platy ben

Ok, so, i have 2 tanks, a 65G and a 38G and i have noticed, my 65G has green algae that grows on the glass where-as my 38G has brown algae that grows on the glass.

My 65G has a purple flurescent colour lighting where-as my 38G has more of a white lighting, will the oclour of light make a difference to the algae?

Also, do algae eating fish eat any type of algae or are certain fish better at eating certain types? if so, which type of algae eater is best for brown algae?

Shawnie

the brown algae is probably diatoms which is a "new tank algae"...how old is the tank? it hurts nothing and most fish, especially cory's, love it..its more an eye sore to the humans...it does go away in time ...

platy ben

the tank is about a month old since i put fish in, and about 2 months old including the cycle so thats understandable

Shawnie

yep

platy ben

it started appearing about a week ago so i cleaned it by hand yesterday and now i looked again this morning and its back about as much as before, so im thinking a couple of corys or a a few ottos should sort that out

ShaynaB

Corys don't eat much algae off glass, but Ottos do! Those little buggers are GOOD at eating algae! I put some in one of my tanks recently and was so amazed that I ran out and got more for all my other tanks!

platy ben

sound like its ottos then

Shawnie

cories love the diatoms tho they cleaned up my 20 gal in about 2 days ...if you can find true sae's, they are terrific also

I dont think any fish actually cleans the green algae that well..or at least well enough for the human eye to be happy with it LOL

ShaynaB

Really?

Ok, now I'm going to have to go kick my corie's behinds into action! They've been in one of my tanks forever but I recently put ottos in because they weren't doing much cleaning. hrm... Crazy little buggers.

Shawnie

nice visual of that!!

none of my fish will eat the green junk, but diatoms are their fave...course I have no more of it so they are mad LOL

ShaynaB

I have cories and shrimp in the tank now with the ottos, and they weren't eating the diatoms so I throw an algae wafer or two in every so often...

I suppose it's ok that they don't eat the diatoms cause they're so darn cute! haha

platy ben

People always say all this bad stuff about SAEs' like, they suck the life out of fish and they dont clean when they get old. Both are completely wrong:
My siamese algae eater is around 5 inches long hes aboout 6 years old, ok he doesnt clean much but he never touches my other fish.

Before my current siamese algae eater, my grandad gave me one that was about 6 inches long and 8 years old and it cleaned all of my tank in a matter of days.

edit: everything above is ment to be about chinese algae eaters not siamese algae eaters lol

welshalien

I've never heard anyone say this about SAE's -- just about the Chinese algae eaters.

Kelly

platy ben

oops thats what i ment lol

CAE not SAE lol , my bad

welshalien