Simple Tips to Get Rid of Algae With the Power of Aquarium Plants
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
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Live aquarium plants are actually one of your best defenses against algae growth. Think of it like growing grass on a front lawn. The healthier the grass is, the less likely weeds (aka algae) are able to creep in. Let's talk about a few things you can do with the plants themselves to make sure you get a leg up on the conversation.
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I would be careful advising people to 'just dose' nitrates into their tank, what if nitrates are already at 40ppm, or more? You dont want to add more in that situation, perhaps advise to test before and after adding nitrate ferts because it can be dangerous. Consider making an easy green lite with micronutrient & K only, it wont make it much more complicated: if nitate low use more easy green complete, if nitrate high use more easy green lite.
When you get to the point where there are enough plants to abosrb all of the nitrates from fish waste you can maintain a specific nitrate level without waterchanges by only adding easy green complete when nitrates are too low for plants (
@@titanuranus2136 great suggestion!
Would love to purchase the Easy Green and root tabs but I can’t order since I live in Canada. Not available anywhere in here.
I always struggled with algae on my plant leaves until I added in floating plants. That was a massive game changer.
The algae just sticks to the root of my floating plants
I gave my brother some water lettuce, he hated it because it grew to completely cover the surface of the water, and the roots essentially filled the whole aquarium.
He removed it all and then his tank became an algae factory, real bad.
So since he no longer had any aquarium plants, for Christmas I thought I'd buy him a new, less invasive plant..... The Betta loves his anubias, but it's covered in algae and has a single new leaf since Christmas. 💀 Very helpful of me.
@@trippin9899 I might try a water lettuces then, my tank is heavily planted and been running for 6 years not sure if planted aquariums have a life span and if it’s age what’s causing my algae
I suppose you can credit the floating plant. Really all the plants did was block some of the light that promotes algae growth. Reducing light on time most likely would produce the same result.
@@Kaymon if you’re not dosing fertilizers and have only been relying on your aquasoil. Most likely your soil is depleted of nutrients and their is not enough nutrients in the tank to grow the plants at a constant rate to outcompete the algae
So the available co2 is used by the algae instead of the plants because plants growth has slowed down
Try dosing flourish advanced
Flourish trace
Flourish excel (co2)
If your plants haven’t been trimmed lately I’d do a trimming all over, over the course of a few weeks
As a pro gardener, you're so absolutely spot on on the turf analogy!! People continually abuse their turf and then wonder why it's suffering and full of weeds.
Thanks for all the great content and advice team. You sparked my passion for fish keeping during lockdown and it's now a special part of my life. Much love from South Africa 🇿🇦
I hope to visit African some day, so much to explore!
Right on Irene! This is so spot on! I had so many algae issues in the first couple of months establishing a new tank until I bit the bullet and loaded up on more plants, particularly fast growing stem plants and floaters. The water lettuce and octopus are fantastic at outcompeting algae and are thriving. They’ve multiplied a lot so now the trick is ensuring they have enough nutrients via root tabs and of course Easy Green 😂
Yay, glad things are working out much better for you now!
Floating hornwort is incredible. You can pull out half the old darker growth every couple weeks. There's never much algea build up, and you get the old stuff out before it sheds. My snails crawl around on top of it, freaking cool 😎
I added 3 one inch long Siamese Algae eaters. In six months they grew to almost 6 inches. I had a lot of Algae but miss calculated the size the fish would get to. They are huge for my 55 gallon aquarium. I also added Pothos plants which grew large root systems. Algae is not a concern for me anymore. Just large fish. Good video lady.
Oh no. I didn't do enough research. I thought they only grew to 4 inches and I just put 4 in my 20 gallon
Otos are your best bet
My 29-gallon aquarium has had issues with hair algae and other types in the past. I have aquatic frogs and corydoras that need to get fed and the white clouds, female bettas and neons have voracious appetites so I tend to overfeed. Ludwigia, crypts, amazon swords, pothos clippings and floaters were losing the battle to stay clean. I increased the number of hornwart plants, bought some anarcharis and frog bit and got a snow white bristlenose and it's really helped. With the floaters I got some stowaways to help me. A free rili and 2 bamboo shrimp. As I write this my bristlenose is cleaning a new anubius I added this week. In regard to floating plants overpopulating, I have a 75-gallon goldfish tank with many happy residents that readily receive any frogbit or duck weed I send their way.
You have a nice voice - perfect for narrating, storytelling, and videos like this!
Floating plants and house plants in my tanks seem to keep the algae away and my low tech aquarium plants do well. Win-Win.
👍❤️👍
Team aquarium co-op awesome video Irene love all the content from the channel keep up the great work and yes easy green is the best out there for me see you on the next one 🌿
I've had a lot of luck growing plants outside the aquarium with the roots dangling inside. Absolutely NO alge, and my tank gets direct sunlight. Plants and fish are happy!
lol i needed this video my sisters tank has bad algae and my mom and i just talked about adding some plants to help with the algae issue
These are great idea for my 30 gallon Landen rimless aquarium. Thank you
Great content, thanks for sharing. If I have 1 betta fish in 5 gallon, which starter plants and how many I need to cope with the bio load so there is no algae?
