Algae

[Todd Otterbein]

I'm having problems with green algae growing around my floating Amazon frogbit. Any suggestions.
Thanks Todd

 

[themountain]

Take it out or not ...just kidding.

Would be good to know what kind of algae.

 

[Todd Otterbein]

Take it out or not ...just kidding.

Would be good to know what kind of algae.

Blue/green

 

[Mike Wise]

Sounds like too little light with too many nutrients. I've heard that Erythomycin will control it, but this is just treating the symptom and not the cause. I think the best course, the one that works for me at least, is lower the bio-load (either fewer fish or feeding less) and increase water changes for a while. Increasing the amount/duration of light will only change your problem from having blue-green algae to green algae. Of course you could also increase the light and add more higher plants, which out-compete lower plants for nutrients.

 

[Todd Otterbein]

Sounds like too little light with too many nutrients. I've heard that Erythomycin will control it, but this is just treating the symptom and not the cause. I think the best course, the one that works for me at least, is lower the bio-load (either fewer fish or feeding less) and increase water changes for a while. Increasing the amount/duration of light will only change your problem from having blue-green algae to green algae. Of course you could also increase the light and add more higher plants, which out-compete lower plants for nutrients.

Here is more info. This tank is giving me the worst problem.
20gal. long
2-65watt sub. compact fluorescent 6700k bulbs. Only 1 being used and have it shaded approx. 40-50 percent on advise to shade a bit.
80-100 percent water changes per week. With R/O water. Soft/ph 6.4
I feed very carefully twice a day. Mostly frozen bloodworms and baby brine shrimp.
Top of tank approx. 50 percent frogbit and salvia.
A few swords,wisteria,Java fern below.
Fish 3 panda corys,4 otocinclus,6 full grown neon tetras,1 male A. borelli
Neons are kind of pigs!
Lights on 10hrs.
This tank is kind of a catch all tank. Not for breeding. Maybe this will help some. Thanks Todd

 

[Todd Otterbein]

Here is more info. This tank is giving me the worst problem.
20gal. long
2-65watt sub. compact fluorescent 6700k bulbs. Only 1 being used and have it shaded approx. 40-50 percent on advise to shade a bit.
80-100 percent water changes per week. With R/O water. Soft/ph 6.4
I feed very carefully twice a day. Mostly frozen bloodworms and baby brine shrimp.
Top of tank approx. 50 percent frogbit and salvia.
A few swords,wisteria,Java fern below.
Fish 3 panda corys,4 otocinclus,6 full grown neon tetras,1 male A. borelli
Neons are kind of pigs!
Lights on 10hrs.
This tank is kind of a catch all tank. Not for breeding. Maybe this will help some. Thanks Todd

Almost forgot. Filtration is sponge

 

[themountain]

Reduce the lighting for a week on 4 hrs. a day , feed only every second day and do your Water changes . Should be gone in no time

 

[dwarfpike]

Erythomycin does indeed melt it quite effectively, but like Mike said all that is doing is knocking it back a bit. But I find it does give you time to alter the tank to keep it from coming back. Flow also seems to be a factor, it usually only shows in areas with a distinct lack of it in my tanks. Normally I hit the tank with a single half dose of Erythomycin and cut back the feedings, then do several water changes while clearing the silly duckweed and maybe alter the filter position slightly. Always seems to work.

 

[rr16]

I unfortunately have this in two of my tanks. In one it's been pretty much outcompeted by the vast overgrowth of plants and there are small pockets of it. In another it's around the Salvinia and on the underside of Pistia that it is an issue. It's on the sides of the glass at the top where it's near the light also. It isn't a major problem here either as I just scrape it off the glass and net out the plants it's attached to. It comes back but not in force. I've had it as a nightmare in a tank before and had to perform blackouts. I used erythromycin but, being in the UK I couldn't get hold of it so I had to order it to be imported via Ebay. It cleared it out but it eventually came back. Places often state that no fish will eat it, however, I was told in a local shop that Nannostomus beckfordi will eat it, only to go home and catch mine doing exactly this! Whether they are eating the microorganisms that may be coating it, or whether they're eating the cyanobacteria itself, I'm not sure. Needless to say, it's not really a problem in the tank with these fish in (although whether that's down to other factors or the fish I don't know) and I tend to keep some in there in case they do like snacking on it. I don't bother about small amounts in the second tank I mentioned either as I often wonder whether the Nannostomus eques will snack on it or not!

 

[gerald]

My experience with cyano slime (Oscillatoria, Phormidium, Lygnbya are the usual ones) is exactly as RR16 describes. New tanks often get overrun with it, then it settles back to just trace amounts after the real plants get growing, and it rarely causes any problem after that unless there's rotting food in the tank. Funny how it seems to like the undersides of floating plant leaves (Pistia, Limnobium, etc) - maybe they leak something that benifits the cyano. I once had a brilliant idea of using hollow beef bones as spawning caves. Cyano loved it -- great source of calcium phosphate! Took quite awhile after removing the bones to reduce cyano in that tank. I've never found any fish, snail, or shrimp that eats it enough to effectively control it. I think it's a "last choice" food for most herbivores.

 

[Todd Otterbein]

My experience with cyano slime (Oscillatoria, Phormidium, Lygnbya are the usual ones) is exactly as RR16 describes. New tanks often get overrun with it, then it settles back to just trace amounts after the real plants get growing, and it rarely causes any problem after that unless there's rotting food in the tank. Funny how it seems to like the undersides of floating plant leaves (Pistia, Limnobium, etc) - maybe they leak something that benifits the cyano. I once had a brilliant idea of using hollow beef bones as spawning caves. Cyano loved it -- great source of calcium phosphate! Took quite awhile after removing the bones to reduce cyano in that tank. I've never found any fish, snail, or shrimp that eats it enough to effectively control it. I think it's a "last choice" food for most herbivores.

Thanks
So far I've thined out floating plants. Cut back light a bit more. Massive water changes seems to be helping.
I would like to use glass canopies on tanks to conserve heat for winter. I've tried it for a few days before. I have good ventilation and don't seem to have a heat problem. Do you think it will affect Limnobium and Salvia ?

 

[rr16]

It doeasn't affect my Salvinia. Salvia on the other hand is sage isn't it? Or Diviner's sage?

 

[Todd Otterbein]

Oops Salvinia. Grow Salvia out in yard!

 

[Todd Otterbein]

Oops Salvinia. Grow Salvia out in yard!

How about glass canopies use with floating plants. Ok?

 

[star_rider]

I find that cyano (bacteria) can grow on the underside of glass canopies. it is a photosynthetic bacteria that is capable of producing in low nitrogen .

because it is a bacteria it is affected by erythromycin.. it will even respond to low dose (half dose) but it will come back if you can't find the cause.
in my case it was removed with lower photoperiods and increased flow.

as far as floating plants with glass canopies.. they do fine in my planted tanks.. as long as light get to them they do great.

 

[gerald]

Some floaters tend to rot if their top surface stays too moist, for example Pistia and Phyllanthus in my experience do better with a semi-open top (all or part screen) so their tops can dry. Limnobium, Ricciocarpus, Ceratopteris, Salvinia, and Duckweeds usually do OK with a solid top and near 100% humidity, in my tanks. I could wallpaper my house with all the sheets of algae (probably a cyano+green algae mix) that I have peeled off the underside of glass canopies.

 

[rr16]

I could wallpaper my house with all the sheets of algae (probably a cyano+green algae mix) that I have peeled off the underside of glass canopies.

Mmm, I can imagine the smell of a house wallpapered like this!