I have a 29 gallon aquarium assorted african chiclid tank. Im not sure which species I have. I know I have 3 yellow labs, I also have a blue and orange one(wow Im a noob at chiclids). ANyways I had a farswella catfish(srry for spelling) that did a great job of keeping the algae under controll. About two weeks ago howerever, they decided to kill him. Now I have algae all over my rocks and back of my glass. Could I get some type of pleco or algae eater that wont get killed by the chiclids? Any suggestions? thx
Algae on rocks, need advice
- Thread starter Stingray12
- Start date
I will save you, use a algae scrapper and find the cause of the algae, light, to much food, and such....
If you have to have a pleco, I recommend a bristlenoise pleco...
oh, and a 29 is a little small for mbuna with a pleco...
If you have to have a pleco, I recommend a bristlenoise pleco...
oh, and a 29 is a little small for mbuna with a pleco...
yep, bristlenoise pleco are the best at eating algae. I might add, get one that is 2"+ my cichlids seem to kill them if they are any smaller.
Also to reduce algae do weekly water changes 25%+ and give the filter a good cleaning if it needs it. For algae scrapers, I would suggest [FONT=arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Mag-float it will save you some headaches.[/SIZE][/FONT]
Also to reduce algae do weekly water changes 25%+ and give the filter a good cleaning if it needs it. For algae scrapers, I would suggest [FONT=arial,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]Mag-float it will save you some headaches.[/SIZE][/FONT]
I had a small tank that had a horrible algae problem. I determined with the help of some of the folks on this site that I had the lights on way to much. Once I started shutting the lights off more regularly the algae problem went away.
I think that you find that lots of the rift valley cichlids will feed on the algae, I used to encourage the growth in my tank as it is part of there diet in the wild, but everyone has there own idea's here is an interesting artical on alge and rift valley cichlids might help,
http://watershed3.tripod.com/algae.html
http://watershed3.tripod.com/algae.html
It's probably the lighting. Keep lighting on less that 9 hours a day. You may want to try using a timer and have the lights on for 4 hours, then off for 2 hours, then back on again for another 4 hours.
BN will help but not with all typed of algae.
BN will help but not with all typed of algae.
Reduce the amount of ambient light that the tank gets...that will reduce the algae growth significantly.
well i personally love the look of algae on the tops of my rocks for my africans. but, they keep eating it. cutting down your number of hours the tank light is on.. get a timer that you can plug the lights into (fosters and smith-they are like 30 bucks). after feeding them in the morning, turn the lights off til around 4 pm or so.. do this for a few weeks.
also, you may be overfeeding them-puts lots of nutrients in the tank and feeds the algae. make sure you arent overfeeding.
waterchanges-i change 60 percent or so every other week. my fish love it. i would recommend you do waterchanges once a week of about 35 or so percent depending on the tank size and your stock levels.
and elbow grease. lol. we all have to scrub algae out of our tanks... its a necessary evil.
also, you may be overfeeding them-puts lots of nutrients in the tank and feeds the algae. make sure you arent overfeeding.
waterchanges-i change 60 percent or so every other week. my fish love it. i would recommend you do waterchanges once a week of about 35 or so percent depending on the tank size and your stock levels.
and elbow grease. lol. we all have to scrub algae out of our tanks... its a necessary evil.