Algae problems?

Question

My gravel (which is lightgreen and white) has started to turn brownish from algae, I now know to leave the lights on for shorter periods of time, (i have no live plants), So any ideas how i can get the algae off the gravel WITHOUT removing it, And i dont want a 'sucker fish' or 'algae fish'

Thanks

Answer 1

Yes less light is a good start, but you may want to use a gravel cleaning siphon tube to plunge into the gravel and loosen the algae from it and suck it up the tube without removing it. This will help somewhat but probably not completely. Is your tank near or in front of a window? If so simply turning you light off more often will not help much. Even if you close the blinds natural light usually gets in anyways and you are best off using a dark or opaque background on the back and possibly the sides depending on where the natural light may be coming through. If you have already done this and still are having a problem I would consider keeping at least a couple of low maintenance live plants in your tank as live plants compete with algae and usually win. This is how i conquered some of my former algae problems.

Good luck to you.

Answer 2

Instead of lessening the light, keep all light away from the tank for 4 days. Also, while doing this "blackout", feed half as much fish food as normal. Algae Eaters and Plecostomus are terrible fish because they get huge and rarely really eat algae. No chemicals should be used either.

Nosoop4u

Answer 3

well you can get those ghost shrimp from wal mart which are only like 29 cents each which pick up all the left over stufffrom the bottom that the fish leave. and you can also buy those yellow or black snails that clean off excess algae all over your tank. same thing at wal mart but like $1.29. that happened to my tank before and after i got the ghost shrimp and snails it got all cleaned up within 2 days. hope any of this helped:]

Answer 4

Once you are keeping the lights on less and are being very careful to keep up with water changes, most of it will die and come off the gravel. Just hang in there a few weeks and you'll barely see any left.

MM

Answer 5

Get fish, or you can get algae killer and it will loosen the algae up and you will be able to vaccum it up. But if you have Koi fish they help out a good deal. If you have the algae on the bottom there is no way to get it off with out the help of the fish. It will continue to grow specialy at high noon.

Answer 6

I suggest Trapdoor or Mystery snails, with trapdoor they bare live young so they don't breed fast, as well with mystery, they lay eggs above the water line so you can remove them if you don't want them. Please do note, once algae is mostly gone you will have to feed them veggies or algae discs......Snail biscuits, look for them on aquabid.

Answer 7

I don't think there's any other way then getting an algae eater.

Answer 8

I think the're called Gravel Pump (basically a syphon with a hose looks like this)
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It's not easy drawing pictures

Answer 9

replace the bio bag and get air circulation.