You suggestion makes sense but I'd hate to wipe out all my precious algae. I've been growing it for so long and it's really stable and happy.
Unfortunately I'd have to do a water change every other day to get any cleaner. My tanks are so understocked and underfed it's a joke. They must be making their tubes out of algae and suspended fine particulates. I like my algae. But perhaps some safe algaecide might help, huh?
If I clean the algae off the back and sides of my tanks it will migrate to the front panel. That's why I let it have its way on all non-viewing surfaces.
It's not like there's much actual fish poo around to build with. I remove it all the time. They actually seem to generate their own brand of gray mucus. My topfilter has just become infested and they took hold at the return to the tank. There's nothing visible in the water at that point. I've never even had to clean that spot much because no muck ever makes it that far. Seems like they are able to take fine particulate matter and convert it into building proteins. My nitrates are always below 20ppm so there's not much to work with on that front. TDS stays low, too, since that's how I control my nitrAtes.
I'll bet I could cook them away. I wonder what their top temperature is? Probably higher than my fish.
They also seem to do best in strong current (filter feeding, of course) but there's not much I can do to maintain filtration and stifle current at the same time.
Well, for now I'll try to redistribute my plecos as part of the battle. Maybe the snails, too. Tanks with snails do not accumulate significant populations of the larvae.
Until then, don't tell my wife it's not flies from the Christmas tree or I'll get an earful.
