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Old June 23rd, 2008  
Fish Bum
 
Hair Algae

ok so i think what i first thought was staghorn algae i think now is hair algae... and it is thick... even the water gets a somewhat milky color and it has stopped up my filter a couple times... is there anything short of putting an army of otos in my tank that is already slightly overstocked to get rid of it?... would ghost shrimp or any other shrimp eat it? i wouldn't mind having shrimp but i don't want to add anything i don't have to... i am planning on getting a 55 gallon kindof soon but not really wanting to pull those strings yet...
BigJoe is offline  
Old June 23rd, 2008  
Moderator
 
Short term: total tank blackout for 3 days. Leave the lights off and cover all 4 sides so ambient light doesn't get in. Do not put any food in the tank during the blackout. After the blackout, do a large water change. Do this, and you should notice an immediate improvement, BUT it will only be a short term one.

Long term: you need to get a handle on the root cause of the algae problem. It is likely either too much light, or overfeeding the tank, or both. Being overstocked will not help the matter either. For lighting, look at not only how long the tank lights are turned on (no more than 6-8 hours per day), but also what other light is getting into the tank from the outside (is the tank in a brightly lit room? Is it near a window where it is getting sunlight?). How much and how often are you feeding the fish? They have very small stomachs and really only need a couple of flakes per fish per feeding. Only feed once or twice per day. Also consider how often you are performing tank maintenance. Are you changing some of your water AT LEAST every other week (every week is better)? Do you vacume the substrate regularly?

If you can get the bulk of the problem under control, then you could turn to livestock to help maintain minor, incidental outbreaks. Otos, as you mentioned, also some variety of plecostomus...I like bristlenose for smaller tanks. However, plecos are waste machines, so if you are already overstocked, I would think twice about that.
sgould is offline  
Old June 23rd, 2008  
Fish Bum
 
ok so i figure i will try to do a blackout... i didnt really think about ambient light... that may be it...

right now i have 6 serpaes and 3 corys in a 14g tank. i usually put 2-3 shrimp pellets or 1 algae wafer... and 8-12 freese dried bloodworms or 6-7 freeze dried baby shrimp or 8-10 flakes (depending on size of flake maybe a bit more)... i usually feed once or 2 times a day at most

I usually do a water change a week or 2 changes a week if it looks like water conditions are getting bad..

so with the question of shrimp... do you think it would help?

thanks for all the help so far, I hope i can get this resolved... it doesn't seem to be affecting the fish but it might start...
BigJoe is offline  
Old June 23rd, 2008  
Moderator
 
I'm not sure on the shrimp...I've not tried them personally. I did just read that cherry shrimp have a "large appetite for all kinds of freshwater algae".
sgould is offline  
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