algae how to control it?

[iro11a]

Hey i alot a bit of hair algae growing on my rocks and also the brown algae on leafs of plants i have my standard 4 foot light on for about 8-9 hours a day.

Question is how do i control it so i dont have to rub the plants leafs back all the time to get rid of it ?

Cheers Jono

[scott bowler]

jono that algae is very hard to get rid of .i had it once too i got mine becouse i didnt have enought light , so i added 1 more batten. after i got rid of it and rubbing it off every thing . i ran the diotom for a while once a week , do you have a uv , i think that kills it to . but i dont run one . see how you go. good luck

[iro11a]

I had alot of algae before i got the uv in the tank i have had to get a wire brush to srub it to get it off some of the rocks seems to be coming back slowly.

So you think i should get better lighting?

Jono

[axl]

get some sae fish that will keep the algea down, they do a great job

[aussieorchid]

iro11a when was the last time you changed the light bulbs. I got an outbreak of hair algae over christmas and found that it had been almost 9 months since I had replaced the T5 tubes. When I replaced them the lighting difference was huge even though the other tubes looked like they were fine.

[ikavia]

Refer to topic:

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11035

[iro11a]

Hey i had the outbreak since the light was new but i do think i need a new bulb because i would have to say it would be about 10 months old now

[iro11a]

also ikavia i don't need to know about bleaching logs its a algae problem not mozzy prob thanks anyways

Jono

[ILLUSN]

TRY MORE LIGHT! 2 40w fluros on a 4ft for 12hr a day min brown algae doesnt grow in mid to high light tanks(2w/g and above), do you have phosphate or excess iron in the water? both these accelerate hair algae. also DONT OVERFEED once per day enough for them to eat in 2min feeding is PLENTY. try running CO2 (20-30ppm) will help plants out grow algae. add FAST GROWING plants duckweed wisteria hydrophelia spp, java moss, hornwort etc and LOTS of them. The best thing you can do is remove as much hari algae as possible by hand, then as new leaves grow cut off infected and damaged old leaves (hair and bba algae love growing on old leaves), try ottos 2 fish /square foot and a couple of SAE's. keep at it and eventually it will control itself.

[ikavia]

I was referring to bleaching logs to kill the hair algae. I had hair algae and found that bleaching the logs killed it off "instantly". I am not suggesting that this is a long term solution as obviously there is an underlying cause for it, which could be treated by the other suggestions posted. However if you want an "immediate" solution for aesthetic reasons etc bleaching should be considered.

[scott bowler]

the thing with algae there is so many difrent types , some need a lot of light some need a light, so you have to find a balance , there is no way around it , we can only do our best, there are ways to control algae with some fish and snail, also controling light times and heat , and water change

[DiscusEden]

Hi Iro11a,
I had some BBA in my last 3 ft (low tech) tank - it was painful to deal with!

I bought 2 SAE (now the size of fat anakondas and the biggest things in the tank) and an otto, and they made short work of it without using chemicals.

Of course, the SAE doubled their size each week for 5 weeks & now don't eat anything but fish food, and the otto could potentially suck onto your discus & kill them - and good luck catching that little sucker if you ever need to get it out! (I stripped the tank, removed everything including the gravel to move the tank to a friend's & still couldn't catch it in 2cm of water!)

Then again, I had what looked like a different form of hair algae in the 6ft, did 2 massive water chenges which dried out the log it was on each time, turned on CO2 after the second, and no more algae!

As the guys said, there are various methods and balances, just find one that works for you! Keep us posted?

[Patson]

My tank used to have 10+ SAE in it...they did an awesome job cleaning up whatever algea in the tank, they were timid when small and wont bother the Discus.

HOWEVER, as many have mentioned, SAE grows rather quickly and they would become more agressive. Few months earlier, they started eating most the the bloodworms I fed the discus. And just a week ago, some big ones started sucking on the discus and annoyed the hell out of them. The SAEs are damn stupid, they just wont let go even when my discus started chasing them off.

So...today all of the SAEs are removed from my tank and I noticed less stress bands on my smaller discus. SAEs are just plain annoying, even if they dun suck on the discus, they might follow them around...I am not sure if it was the cause of the stress bands.

BTW, my tanks do have some ottos too, they are much smaller and less annoying than the SAE. I have kept them in the tank for 1+ yr and they never suck on my discus. Another plus is they ONLY eat nothing but algea.

[ILLUSN]

Patson are you sure they are SAE and not CAE, SAE don't have a sucker mouth, they have a mouth more like barbs attached is a drawing I've got 4 BIG SAe in my discus tank, they pick at algae but most are missing scales as my biggest discus kicks the **** out of them every feeding.

[Patson]

ya I am sure :D the black band goes all the way to the end of the tail...they weren't really sucking, more like nibbling....I noticed everything when I did water change with hands in the water, they nibble on my arm too..

From my experience, they basically eat EVERYTHING...algea, dried fish food, blood worm (sometimes even poo :P )...but once they try the coat on discus, they just couldn't resist it :(