michaelb323

Treating algae is something I am somewhat new to, as my nice looking 55 gallon tropical tank started turning green I had to take action, here is some advice I can give after beating it.

1. Treat the underlying cause.

In any case of algae there is a reason for it blooming, find that reason. Most people would assume that they should go to a pet store, grab something that says it gets rid of algae, and dump it in the tank. This type of attitude is wrong and leads to an unhealthy tank down the road as the copper in the herbicide is hard to remove from a tank.

Algae is a plant and aquatic plants need three things to grow: water,light, and food. if you deprive a plant of any of these three things, the plant will die. In this case, we want the plants to die.

In my case the first thing I checked was water parameters, low ammonia, low nitrates and nitrites, I definitely am not feeding the algae.
After ruling out food as being the underlying issue I moved on.

I could technically beat this algae by draining the tank completely, unfortunately for me I do not have the space for the fish in another tank so removing the water was out of the question.

I checked my lights, turns out, I have 2 florescent lights that I was leaving on 24/7... Wow, this is my problem. I immediately put my lights on only for about nine hours a day after I realized this. In addition, I also removed one fluorescent tube to bring down the watts per gallon.

2. Kick it naturally if at all possible.
Again, the copper in the herbicides that we use in fish tanks is going to cause problems in the future,we should strive to beat an algae bloom naturally if at all possible.
The first thing I did after bringing down the lighting was to start a daily regiment of 40% water changes. In addition I bought a pleco, more algae eaters, and brine shrimp. All of these little creatures eat the algae and thus, they keep it from being able to multiply as fast.

3. As a last resort, use chemicals as a solution.
Unfortunately for me, I was fighing a losing battle against my algae invasion and I had to start using a herbicide after giving the natural remedy several weeks to clear the water. Inexperience in me had let the condition get so bad before I reacted to the problem, that a chemical fix was the only solution.
For the next week I performed 40% water changes and dumped herbicide in the water. Finally a week later things are much clearer, but the cost was killing off my brine shrimp and badly messing up the pH.

4.Algae is still biological, as it dies, it rots.

After a few days the PH in my tank started spiking badly, along with ammonia and nitrates. The reason for the spike is the fact that the dying algae was starting to rot in huge proportions. Remember, Algae is a plant, plants rot, rotting leads to ammonia, and ammonia leads to dead fish. As you begin to beat algae, do not let up and think that your work is over, you now have a huge bio-load in your tank to take care of.


Well, that's all the advice I have on the subject, I really hope this helps. If you have any questions, please feel free to post them in this thread and I will try my best to answer them.

Nate McFin

Sorry about the water issues you were having. Draining the tank would only have helped if you completely disinfected the tank afterword which would also mean restarting your cycle. In which case there is a good chance another bloom would happen.
Long lighting periods will cause algae outbreaks also and is a great place to start when dealing with one. Blackouts can help but again unless the root cause is dealt with it will be back.

Chemicals are never a good idea to treat algae. Unless you are spot treating with Excel. Herbicides as you have seen can be lethal to flora,fauna, and the cycle. I would never no matter how bad the algae use this stuff in any of my tanks.
I used Algaefix in my tank when I was fishless cycling and it did get rid of the green but it came back within a week AND it killed the cycle twice. So much for that idea.
Glad I was fishless.
The best method I have found to deal with green water is a UV Sterilizer. 60 dollars or so at petco and its gone in a day. It can also be used to prevent disease. I run one 24/7 in my tank since an initial green water problem. Everything is crystal clear.
Diatom filters also work well.
In terms of other algaes beyond green water...there is so many problems in planted tanks but the main ones are....
1. Over lighting
2. Not enough or under nourished plants. Yep...not enough food. Algae can easily outcompete an unhealthy plant for food. So fertilize away and make those plants happy to keep the algae at bay!
3. Lack of Co2- is a big cause of Algae blooms. People by big lights to make plants healthy but when you increase light you also must increase nutients and Co2. If you dont Algae will take over. Its a very balance little triangle between the 3. Note this is for planted tanks only!
4. Lack of maintenance- dont let the tank and filters get dirty and stay on top of those water changes. Dont overfeed!

aquarist48

Good morning. Some very good points on algae control above. I would like to point out that some algae in your tank is good and is a good sign that there oxygen in the water. Too some fish will feed from it...Ottos, SAE's, Plecos even Gold Fish will nibble on it.

I would never recommend using a chemical to remove the algae. I just can't fathom using a chemical to kill something when there are living creatures within the same confinements. I don't mean for this to sound like I'm preaching JMO

Sorry to hear about your brine shrimp and that everything seems to be looking better!
Best wishes.
Ken

TedsTank

Hurray for all your comments. I just went thru this process and now consider that the chemical process of removing algae can be deadly!!!!...and throw your aguarium cycles into absolute turmoil.

excellent comments above and should be required reading!!