Very helpful thing is a UV light. I use AquaTop Eliminator and my water is sparkling and my plants look good.
Water lettuce changed my tank maintenance and made it way easier to throw the tank "waste" into my flower and vegetable garden... it took owning 4 aquariums and crashing 2 to know what i want to and need to do,but now i am ready to downsize to just a 20 long and a 10 gallon for quarantine, so i can keep growing my zoo and focus on mastering my hamater enclosure to work towards getting a budgie in a few years, also
Mi plants were so covered in brown algae that trimming all of the densely brown branches and leaves was my solution. I’m using the help of a snail, a toothbrush and water changes to correct the problem
Great video as always, thank you!
5:16 me screaming omg i have harlquins and tetras runiing together too!! i love the combo and how they dance together!!!
Nice video. If you plant 80% of a new tank base with fast growing stem plants this will greatly help in avoiding excess algae, over the months as the tanks matures you can start to replace these initial plants with those of your choice and end with the scape you desire.
Thank You for the video, & all the info that will
always come in handy for all newbies young & old.
Great video! I'm curious about the removal of dead leaves when others sometimes suggest adding oak leaves to a planted aquascape. Are oak leaves a different "animal"?
There are some really beautifully 'scaped aquariums in your video. Thanks for the algae tips!
These plants work well for me in Scotland with average led lighting, no nutrients or anything and very soft water. I've tried quite a lot of different plants but Sessiliflora Limnophila, Anubias Nana, Java Moss and Cryptocoryne Beckettii Petchii work well for me.
I like to put the Limnophila in a back corner area, moss on wood or rock, anubias around wood or rock and then leave open sand but put one Cryptocoryne planted in the sand. they all grow well. I trim the moss and Limnophila every month or two. The anubias has grow in 7 months from 2 smaller pieces to 2 bigger ones, 2 medium ones and 3/4 very small ones that have just started out. The cryptocoryne melted back from big green leaves to skinny longer reddish purple and green leaves that stay low down.
In my 120G I had no luck with beginner plants like swords and Java fern, with the addition of Root tabs and easy green I saw slight improvement plant growth but it quickly was surpassed by even more algae. I kinda tried everything including easy carbon and nearly daily water changes. Part of this is about my tank being immature, yes, but there’s no single formula that worked for me short of going fully high tech/co2/not at all easy, which is finally getting me growth that I only dreamed about for the last year.
I do wish P.S. Octopus was recommended to me sooner, it’s way more beginner friendly than a sword IMO. I’m having great luck with these now
Really great video, I think you have great voice, and you convey the material very clearly 👍👍
Thank you so much!! I love my two anubias plants that I’ve had for literal years. I’ll put them in the corners or partially under driftwood. Or I’ll just put it in the plant tank… 😂
I decided to try just a plant tank because there was a Recent video where Cory talked about learning plants would help you to be a better fish keeper.
There’s no algae in that tank! It even has aqua soil! I put a baby platy from my 37 full of algae *sigh* in it and I just put an adult platy in it so I could make sure there’s nutrients and like the whole cycle going so the plants have food beyond fertilizer.
I have never had a plant a tank be so algae free with strong growing plants.
So far I’m super happy with the fluval biostratum.
I think my 37 gallon has way too much light and not enough plants but I’m getting ready to just rebuild it again and put some angelfish in it so I’m super excited learning how to keep the algae down naturally versus having to go to war with it.
This video helps sooooo much.
I have tried a somewhat different strategy to keep algae down, and it has worked well in two of my three aquaria. I reduced my lighting hours down to 7, I don't add any fertilizer, I change 10-20% of the water weekly, and I vacuum the substrate along with the water change. I get minimal algae growth on the glass in all three tanks, but in one of the aquaria (Fluval Flex 15), I get a black spotted algae on the plants. The three tanks are moderate-heavily planted with a mix of easy plants. Nitrates are low; 5 ppm or less in all three tanks. The Fluval with the algae problem uses Fluval Stratum substrate; the other two have inert gravel. The Fluval with the algae problem is also kept at the warmest temperature (~78F or 26C) because it has a betta in it; the other aquaria (a 29 and a 10) are kept 3-5 degrees F cooler. If anyone can either explain to me why the one tank has the algae-on-leaves problem and the other two don't, and what I can do to fix the problem, I'm all ears.
Fluval Stratum is my nemesis. I believe it is full of phosphate (since it is composed of volcanic ash) which caused algae to grow unabated in the one tank I had it in. I😡it forever.
If the photoperiod and light intensity is the same across all 3 tanks, the difference in temperature and nutrient rich substrate would create the situation you are seeing. The higher the temp, the more likely you are to get algae. Most good aquasoils don't leech too many nutrients into the water column after the first few weeks.
hi guys , hope you well . In my mind filtration is also important for circulating the water ie pushing warm water from the heater around the tank . how do these non filtered tanks get even water temp throughout the tank . i think heaters switch off when the water temp hits a pre set temp , how then does the otherside of the tank get warm . great show , thank you
I like a little algae. A lot of fish will snack on it butes bourdum but also will sick up nitrates ammonia and nitrites while plants are getting established
I would like to try some floating plants in my 40 gallon breeder. However, I have a Seachem Tidal 110 filter that has a skimming feature. Wouldn’t that suck up some of the floating plants?
