Plants and Algae

[neeld04]

hey, i have had a sucessful 55gal planted aquarium for about 5 months give or take. when was home i did weekly water changes and added seachem iron and potassium for the dosages on the bottle. i left for school for 2 months and come back to find that my mother had started graowing algae in the tank. i also dont think that she did anywater changes but kept up with the chemicals. i think it is beard algae, the guy at the pet shop said it was, it is not easy to pull off and is mostly on the edges of plants. i have since tried the bleach method, i dont know how effective it was, and and done a pretty through water change. can anyone help me with why this is here and an effective way to get rid of it?:help:

[boston]

you could try algeacide but i dont know if its safe for plants.

[Chrona]

Siamese algae eaters make short work of the bearded algae, and are really one of the only solutions to your problem. Make sure to get the right kind though. They are also known as the Siamese Flying Fox. Do NOT get a plain flying fox or a chinese algae eater or whatever. It should have a black stripe running down the length of the body with no white/different color stripes above or below it.

[jeffs99dime]

otto cats work wonders on green and brown algae

[Lady Hobbs]

Siamese algae eaters are mean buggers tho. They will fight with their own species, too, so I don't think I'd have more than 1 in a tank.

[Abbeys_Mom]

You will have to be careful if you get a fish to eat your algae. You have to make sure it won't eat all the algae, or you will have to start feeding it. You also have to be careful, because some fish that eat algae will also eat your plants and/or dig them up.

[jeffs99dime]

you have to feed them fish food anyway, regardless if there's algae in the tank or not

[Abbeys_Mom]

I only feed my algae eater once a week (zucchini), other then that he has to eat leftovers from the fish.

[Chrona]

You may be right about multiple SAE, but I've never had any problems with a single one in my 10 and in my 55. Or possibly you are referring to flying foxes, which look alot like SAE but are much more aggressive.

If you have a massive algae bloom, one isn't going to do anything, but as long as it's not spreading dramatically, and you control phosphates, etc, a single SAE will slowly work his way through all that algae. My SAE in my 55 has gotten decently big, and has no problem maintaining the algae situation himself, and I've never seen any aggressive behaviour from either of them, and I don't need to worry about any special feeding because they'll eat flakes as a supplement too, if there isn't enough algae

If anything, my SAE gets bullied around by my roid-raged cardinal tetras. Maybe I just need some more aggressive fish to show them their place in the tank....lol