Horrendous algae and fish dying.?

Question

I got 3 suckermouth catfish to help me with the horrendous algae issues that I have with my tank (9 tetras, 3 guppies and 1 snail). I also do a water change every week without fail. This morning I noticed that the catfish were all dead. I cannot seem to understand what is going on. Can algae be poisonous? I have no live plants in the tank.
I want to do a complete clean up of my tank: is it ok to keep the fish in a bowl for a day while the tank goes through a cycle?

Answer 1

Don't do a complete water change! It takes more than a day to cycle a tank again. Do a 50% water change, scrub all the algae off the walls, and then, carefully fill the tank back up with dechlorinated water. Through this entire process, leave the fish in the tank. Instead of doing water changes, use a siphon to vacuum the gravel. Gavel vacuuming will remove excess food and waste. For some more algae assistance, check out fishless cycling.com or email me.

Nosoop4u

To prevent algae, vacuum the gravel weekly, keep the tank out of direct sunlight, and don't leave the tank light on for more than 10 hours a day.

EDIT: Plecos and other suckermouth fish do eat algae, they just tend to do a poor job. These fish will not replace proper maintenance, so you still need to keep the tank clean.

Answer 2

no its not ok to keep them in a bowl while the tank cycles, try getting an algae magnet or an algae mit and while your doing a water change scrub the algae off and the siphon will suck the algae debris out.

Next time remember not to leave the lights on for more than 12 hours a day and do partial water changes every week or 2 weeks around 25% to prevent this.

As for suckermouth catfish (plecos) they don't eat algae they eat crustaceans and other fish that they can get a hold of, they eat algae as a last resort when they are starving, the algae might have been contaminated.

Answer 3

oh my, there are so many different opinions on this! everyone is giving good advice, here is what I would do...First, test your water for ph nitrates, nitites and ammonia get a full range test kit, they run about $40.00 and are good for several testings.
I would then remove all fish and put them in a bucket of tested and filtered water and dump the tank, refill it and treat it with an algea destroyer(will kill snails and algea eaters, so remove them too) let it cycle for a day or 2, then dump it. in the mean time, I would get an icechest or something equivilent and get new water ready for the tank, treated with dechlorinater and stress coat( the fish can be put in here){I keep an icechest just for this}
now wash EVERYTHING in the tank and the tank itself(no soap) then refill tank from chest and place fish in tank
I have had real good sucess with this method, people give me tanks like yours frequently. I never do a full water change, this stresses the fish too much.
I have had great sucess with this method, most of my fish are more than 5 yrs old and I have a goldfish 16" long and 11 yrs old. you can feed zuchini squash for your snail and algea eaters since there will be none available in the tank

Answer 4

Hold off on nuking the tank for now. You need to do a water test and see what is out of balance. It is very likely that you nitrate levels are sky high. That would account for the algae and the dead cats. If you don't have a test kit run a sandwich bag full of your water down to the pet store and they will do it for you.

Answer 5

I rather have had algae fish till now, and what the puppy shop says is they do unlike photograph voltaic, photograph voltaic meaning the tanks mild on for all time, and that they do desire to conceal in ordainment or under rocks, or in flora, and algae fish are made to bathe the tank so which you do no longer could sparkling the tank for all time in basic terms as quickly as a week, yet they could have a filter out equipment to filter out their water. All fish want a filtered water equipment, and alter the filter out cartridge approximately 2 cases a week. whilst i became in my early 20's I had an algae fish and that i did no longer have a filter out equipment interior the tank and it died, despite if I wiped sparkling it. back then i did no longer understand plenty approximately them. clean water or any puppy watered fish want a filtered equipment. there is yet another difficulty they want the terrific suited temperature of their tank for clean water including algae fish they could be in luke heat water. Luke heat is semi heat no longer warm and not chilly. the only difficulty you probably did do actual is go away a number of its water that it became in till now you replaced the tank. it is all the info i understand approximately algae fish. i'm hoping I helped!

Answer 6

Wait a minute !
If your cleaning your tank every week it should not have that much algae.
First put the fish that are still alive in a fish bowl
Totally clean your fish tank, rocks everything
Fill your tank with room temperature water
Put two cap fulls of Start Right Allantoin in the water
( Start Right completely removes all chlorine and chloramine out of the water )
get your filtration system up and running with clean filers
after about 30 minutes you can put the fish back into the tank.
Then every time you add water to the tank add a capful of Start Right to the added water .
Good Luck.

Answer 7

you should check the water for now and make sure you check your filter. more then likely it is something in your water