Algae in ACF tank

[Gemma]

Recently I've been having trouble with brown algae in my ACF tank. Are there any algae-eating creatures that I can keep in there? I know some people keep snails, but I don't really want snails in my tank. I think I read on this forum that someone keeps a Chinese algae eater with their ACFs. Can anyone offer any advice on that? I'd be worried about it attaching itself to a frog or a frog trying to eat it.

[Mentat]

Algae usually shows up when excess nutrients and light are available. Do you have plants in tank to outcompete it? Problem with algae eating fish is that ACF's will go for them and many have protective spines that could hurt and even kill your frog if it tried to eat them .

[Felis]

Hi,

Chinese algae eaters grow large and tend to become aggressive when adult. Also, they only eat algae when young, so they aren´t a good choice. Animals shouldn´t be bought just to fulfill a certain purpose, this hardly ever works. There isn´t a species that will systimatically clean your tank, so it´s better to find the source of the problem as Carlos mentioned. Your brown algae are likely to be diatoms (which aren´t eaten by most algea-eating fish anyway). Those often appear in younger systems when there aren´t enough fast growing plants to outcompete them, when CO2 is low and there is enough light. They mostly disappear when the tank gets more stable over time. Until then, you might want to remove them with a sponge or so during the water changes.

[Jenste]

Right now it is probably a combination of overfeeding (which leads to extra poo) + not enough filtration + too much light + water not changed frequently or enough water changed in possibly too small a tank or too over stocked a tank....


Can you give a run down to remind us about size in gallons/liters, how many and how large the ACF are, type of filtration, feeding, how often and how large the water changes, how many/types of live plants, lighting type and duration....

[rodsboys]

Brown "algae" is not really algae. It is a diatom. Usually common in newer tanks or tanks with silica sand. Regular maintenance will eventually get rid of it.
by the way Otis will eat diatoms but they are way too small to be with ACFs and have spikes like a regular catfish.

[Necromencer]

Brown "algae" is not really algae. It is a diatom. Usually common in newer tanks or tanks with silica sand. Regular maintenance will eventually get rid of it.
by the way Otis will eat diatoms but they are way too small to be with ACFs and have spikes like a regular catfish.

I myself have started to get a diatom boom in my tank. I haven't tried removing it personally, I've hoped that it would go away. But I've waited about 4 days now and it is still there (on decorations, glass and blotches on sand)

When I get home today, I'll remove them with a sponge or I'll syphon as much as I can up. I first started to get this boom when I went to London last week, I think my mother, who was looking after the tank, forgot to turn the lights of, or only turned them off a few hours a day. In addition, just before I left to London, I took out my Hornwort, so it could be a case of both things.

When I get home and clean it out, and it comes back again, how else could I get rid of it?

My tank is only 3 weeks old.


Addenda: I can't be the tap water, because my previous tank was filled with the same water and I never had a diatom boom.

[rodsboys]

Diatoms feed off of Silica. It is not effected by light. You basically have to saty diligent in cleaning it up. It takes a couple of months to get completely under control, but it will go away.

[Necromencer]

Diatoms feed off of Silica. It is not effected by light. You basically have to saty diligent in cleaning it up. It takes a couple of months to get completely under control, but it will go away.

Thanks, I'll just clean up the nasty looking areas for aesthetic reasons. I've read that they're harmless.

[Gemma]

I forgot I posted this. Thanks for the replies. My tank lights broke this week so it might stop growing so much until I replace the light unit :/

My tank isn't new but until recently I hardly ever turned on the lights. My flat is full of large windows that light up the rooms and tank so well that the tank lights aren't necessary. I've never had a spot of any kind of algae in this tank. A few days before it started to appear, I started turning the tank lights on for 7 hours a day because I added some live plants (just floating water wisteria). I added sand to the tank just over a month ago as well, so that might have contributed, although the brown algae didn't appear until I started turning on the lights for the water wisteria 3 weeks later.

When my lights are working again, would adding loads of plants to the tank help? That was what I was planning on doing anyway before the algae appeared and my lights broke.

