Prevent Algae going everywhere?

[perplex]

so since i went to a shrimp tank, and added plants and furts, the Algae goes crazy, im guessing this is normal, rock on bottom are getting covered in green slowly.

 

whats the trick people use to control it? ive seen many pictures of tanks with plants and the algae is under control

 

just need alot of ottos?

 

also how many ottos could i put in a 100L tank to keep the algae down?

[GotCrabs]

First, check water parameters and see if everything is fine, also spot dose with either H2O2, Excel or AquaGreen's Dinosaur Spit.

 

I recently had some BBA on a piece of driftwood so took it out and gave it a spray of H2O2, let it sit for a couple of minutes and then put it back in the tank, the BBA goes a pink and red colour and go away.

 

If you looked at Ottos you wouldn't need too many, but also they are cool little fish too, I'd say grab 3/4, that'd be enough to do a job plus it's enough for them to get around with each other without feeling alone I guess.

If the algae is a stringy type, just run a fork through the plants and gather what you can, also spot dosing won't hurt the plants either, but might damage Mosses.

 

Also more plants, plants in the tank with out fight the algae for nutrients, although slow growing you can't go wrong with Java Ferns, Anubias, Bolbitis, but then again I swear by these plants and love 'em, easy to care for and look great when looked after.

[GotCrabs]

...and of course, Shrimp do a good algae clean up job, look at Darwin Algae Eaters, Darwin Red Nose, I think Crystal Reds are meant to be decent algae eaters as well.

Edited October 11, 2014 by GotCrabs

[perplex]

already using flourish excel and flourish

[GotCrabs]

already using flourish excel and flourish

 

Settle down, no need to fire up, haha.

How much of the ferts are you using? Might be too much perhaps, again check all the water parameters.

[perplex]

hahaha lol

 

using half dosage of both

 

water parameters are ok, ph was little high like 7.4 and water was abit hard so been adding rain water

[jayc]

If you can, remove algae covered ornaments, rocks, wood, and plants to be treated outside the tank.

 

1) You avoid messing the tank water parameters up

2) you avoid overdosing and harming the shrimp. too much H202 and Excel/Dino Spit (glutaraldehyde) might harm your shrimps.

3) treating outside the tank, with no livestock, you can increase the dose and get the algae faster.

 

But before you jump into what action to take, please tell us what algae you have.

 

Ottos don't eat many types of algae - anything stringy. Don't waste your money.

Shrimps don't eat many types as well, even when someone else's shrimp will eat a certain algae, yours might not. - CRS and Cherries are worst at eating algae.

Edited October 11, 2014 by jayc

[perplex]

its a mixture between green and brown, no idea of the name of it

sorry for the crappy green algae pic

 

one on the left is brown mostly, and right is the green

 

Edited October 11, 2014 by perplex

[jayc]

You have mostly brown diatoms and green algae.

Nothing to panic about.

 

Although unsightly to you, the shrimp and more importantly, shrimplets LOVE this stuff.

 

Clearing it out would mean one major source of food for shrimplets will be gone. Your shrimplet survival rate would fall, and you'd end up with less juvies.

 

I would suggest not doing anything with it. Except maybe reducing your photo period to no more than 8 hours a day.

 

An otto would devour this type of algae as well. But that would mean less for shrimplets.

What shrimps do you have? And have you not noticed shrimplets (new born) grazing on this?

[GotCrabs]

If you can, remove algae cover ornaments, rocks, wood, and plants to be treated outside the tank.

 

1) You avoid messing the tank water parameters up

2) you avoid overdosing and harming the shrimp. too much H202 and Excel/Dino Spit (glutaraldehyde) might harm your shrimps.

3) treating outside the tank, with no livestock, you can increase the dose and get the algae faster.

 

But before you jump into what action to take, please tell us what algae you have.

 

Ottos don't eat many types of algae - anything stringy. Don't waste your money.

Shrimps don't eat many types as well, even when someone else's shrimp will eat a certain algae, yours might not. - CRS and Cherries are worst at eating algae.

 

You know I've always been told that Ottos and Shrimp are an excellent algae clean up crew, interesting to hear otherwise.

 

I forgot to add that too much glut can harm Shrimp, also Mosses as well.

[GotCrabs]

In regards on lighting period I was at 8 hours each day Perplex and had some BBA issues, so reduced to 6 hours, seems to have helped.

[jayc]

You know I've always been told that Ottos and Shrimp are an excellent algae clean up crew, interesting to hear otherwise.

 

I forgot to add that too much glut can harm Shrimp, also Mosses as well.

 

Yep.

Ottos are cute ... when you see them. They love to hide.

Apart from that, they are the most boring of fishes. You know what I mean when you have some. They just sit there mostly. They are usually more active at night. 

 

Give them hair algae, staghorn, black beard algae, string algae, BGA,  green spot algae and they won't touch it. 

 

Diatoms and green algae are ok.

 

But Siamese Algae Eaters (SAE) will eat those stringy algae above (except BGA).

But you can't mix SAE with shrimp.

 

The bigger shrimps like Amano, Typus, do really good jobs of cleaning up stringy algae.

DAE and DRN are also good with hair algae.

 

 

Glut is partially Aldehye.

Do you know what they use aldehyde for? It's the liquid use to preserve things in jars you see at museums, labs, etc.

That's potent stuff.

Edited October 11, 2014 by jayc

[GotCrabs]

Yep.

