge difference as opposed to lights you have in your home.

Brown algae is actually diatoms. Supposedly, you increase the light. There are two theory's on this. #1 the green algae is more powerful than the brown and with the increased light it would consume the brown, or the excess light wears the brown algae out and it dies.

Read this blog from one of the users on the site. Sounds like she got great results http://parrotcichlid.com/node/14099

Sat, 04/10/2010 - 19:13 — Chrisplosion

Re: Algae

I have a little bit of brown algae. Should I get a pleco and then when it gets big put it in the 75? Or should I get a few algae eaters?

Sat, 04/10/2010 - 20:52 — kickazzkatie

Re: Re: Algae

i would get a couple of the smaller ones.

Sat, 04/10/2010 - 22:45 — Chrisplosion

Re: Re: Re: Algae

Thats what I was thinking but they are not that great for eating algae.

Sat, 04/10/2010 - 23:38 — kickazzkatie

Re: Re: Re: Re: Algae

some of them r. some r better than the regular plecos. i have a little green algea growing on the side of the tank and on some plants and my pleco wont eat it :(

Sat, 04/10/2010 - 18:36 — g_good

Normal Algae

It is just the normal green algae. Nothing threatening. The pleco does eat it, but he can't keep up.

Any suggestions.

Sat, 04/10/2010 - 18:08 — kickazzkatie

Re: Algae

what kind of lights do u have?

Sat, 04/10/2010 - 18:08 — kickazzkatie

Re: Algae

the plecos not eating it?

Sat, 04/10/2010 - 17:48 — g_good

Live Plants

I don't want to kill my live plants.