Right now it is probably a combination of overfeeding (which leads to extra poo) + not enough filtration + too much light + water not changed frequently or enough water changed in possibly too small a tank or too over stocked a tank....


Can you give a run down to remind us about size in gallons/liters, how many and how large the ACF are, type of filtration, feeding, how often and how large the water changes, how many/types of live plants, lighting type and duration....

The tank is 180 litres (47.5 US gal).
I'm keeping 3 ACF in there. They're only about 2 inches long, not including legs.
I'm using an external canister filter (for tanks up to 300L) and also an internal filter (for tanks up to 300L too, I think).
I usually feed them live earthworms every 2 days. One or 2 each depending on the worm size.
25% water changes every week.
No live plants other than water wisteria. I'm going to add loads more when I get my lights working again.
The tank just has two 30W T8 bulbs. I started keeping the lights on for 7 hours a day just before the brown algae appeared.

[rodsboys]

I forgot I posted this. Thanks for the replies. My tank lights broke this week so it might stop growing so much until I replace the light unit :/

My tank isn't new but until recently I hardly ever turned on the lights. My flat is full of large windows that light up the rooms and tank so well that the tank lights aren't necessary. I've never had a spot of any kind of algae in this tank. A few days before it started to appear, I started turning the tank lights on for 7 hours a day because I added some live plants (just floating water wisteria). I added sand to the tank just over a month ago as well, so that might have contributed, although the brown algae didn't appear until I started turning on the lights for the water wisteria 3 weeks later.

When my lights are working again, would adding loads of plants to the tank help? That was what I was planning on doing anyway before the algae appeared and my lights broke.



The tank is 180 litres (47.5 US gal).
I'm keeping 3 ACF in there. They're only about 2 inches long, not including legs.
I'm using an external canister filter (for tanks up to 300L) and also an internal filter (for tanks up to 300L too, I think).
I usually feed them live earthworms every 2 days. One or 2 each depending on the worm size.
25% water changes every week.
No live plants other than water wisteria. I'm going to add loads more when I get my lights working again.
The tank just has two 30W T8 bulbs. I started keeping the lights on for 7 hours a day just before the brown algae appeared.

Again, Not algae, it's diatoms. Has nothing to do with light, you added sand which contains silica which diatoms eat. They will eventually starve themselves to death. Just keep cleaning it up and it will go away.

[mpmistr]

Again, Not algae, it's diatoms. Has nothing to do with light, you added sand which contains silica which diatoms eat. They will eventually starve themselves to death. Just keep cleaning it up and it will go away.

I still struggle with diatoms in my 40B tank and it's been running since last September.

[rodsboys]

Diatoms. What are they and how can I get rid of them?

[Gemma]

I still struggle with diatoms in my 40B tank and it's been running since last September.

Has nothing to do with light, you added sand which contains silica which diatoms eat. They will eventually starve themselves to death. Just keep cleaning it up and it will go away.

Me too, I can't seem to get rid of it in one of my other tanks too that's been running since September. That one doesn't bother me so much because the tank is smaller so easier to clean. What confuses me is the light definitely affects it in that tank. If I clean it off everything and turn the lights off it doesn't come back. As soon as I turn the lights on again, it starts to grow back.

The day my lights broke in my 180L tank, I cleaned it off the glass and it hasn't grown back. That was 6 days ago so there's still time, but when the lights were on and I did this patches of it were appearing in the glass within a day or two of cleaning it off.

[Felis]

Hi,

diatoms are pretty common in new tanks, but it´s true that they aren´t restricted to them.
I also have some in my ACF-tank which is running since July 2012- without any further problems. Although they´re ugly to look at, I think a low abundance is not a major problem. In the beginning, I also had quite many, but most of them vanished within the first three months. Now, I can successfully reduce them to an acceptable level by scrubbing the walls of the tank every two or three weeks with the regular (weekly) water changes. In my tank, they mainly occur on those parts of the walls that get a few hours of sunlight in the afternoon.