algae help

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fork203551

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 23, 2008
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I'm in need to getting something for both my tank to control the algae. not really looking for chemicals but something that will control the algae good.

tank 1= 40 gal 2 needle nose fish

tank 2= 40gal breader jack dempsey, red parrot cichlid

before everyone freaks out. these are only grow out tanks. once the fish get big enough they go into a 250 gal.
Please let me know what fish/snail/shrimp i can get that these fish won't eat or bother. I don't want something that will out grow these tanks. I've tryed a normal pleco and the needlefish ate it. i'm kinda lost for what would work
 
i might have to try that. But is there anything thing else i can use. like snailes or something. looking for something easy. since this tank to a pain. don't want to spend most of my free time keeping it clean. (40+ hours a week)
 
Adding more animals is not a good solution. They are as likely to exacerbate the problem as solve it. You need to find out why your tanks have so much algae, and fix that problem.

The usual culprits: too much light; too much nitrogen (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates); or too much phosphorus. Light is easy; don't leave your tank lights on as long, and use fewer or lower-wattage bulbs. Nitrogen is also easy; increase size and/or frequency of water changes. Phosphorus is a little trickier; a phosphate reactor (alga filter) is one solution.
 
In certain tanks adding plants helps as they compete for the nutrients. I use plants and a UV sterilzer (this is sooo helpful). I still have to do a little bit of cleaning, but not nearly as much as I used to. It was a nightmare problem in my one tank where we were cleaning the glass twice or more a day and still had it everywhere. For the first week we still had to manually scrub once a day, but the UV sterilizer got it under control within that week and then our fish were healthier too. All our tanks have UV sterilizers on them now since it kills anything free floating. Everything from bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungus, algae, etc. The fish are healthier and the tank is cleaner.
 
Pleco
 
Gobrian44;3187977; said:
Pleco
Click to expand...

we had a pleco in take 1 with the needle fish. one was attacking the needle fish. was too big i'm guessing. and the smaller one got eaten
 
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