Ottos are cute ... when you see them. They love to hide.

Apart from that, they are the most boring of fishes. You know what I mean when you have some. They just sit there mostly. They are usually more active at night. 

 

Give them hair algae, staghorn, black beard algae, string algae, BGA,  green spot algae and they won't touch it. 

 

Diatoms and green algae are ok.

 

But Siamese Algae Eaters (SAE) will eat those stringy algae above (except BGA).

But you can't mix SAE with shrimp.

 

The bigger shrimps like Amano, Typus, do really good jobs of cleaning up stringy algae.

DAE and DRN are also good with hair algae.

 

 

Glut is partially Aldehye.

Do you know what they use aldehyde for? It's the liquid use to preserve things in jars you see at museums, labs, etc.

That's potent stuff.

 

...and again I've been told that SAE are OK with Shrimp as well, glad I jumped on this forum.

 

Didn't know about the Glut/Aldehyde either, you learn something new each day.

 

From looking at the photos Perplex, I would say don't worry about the algae you have, when I read what you had I had worse images in mind but seeing that what you have I wouldn't be too fussed about it to be honest, algae is good for Shrimp and as JayC said Shrimpets love it.

[perplex]

yea i know its good, only just starting to grow fast, i have CRS and Yellow, i havent noticed any eating it yet, but i also dont have any young shrimp, they would be about 2 cm long now

[Jenbenwren]

I must be lucky. I have 2 Ottos in my 2 ft and from around 5:00pm till lights out they are at the front of the tank waiting for a feed. They are really cute to watch and love to clean up the shrimp food. They follow each other around and sort of snuggle up together or play tag around the tank.

Shame they don't touch the green spot glass algae, BBA & hair type algae though.

[jayc]

...and again I've been told that SAE are OK with Shrimp as well, glad I jumped on this forum.

 

Didn't know about the Glut/Aldehyde either, you learn something new each day.

Definitely not an SAE.

Glut in the quantities for aquarium fertilisation isn't going to preserve things. But when you have a tank of expensive shrimp, I wouldn't risk it personally. Some will say they dose glut, and their shrimp are just fine. But there have also been stories of glut killing whole tanks of shrimp.

till lights out they are at the front of the tank waiting for a feed. They are really cute to watch and love to clean up the shrimp food. They follow each other around and sort of snuggle up together or play tag around the tank.

That's what I mean though. They only come out after dark. They are cute, that's agreed. But they aren't very active, they mostly just sit still, unlike most other fish that swim around. But they definitely are invaluable, I have at least a couple in every tank. Apparently they behave completely differently in a large pack of 10 or more. But alas there is never enough algae in my tanks to keep that many fed.

[Jenbenwren]

I'm a bit of a night owl and I don't tend to turn the light on their tank off till about midnight and both of them are still up the front of the tank swimming around or what looks like playing. Sometimes they are still at it at 3 or 4 in the morning. I have to admit though, that I rarely used to see any of the other Otto's I have had and it's a real treat seeing how active these 2 are.

[fishmosy]

The brown and green algae that you are an important part of biofilm. There is a great thread on biofilms which will tell you what they are and how and why they are important for shrimp which can be found here:

http://shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/index.php/topic/1461-biofilm/?hl=biofilm

As jayc has said, it would be best to do nothing as your algae are good algae.

Edited October 11, 2014 by fishmosy

[OzShrimp]

As people have said the brown and green algae are good they generally showthat you have a healthy tank environment.

BBA on the other hand is a major pain in the ass and can be quiet difficult to get rid of. This algae on the other hand quiet often means that there is something wrong in your tank.

 

So far I had to dispose of all my US Fissidens, 4 large sponge filters because of BBA. spot dosing excel didnt work and i have soaked anubias back in the day with no result. Thankfully now i have more of a clue as to what i am doing and havent had BBA in years :)

 

You will find that outside of a full planted tank and what not most shrimpkeepers tend to moreso keep low light plants and mosses so you dont require the dosing of chemicals. A goodsafe practice is to half dose your ferts and stuff for the sake of your shrimp :)

Edited October 11, 2014 by OzShrimp

[jayc]

So far I had to dispose of all my US Fissidens, 4 large sponge filters because of BBA. spot dosing excel didnt work and i have soaked anubias back in the day with no result.

Oh oh, I have a possible solution for that.

Where algae has grown in between our prized plants. Where manual removal is too difficult, and futile cause the algae just grows back, and where spot dosing excel/glut/Dino spit would kill sensitive plants like mosses, pellia or fissiden.

I have mini pellia that had stag horn and BBA growing through it.

I have managed to clear it out/eradicate/kill the algae within 3days, without killing the mini pellia.

Yes it might be too late for you now, but it could be useful for next time.

Want to know how??

Like this post, and if I get enough interest, I will write a full review article.

Otherwise I won't bother with an article.

Edited October 12, 2014 by jayc

[fishmosy]

Cmon jayc whats the secret?

[petfish]

ofcause we do....

[GotCrabs]

Stop being a dick tease, just tell us! haha.

[OzShrimp]

Where is your skf spirit! Just share lol

[jayc]

LOL.

 

OKAY!

 

I'll write a separate article. We have hijacked this thread enough.

 

Done - read here

http://shrimpkeepersforum.com/forum/index.php/topic/7705-treating-algae-infected-plants-without-killing-the-plant/

Edited October 13, 2014 by jayc