if i was to boil the rocks and gravel from my fish tank would this clean/kill the hairy algae of them?

Question

i can't get algae eating fish as the only tank out of 4 is my piranha one they would not live long

Answer 1

Hi Jamie,

Why do you want to clean off the algae? Algae are part of the natural environment of the fish, they are not harmful. They help to absorb some of the waste products produced by the fish and provide micronutrients for them.
You will never eliminate algae from your tank completely because algae are a fact of (aquatic) life! Algae are a sign of a healthy tank. Also, as Copperhead and Magicman pointed out, by boiling the gravel you would disturb the fine balance in your tank and thus potentially harm your fish. Just clean the algae from the glass with a scourer (such as used for dishes) and don't worry about the rest of the tank.
You could try to plant your tank, this would look very attractive and the stronger plants would compete with the algae for nutrients so that the algae would have less chance to grow.
For good aquatic plants (in the UK) I recommend

http://www.aquaticplants.eu.com/index.html

Regards
chirpy

Answer 2

Yes, it will kill the algae, but also all of the beneficial bacteria growing on your rocks and gravel. It would be better to control the algae by controling what it needs to live; light and nutrients.

Keep your tank light off most of the time and only on when you are home to enjoy the tank. At the very most 8-10 hours a day.

Do regular water changes of at least 25% and use a gravel siphon to clean the gravel as you go. This will remove some of the algae and also remove the nutrients it needs.

Doing these two things will greatly reduce the amount of algae in your tank without harming the biological cycle of the tank like boiling the gravel would do.

MM

Answer 3

It would but there's no guarantee that the algae won't come back. The only real solution is to try and starve the algae, algae eaters won't touch a lot of the hairy algae.

Try checking the water to see how much Nitrate and Phosphate it contains. Both of them are needed by algae (and other plants) for growth. If they are a bit high try bringing them down with water changes and perhaps by using one or other of the nitrate.phosphate removing preparations on the market.

The nutrients can come from a number of sources. Fish food and fish waste, pH adjuster, some water treatments etc. If plants are present and growing well they should out compete the algae but from experience they often don't.

Answer 4

Yes, it would. Is this an ongoing issue? If so try regulating the amount of time the lights are on. 8 hours is more than enough and will generally control your "algal" issues. Also, try snails or one of the hundreds of loricards (plecostimos) a small team of otocinclus are amusing to watch and none grow larger than 1.5". You can nearly always find a loricard that will work in the tank or try snails. Boiling all your gravel is a pain and it usually takes some time.

Answer 5

It very likely would. If you have a lot of fish in the tank, also know that boiling the gravel will also kill the bacteria that break down the wastes of your fish, so they may get too much ammonia and nitrite in their tank for a few weeks - this means more frequent water changes will be necessary so the fish aren't overcome by these and die. If you notice the fish swimming at the top of their tank like they're gasping for air, or they stop eating and lay on the bottom, you should do a 25% water change right away..

Answer 6

Yell Its your decision. The fish do no longer likely concepts. in case you employ gravel the fish can dig threw the gravel for fallen foodstuff yet once you employ marbles then its harder to get foodstuff that has fallen throw the cracks. Me myself i exploit a mix of the two and it sounds as though particularly cool. you may attempt it! reliable luck! playstation : you may a minimum of have a 5 gallon tank with a filter out to have a betta. yet once you're wondering of upgrading sooner or later then that's ok.

Answer 7

Maybe but why don't you just get a fish that will eat the algae instead? If you have a tropical tank get a plecostomus, they are beautiful and will clean algae from the rocks, gravel and glass of your tank.

Answer 8

yes because when you boil anything it cleans but remember to run cold water on the rocks and gravel after because if you dont your fish will get burnt

Answer 9

Your not limited by the fact that you have a piranah just make sure that they have plenty of ALGEA EATER spaces to hid in so the piranah dosent eat them...piranahs usually dont eat fish except if they are injured....(meaning bleed,ect.)

Answer 10

Yes it should, but you will also have to boil the fish as algae will attach to them as well