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If your removing tank decorations to clean use vinegar or bleach. Vinegar is safer and will still get rid of algae. Just pour on some vinegar scrub them with something like a toothbrush, rinse, and place back in the tank. For tougher algae soak them in a container of vinegar. Vinegar is nontoxic and the only damage it would do if you got some in the tank is potentially lower ph but you'd have to soak the decoration, not rinse it, and have softwater for it to do that. Vinegar will also clean the outside of the glass quite effectively.

For your situation, you might just want to try this stuff called AlgaeFix, it is for aquariums whith live plants and fish. But I'm guessing that if you remove the fish part, it will work just fine...tell me how it goes.:88)

Swab your tank with an algae scrub.

Hi,
Here is a link to the various types of algae, what causes
them, and how to eliminate them.

http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/algae.html

and the dreaded Green Water:

http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/greenwater.html

Hope these help...
Frank


Last edited by FRANK at 24-Oct-2005 16:38

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

The long term fix is probably feed less, and maybe do more water changes. Blue-green algae looks green when it is thin, but then looks pretty black when it is thick. You can also get eurethomyocin from the vet to treat it. That is drastic I think.

Last edited by pizpot at 24-Oct-2005 14:37

Blue-green algae is a bacteria. I've seen an apple snail eat it and croak. It means something is not right. Until that is fixed, a good way to deal with it is scrape it off the glass, and clean decorations/rocks/plastic plants that have it by removing and bleaching them. Before putting them back soak them and change their water a few times, and dry them. Hydrogen peroxide kills this bacteria. 1/2 oz per 10 gals is the dose as far as I can tell. It might kill your filter bacteria so you may want to move it to a small container of tank water for 1/2 hour when you do this. You can do this more than once... every two hours if you want, although I'm sure your fish will die if you do it too much. I did it once a day for 4 days and my filter did not die, or my fish, but the algae did go away and now I feed less. Remember, it is a bacteria that doubles in count every 8 hours (or whatever its life cyle time is). So the more you physically remove the better. They say to use a turkey baster for the peroxide and shoot it right on the algae. They also say if you do it right, the algae being treated will bubble. I just dumped to the filter waterfall when I did it.


Last edited by pizpot at 24-Oct-2005 14:40

cheers little fish,any info is useful as I am constantly learning about the fish.Usual story,son's fish,son leaves home,mother gets left with them,hence goldie's ma! I would still like to know if anyone has used oxyaction for cleaning things from the tank and which brand is it they use.

goldie's ma,

Just in case, you know that you should use a very low solution of bleach (19 parts water, 1 part bleach) OUTSIDE of the tank and then rinse whatever you bleach off like mad to assure that there is none left. And only then is it not dangerous to fish.

Hope my entry is useless (as in you knew that),

Ingo

---

Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I was surprised you can use bleach to clean stuff with.I thought this would be harmful to fish.I have a few of those plastic plants and they are really difficult to scrub clean effectively as they become covered in algae quite quickly because of the light.

I know you said "Not a fish" but I still think you should get a sucker fish... they are cool as He**!

Otherwise, I agree with Heidi.

---

"it's the neck, it creaks under the weight of too much heavy thinking."

Hi! Is there anything I can put in my tank (NOT a fish) that will get rid of algae? I have an empty tank right now with just a few plants and some decorations. Are there any chemical products on the market that will eliminate algae? There's not too much, just a little blue-green "slime" on one of the decorations and some fuzz-like algae on the plants. Thanks so much!

Because my tank is near a window and cant be moved I get a lot of algae.The woman in the pet shop said that you can use one of the "Oxyaction"cleaners to clean the tank "furniture"but I'm scared to try because I dont know which one is safe,if any,any ideas?Anyone ever actually used this?

i know every one has said it but i need to stress it some more keep it out of direct sunlight and keep away from windows. You can buy a pleco or any other algea eating fish to help it wont get it all but it will help, but when the algas gone you need to feed these fish vegi tablets, the plecos love vacation feeders. you can also try a magnetic glass cleaner or a non scratch sponge *NEW MUST NOT HAE TOUCHED OTHER CHEMICALS OR OTHER STUFF*.

Just to add to heidi's suggestion, when shopping for a kitchen pad, make sure that it doesn't have any chemical additives on it, as some add a product to reduce mold.

Also, a swab of filter floss or filter pad works as well on all but the hardest spot algae and are totally safe.

I had a big slime algae problem in my 115g. So I cut right back on light time (some days I didn't even turn the light on). After a week (and a good clean) there was no algae at all in the tank. now it's been about 2 weeks since and there is still no sign of the algae that I had.

I currently run no more than 7 hours of light a day. The tank is already in a bright room. And the tank is non-planted.

So otherwords No light, No algae.

Last edited by PJ at 02-Oct-2005 03:24

Thanks Heidi! Great suggestion...I'll give it a try.

there suggestions are great but hard. Chemicals are not good for ridding of algae. You might end up eliminating something else. I experienced it, i use a fish to remove the algae on the decorations. I have a 48x18x18 inches planted aquarium 4x40watts coralife 20000k lights. DIY co2 injection system. I used Siamese alage eater to remove the excess algae caused by the light. very effective. Don't feed them too much because they might not eat the algae.

definately cut back on the number of hours the tank is getting light, and check to see how close to a window it is These 2 things alone will help with the algae growth. Now to get rid of that, that is already on the war path of your tankget one of those soft bristle pads in the kitchen/cleaning section. The ones I find are usually green. They are not rough, but tough, then simply wipe/scrub the algae off...be careful don't want to scratch the tank, but this usually works on even the tougher algae

heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Maybe you have too much light or some direct sunlight. Try to reduce the light hours &amp; see how it will go. I recommend you, not to use any chemicals with your tank.


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