fish tank question

[rando]

I have a few tropicals in a fish tank and after many failures finally established a thriving plant population.
My problem is a similiar thriving population of Black algae. Its the fine hair-like filament type.
Does anything eat it, I dont want to use algicide as it will stuff my hard won garden.
I have a large bristlenose catty who does a great job but wont touch the black stuff.
The tank would look much nicer without it as it coats all the rocks and wood and parts of the filter. It a bugger to remove manually,, really hang on.
thanks for any suggestions
rando

[Little grey men]

Mate, that black stuff is a real pain. There's only a few types of fish that will eat it.not sure what types, but I know there hard to get. Pleco's I think.
If you don't want to use chemicals, you have to clean everything with the algae on it and change your tank water a lot,as in 20% a couple a times a week until it's gone. I actually got rid of all of my plants and replaced them with artificials and reduced the light time as the algae was taking over the tank. Big Time. I have a troop of eight Bristlenoses that hardly even touch the algae, they seem to be happy eating the big bit of avacado wood sitting in the tank.
You can clean your plants and rocks with very very diluted bleach.
Good luck and happy cleaning

[breamoholic]

Im no expert, but what about a luderick?

[fisher28]

gday rando,not sure how long you have had this problem for but maybe limiting sunlight or your aquarium lighting.another solution could be to change the type of bulb that you have,there are heaps of different bulb types and they make a huge difference!

[Blackened]

G'day

Rando, if it's frech water, try a plecostamus (pleco for short)

They grow quick and love the algae.

They aren't real cheap, but worth every cent.

Dave

[ashh]

this is commonly known as 'black beard algae. Very tough or hardy type of algae. Turning off or reducing the photoperiod (light hours) will not have as much affect as it would on the green type algae, but may slow it a bit.
You said you have been 'working' on growing your plants......have you been using plant foods or fertalisers?...if so this is what the black algae thrives on, excess nutrients in the water. Your tap water may also be high in phosphates or nitrates and these also act like 'fertilisers adding unwanted amounts of nutrient into the water. Get an aquarium shop to test your water for these things. If this were the source of your problem, you could get a reverse osmosis filter to get the 'purest' water possible.
Not many fish eat the black algae, but when I had the problem I was advised to try a few Siamese Algea Eaters and they mowed it down pretty quick (see link). Dont go to 'Pets are us" or anything lol, go to a dedicated Aquarium as they are commonly mistaken or misnamed as there is a similar species called a Chinese algea eater, who wont touch the black algae.

So yeah, get your tank water AND a sample of your tap water tested for phosphates and nitrAtes, and try and source a few of those fish and see how you go. Black algae sucks. HTH

[ashh]

oh yeah heres the link
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_sae.php

[rando]

Thanks guys
I'll look around for an SAE.
Ash,
Yes and no to your question .
Ive tinkered with plant food a bit as i kept losing plants , but once i saw that they were growing i let them be and fortunately they have continued to thrive.
Light period is part of the problem Im sure as i get a bit slack monitoring the hours the light is on.
.
Fisher28
Ive had it a while now ,but it is starting to get out of control.
Are you still fishing the river??, hows it going,making a few bob i hope.

Thanks again to all for your advise
rando

[Nico.d.R]

hey mate the easyest way to keep regular hours with the light is to get a $10 timer from bunnings then you wont have to worry about turning it on or off .

[fisher28]

i bought a timer as well and think it was a great investment.we had 3 big purple spotted gudgeons and about half a dozen incisus rainbows in a 3x2x2 foot tank, but they got what we were told was tuberculosis,when they got pretty sick we destroyed them and were very dissapointed.im still in the river,just waiting for some bait to pop up but its still a bit early yet,plenty of time to catch up on network and painting,never a dull moment!!!!

[artesian]

that dark blue fine filament algae is a problem. My plecostomus doesn't eat it. I haven't found anything that does, but it does seem to come and go according to some cycle I don't get. yet.

It is starting off in a very small way in my tank again- 3 things have changed;
1. less 'higher' plants, ie green ones with leaves, in this case a big sword plant
2. rain water for water changes instead of tap water
3. One 4' tube of the three is blown.

I reckon the solutions include -
-water changes with water that doesn't add fertilizer
-make sure the light is right - even flouro tubes that are still bright 'age' or so I have been told, and the spectrum changes
-plant more plants with roots and leaves so that those plants can use the nutrients before the algae - on this point, check the fish are eating all their food, and go back to the water change issue including whether the new water had fertilizer in it
-try the fish above that eat it - in saying that, I reckon they'd probably eat everything else in the tank first.
- go to an aquarium shop you trust -one with lots of healthy plants in established tanks would meet your needs. If you are on the Nth side pm me and I can make some suggestions. Some fishos are cichlid mad, and for them the only good plant is no plant, second best, plastic plants

[Danthefireman]

Mate,
Clean the tank, get rid of the alge reduce your lights to 8 hours and build a co2 reactor cost bugger all to build and maybe uswe some iron tablets at the roots. havs seemed to work for me and i have breeding discus in the tank
Dano

[rando]

Ive tried those timers twice, and both times the timer has given up the ghost.
What does the CO2 do and how do you set one up.

[BrandonH]

Hi mate, I have had the black crap too and wasn't able to get rid of it easy

I ended up cutting all the leaves that were affected, using a wire brush on all the logs and filters in my tank. emptied the tank totally of water keeping my fish in a fishing tub for a couple of hours. I also removed the gravel and cleaned it in a bucket just like you do when you first get gravel (i had it all over my gravel too). I didn't clean the filter material so that the bacteria could start working again (otherwise you have to do the 4 week cycle again for a new tank). This stopped it and i had a clean tank for about 4 months... then it came back:cry:

I had approached a number of north side aquariums who said that it actually comes it tap water some times.. Have you noticed it at any aquarium shops?

As a couple of people have said there is only a couple of fish that will eat it and I think they need to be some what starved to go near it.

I tried to get a heavily planted tank happening also, it was ok for a few months but I had some of the finer leaved plants dying off. I also got one of the cheap Co2 things from ebay that use yeast to make it, don't bother with these systems. if you want to inject Co2 into your tank use the proper gear for it. I n the end I just planting a few Anubias, these are hardy and don't require a lot of light or food.

Good luck!!

cheers
Brandon...

[artesian]

one way to generate CO2 is to make home brew!!