Algae

[Ms Limpet]

Is algae good for Discus? I bought some live plants this past summer for my tank and when some started dying I took them out but I think spores were left. The water conditions are ok - within acceptable parameters and my fish don't seem affected at all. I've taken my discus out of this tank and put them in a spare breeding tank, just in case. The algae is a deep green, and I can wipe it off the side of the tank with a paper towel. Looking at it, it appears slightly stringy. I have taken out all my plants and the rocks that have it on them, scrubbed off the algae and boiled everything. The algae has the odor of a freshwater lake (which to me isn't unpleasant). But its not about me, its about my babies - the discus.
I've had these fish for about 1 1/2 years. I've racked my brain trying to think if I've done anything different. There are only 2 things that I've done differently - and both of them happened this past summer. 1st - the live plants and 2nd - I fed them new (to my use) frozen foods called Emerald Entre and Spirulina Brine Shrimp, both of which I was told by the pet store rep would be ok for them (and yes the discus like it).
I had the thought that the algae could be representative of discus habitat conditions, but haven't had this problem come up before. I could use some advice.
Has anyone had this kind of a problem, what did you do, did you leave the discus in that particular tank, any remedies (besides not putting live plants in there again)?

thank you for your knowledge and time

[Hollowman]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

How often are you doing water changes? This would be my first area to look at. The more you do the more you remove the algae, then with cleaning you can rid yourself of the problem

[sayid]

hello Ms Limpet; welcome aboard ,every tank has the possibilities of starting having algae ,as Hollowman mentioned you can start reducing it by increasing your w/c also algae is opportunist which means they compete with your plants for light ,food and co2 ,another word if your plants are active and thriving your algae have hard time to establish it self .
What you need to do ,
. make sure your lighting is not excessive i.e less than 7-8 hours a day .
. make sure your water does not have too much nutrition in it i.e not feeding excess food to discus.
. fertilizing minimum amount for your plants .
. using more of plants which use nutrition from water than plants using nutrition from their roots .
There are a few minor tweaking ,but above are the main points .
good luck
sayid

[fern]

Is algae a signal that something is wrong in relation to water condition for discus or just not wanted because looks awful?

[sayid]

every tank has small amount of algae but when that equilibrium in the tank goes out the algae gets the chance to flourish in the expense of the plants, you will break the equilibrium by too much feed or light etc . fern i suggest you read basic discus care stickies so you will be equipped with the relevant knowledge when its needed .

[fern]

fern i suggest you read basic discus care stickies so you will be equipped with the relevant knowledge when its needed .

I have been reading whatever I can find, however, there is nothing like the help and advice provided by experienced, knowledgeable people like yourself.

My question really was "Is algae good for Discus?" (as asked initially by Ms Limpet)

[sayid]

sorry fern i really did not answer your question , algae is not pleasant for humans but discus do not mind some time they eat a bit of it but as far as they are concern algae is just another plant so your answer is that discus don't care one way or another .
HTH
Sayid

[Ms Limpet]

Hi Fern,
I had made another post explaining what I had done, but can't find it anywhere...so I'll start over here. I thought about sayid's comments about the light and I changed how much time I had my light on. I felt my water changes and parameters were ok. But, I had been keeping my light on for about 12-13 hours: from about 7am - 8-9pm. I cut that down to 10 hours. I cleaned all the algae off the sides and off the plants and I got rid of all the live plants. I also used an algae killer from API. I think these things did the trick. There is very little algae in there now, and I don't think it's bothering the Discus at all. In fact, my discus spawned a couple of days ago, so I'm pretty sure that whatever algae is in there doesn't affect them. But I'm not taking any chances and will continue to monitor the algae growth.

Thank you to everyone for reading my post and for the comments made. I did take the advice of each one and I have happy discus as proof. Hope everyone is as happy with their "babies" as I am with mine. Thank you again.

[Ms Limpet]

I was concerned because it looked awful

[Ms Limpet]

Like you, fern, I read what whatever I could find, but ended up here, asking questions from other discus keepers. You're right - there is nothing like first hand knowledge.