Algae

[david]

How do i keep my algae under control?

 

[samuel]

Haha, i have the same prob 2... Hope to hear more from this thread. But let me preempt some of the ans....
1. Keep tank out of direct sunlight or tube lights
2. more frequent water changes
3. Clear out poop and uneaten food immediately
4. Stock up on water plants, fast growing ones like elodea
5. little bit of algae good for tank and shows that the biofilter is functioning

Well, would like to see pple add on to it. I have tried my best but sometimes, algae seems just impossible to control....

 

[^imp^]

I am not a plant or algae expert, nor am I a biological science person...but I think this is VERY BASICALLY how it all works:

AFAIK, algae will grow (well) if the tank has an abundance of any one (or more) of the following:

Nitrate, Phosphate, CO2, or light.

Plants compete with algae for these nutrients and usually win. A plant flourishes when micronutrients (iron and other nutrients), macronutrients (nitrate, phosphate, potassium), and C02 are available for use. Then, based on the amount of light available, they will use A amount of nitrate, B amount of potassium, C amount of ... etc., where A, B, C, etc are rates of consumption. (this is all greatly simplified and probably mostly wrong)

Now, lets assume your tank has an appropriate level of phosphates, an appropriate level of potassium, an appropriate amount of light, etc, but a high level of nitrates. The plant would like to use all of the nitrate, but the lack of light and other nutrients limit its nitrate intake. It can only take what it wants and nothing more.

This is where algae steps in--it can take advantage of the fact that the plants can't use up one or more of the nutrients. The algae is fairly primitive and can't compete with a plant for nurtients. If the plant is using all that it can, then the algae can use up the excess (unlike plants, algae doesn't have such strict nutrient requirements--usually all it requires is one nutrient in excess and some light).

So, the trick to reducing algae (you'll never fully erradicate it) is finding the right balance of nutrients and light for your tank. Best way to do this is to stock up your tank with fast growing plants and then add nitrates, phosphates, and potassium to the tank in moderate doses. Then, measure phosphate and nitrate levels in the tank and monitor the nitrate and phosphate levels over a few days. By doing so, you can effectively calculate how much of each of the macronutrients your plants have used over X days.

This will allow you to fertilize appropriately for your tank and keep algae at bay.

For newt tanks, I doubt CO2 is added and I bet most lights are not the plant-grow varieties. This being the case, it might be difficult to balance the nutrients and adding fertilizers wouldn't be recommended. The only practical thing to do is reduce lighting and make water changes more frequently.

Good luck...and hopefully all that I said isn't a load of poopoo.

^iMp^

 

[david]

I load mine up with live floating plants, which benefits me 3 ways. It keeps the algae down, it improves the overall water quality, and it gives my triturus places to lay their eggs.

 

[richard]

I just scrape it off the glass every now and then.

 

[coen]

I scrape it of the glass too, and clean the big stones every now and then

 

[joel]

Use algae eaters, like otos, siamese algae eaters and some species of shrimps but take account of compatibility with your caudate. And another tip I read is to keep lighting to a maximum of 12 hours only, plants only photosyntesize(how do you spell it???)12 hours, the extra hours of lighting will only encourage algae blooms.

 

[rob]

nononono...do not use algae eaters, and shrimp will just increase the waste in the water allowing more algae to grow. If the newts try to eat algae eaters it will more then likely die. Very bad idea.

Stick with cleaning or adding live plants in as suggested above.

 

[joel]

Rob I've been keeping an algae eater for nearly 2 months with my cynops orientalis and it did a great job with the algae and they ignore each other totally.

 

[kaysie]

Joel, for now. have you read the articles on caudate culture about mixing species and mixing animals? http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Mixing_disasters.shtml

 

[joel]

yes, I read them. I'm suggesting using small algae eaters, like otos, they are small and newts kept with it will be more of a danger to the oto than the other way round. I'm just sharing my view point here and I dont intend to offend anyone.

 

[kaysie]

Thats the problem. if your newt tries to eat it, its probably going to kill the newt.

 

[juraj]

I agree with Rob : add live plants. Roots of superior plants produce a stuff which eliminate algae, thus very good and natural way how to destroy algae is keeping a large and healthy rootage of aquatic or semi-aquatic plants. For example I stamped out any algae totally using Spatiphyllum wallisii.

 

[aaron]

I personally keep small shrimps in all of my tanks. I see them grazing on algae and on extra bloodworms and frozen shrimps. I also see newts grazing on them from time to time.

As long as you don't overload the tank, I think shrimps will be fine.

~Aaron

 

[^imp^]

You could try to use a "hillstream loach" (Gastromyzon sp.) instead of otos. They are peaceful, do a fair job of eating algae, enjoy cooler waters, and lack spines and other defenses. Besides that, they're pretty cool looking and acting.

Best way to go is fast growing plants and proper water balance. Just as an FYI, I think I remember reading that common hornwort produces toxins that prohibit algae growth.

^iMp^