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I was just wondering what the best way to get rid of algae off of my fake plants is? I have a few that I just wipe it off of it but a few with jagged leaves and I can never get it all off. The algae is in bunches and really dark, what is the best way of getting rid of this out of the tank? its so annoying and looks horrible!!
Sorry if Iv posted this in the wrong place.

Thanks
Claire

ClaireH

It will depend on the type of Artifical Plant, if it is the medium-hard plastic I would suggest a soft tooth brush and plenty of just clean running water. If it is the softer silk type I would use my fingers only to remove the algae.

Keith

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What I do is to soak the plants in a bucket of water with a small amount of liquid bleach in it. It works GREAT.

Now, the main trick, to be safe, you have to have 2 sets of plants. After soaking for a day, I rinse, and let them dry in the air for a long time (weeks actually). The other set goes in the tank, until they get dirty, then I repeat.

Obviously I would NOT want to get any bleach into the aquarium, so I personally wouldn't do this with only one set of plants. But it works great. No scrubbing or rubbing, just soak, and rinse.

good luck
-Dennis

That's a very good idea Beefshank.


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Hi everyone!!!
So... algae problems, huh???
Algae grows because of excess quantity of light, nitrate, phosphorate, and other elements. Different types of algae, prefer different elements...!!! Even just changing one of the elements above can result in algae boooooooooooom!!!

To start with, please advise us with the nitrate, nitrite, phosphorate and lighting-duration numbers, as well as any algae eating fish or snails you might have!

Submerging the plastic plants into 1/20 - bleach/water solution for 2 secs, is an option but it will only fight the problem for a week!!! So... we will all like to know more about your tank...

Yours,

Apostolos

PS: you might also want to consoder placing live plants in your tank as they help to maintain a stable balance...

I have medium hard plants in the tank, no silk ones. I have had a planted tank before and they seemed to make the tank look even dirtier so when I got a bigger one I decided I would stick to the plastic ones.
I tested the water a few days ago and everything was fine, I cant remember the values that they came out at but there was nothing to worry about.
I think its definatly a lighting issue but I try to keep putting the lights on to a minimum, the room the tank is in has no direct sunlight coming in as I have the blinds down all the time, and I normally have a back light on no main light in the evening.I like to have the light on in the tank though, it seems such a waste when I cant enjoy the tank as much as I would like to.
The algae is really dark and in little bunches, I also have green algae but that I can handle, its the black stuff that seems to get eveywhere!!
I have one plant that my cories hide under and that takes soooo long to clean! even with a brush.
I get a bit scared when people start mentioning bleach.. any other methods??

Thank you
Claire

I use this product. Has worked for me.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=11434&Ntt=plant%20cleaner&Ntk=All&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Np=1&N=0&Nty=1

Last edited by kmpaton at 25-Apr-2005 10:11

"BALANCE" is the keyword to fight most types algae (blue algae is an exception as it is caused by cyanobacteria). You have to find and follow between lighting etc...

To start with, I would minimize the lighting duration to 10 hours, I would reduce the amount of food, I would increase the water circulation and put an air pump to work while the lights are off (the last will help to increase gas exchange and thus avoid CO2 increase that is food to all plants and algae)...

Generally speaking I avoid using chemicals...

Greetings,

Apostolis

I don't blame you for getting nervous about using bleach. I pondered over it a while myself.

But bleach is basically chlorine(sp?), and it WILL evaporate in a couple days. My understanding is it would even eventually evaporate out of the bucket with the newly-cleaned plants in it. But I would never leave them in there that long.

As long as you give the chlorine time to evaporate, all your fish would be fine. I also add a little extra de-clorinator to the tank when the plants go in too. Just for good measure.

Here's a link to the discussion where I asked what you are asking...


http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/General%20Freshwater/56876.html?200503240051

good luck with whatever you decide!

-Dennis

Last edited by Beefshank at 26-Apr-2005 06:57

Thanks everyone I guess im just going to have to give them a good old scrub as I havent got another set of plants to enable me to use bleach.... Damn Algae!!!! ]