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I have recently come back after time away at school to my beloved fishtank that has been viciously attacked by this creepy looking algae....and I cannot get it to go away! I do as many water changes as I can (50% every three weeks...bad I know...) the person I have feeding my fish is mindless about cleaning a tank. Well heres a picture. Can somebody please help me get rid of this nasty stuff? Its kind of fluffy looking, almost clogs up my filter and looks like thick black BGA in some places....

Some methods you can use to battle algae are planting the aquarium. This builds competition for resources between the plants and algae, and usually the plants will win. Also try to control the amount of light that the aquarium is exposed to, since algae photosynthesizes just like plants do.

You might also want to invest in some algae eaters. If you have a freshwater aquarium, I would recommend oto catfish and nerite snails. Otos are very active eaters and a small group of them will strip your aquarium of algae very quickly. Nerite snails are also active cleaners and have a widely varied diet, so if the otos don't eat the algae, the snails might. I have no experience at all with a salt water aquarium but I've heard that cleaner shrimp will also strip your tank of any algae very quickly. I don't know if they will stop at the algae though. They may graze on plants as well.

Hope this helps you some,
Zach

I have a pleco and an african cichlid that will eat up live plants...

In that case just make sure to control the amount of light that enters the tank, and buy 7 or 8 otos and a handful of nerite snails. Also you might want to scrape the algae off the sides and wash decorations in hot water. You can collect the algae scraped off the sides yourself with a net or a gravel vac, or just let the filter take care of it. Personally I would want to remove it from the aquarium altogether rather than let the filter pick it up.

Hi,
I suspect, from your initial comments that you do not have "algae" but rather Cyno Bacteria. Commonly, it is call BGA or "blue Green Algae." Generally it forms sheets of slimy coating over plants, the gravel, the glass, and just about anything else in the tank.

The main cause is lack of cleaning and water changes. Over feeding is the primary cause, along with "Old light bulbs," lack of gravel vacuuming, and poor circulation within the tank.

You can get rid of it rapidly by using an antibacterial medication. You can get it either from a fish store, or from you family doctor. HOWEVER, while the Erythromycin, will kill off the bacteria, it will also kill off the bacteria that manage your Nitrogen Cycle, and you will have to recycle the tank all over again. ALSO..If you do not clean the tank out, completely, the same conditions that caused the outbreak will still exist, and it will come back with a vengence.

The best thing to do is physically (by hand or by suction) manually remove as much of the slime as possible from everything. What can be taken out of the tank, take out and scrub under running water them replace them. Clean the gravel with a gravel cleaner. Vaccum every bit of the tank
substrate. Rinse any plants off with running water removing the slime by running each leaf between your fingers.
When you have finished all that, wrap your tank with a blanket to black out the tank. Leave the pump, filter, and heater, running. You don't want any light getting into the tank for 3-4 days. Then unwrap the tank and do a massive water change, at least 75% or more. The bacteria will have died and poluted the tank, so you need to remove as much of the old water as possible.

NOTHING will eat that form of "algae."

Frank

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

Have you heard of algae scrubbers? They work pretty well. IDK if you're interested in them or not, but this thread may help your dilemma: http://fishprofiles.com/forums/General_Freshwater/Lowest_cost_and_easiest_way_to/40101/

- C. Smith



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