I always struggled growing Anubis, for some reason now it expoloded! I have a 75 gal and it reaches the top, and it’s leaves are about as big as my hand, crazy!
Maybe add not just experience for care of advanced plants but also time?
moss has to be my pick. It is extremely fast growing, keeps parameters stable, promotes growth of microorganisms and gives the tank a green forest vibe. The only downside is that it grows really fast. It could take over the tank/outcompete other plants if you have them
What kind of moss grows fast? I haven’t experienced that
@@nickf.8203 I have java moss. My tank was also fairly heavily stocked so higher nitrates probably also contributed to the speed of growth
@@nickf.8203 Not many mosses are growing that strong, but Java moss is sick
my javamoss is completely covered in gree hair algae
welp
@@gauravthapa5106 I would guess that it's either because of low flow or high lighting. Make sure there's an algae eater in there too
Can i keep the plants in the pots that they came in with the rock wool. Thanks.
Love the vids. Your info is always so great.
I just put together my very first planted tank. I really appreciate all these videos with tips for beginners. My only problem is that I set my tank up, planned to go get some fish, and then bam caught covid somewhere! Now I've got lots of plants growing and no fish. lol I am dying to get to the fish store, but I think the fish can wait a few more days. I really wanted some otos to control the diatoms, but frequent water changes will have to do for now.
so exciting! As a note, otos need to be fed after there is no algae left!
Hi, I live in WA close to Aquarium Coop. I have had my fresh water tank going on three years. My plants die as quickly as I get them. My levels are good, I do regular maintenance. At first they grew really good. But they either have too much algae or they die within weeks. I have spent a lot of money on plants. Over and over again. Any suggestions? They melt and never regrow after they melt.
How do u treat skin flukes on kois
Great video, thanks.
I have algae on my plant should i do all this things or one of them is enough?
I condone your analogy😂 well said!
Beautiful aquascape
Thanks for this informative video 👍
Informative video, thank you!
What if I have an Oranda goldfish tank and I just have an Anubia and a Java fern? I really don’t want to get more plants so is just reducing the light the best thing?
Curious also!
My tanks all look pretty good. I have decent lighting, tons of plants and nutrients. It’s when I have to skip water changes where things start going awry. It’s not bad if I course correct the next week, but woe is me if I let a tank go 2 weeks in a row!
Wish aquarium coop sold floating plants 😢
Oh snap I didn't know you started working with them. Congrats!
What about high temp planted tanks? I have a tank with rams and discus ~28c lots of stem plants just melt and die at that temp.
Thanks for the video! Is hornwort another good plant for outcompeting algae? Or do you think something like water sprite is going to (a) play a similar role and (b) be a better fit in most aquariums? Thanks for the help!
I'm watching to to know what plants to avoid so that I can possibly get some algae growing for my starving snail breeding tank that keep it spotless clean.
My dwarf water lettuce is spreading quickly, but the hanging roots are a massive string algae factory.
Excellent video.
Do NOT put fresh-cut pothos into your tank. Keep it in a glass of water until it scabs over and starts roots or you risk killing your fish. The sap is toxic.
Thank you, I never knew.
I mean I did put freshly cut pothos into my aquarium, but it was only there for 4 days. I took it out after seeing your comment so thank you!
I had no idea😩
Been doing it for years!
Fresh-cut
Never had a problem.
Not saying you're incorrect about the sap. I'm not familiar w that, but I've never had a issue
In this video she use fresh cut and i heard in plants scabs of pothos grow faster than water is it ture?
I have a heavily planted tank had a bit of algae and then my tank blew out the back corner seal and I had to drain it for 48 hours for repair and now I'm getting big algae issues ☹️ I think maybe my plants have suffered and aren't taking up the nutrients as well?
Whats a good floating plant for a discus tank? Temp compatible
To much fertilizer can also cause algae if the plants are not ready to use it…when I start a tank i will start with max 6 hours per day and a lot of floating plants to reduce light intensity for the other plants en to provide strong growth in the aquarium, I increase the light to max 8 hours when the not floating plants are doing well, and I decrease the amount of floating plants little by little but ik always keep the floating plants so they use the excess nutrients out of the water instead of giving algae a chance, Floating plants have enormous growth and filtration power, their amount can double every week. So don’t forget to take a few seconds and a bucket to remove te excess of the floating plants every week!
I prefer using moss to stop algae and does anyone have experience with keeping caridina shrimp outdoors?
My pothos grows down in the water and does not rot. is there any harm? It will grow just floating. It gives the Bettas leaves to rest on.
Everyone wants their plants to grow like crazy. The thing is, certain plants are made to grow in semi-shade. Just like outside plants, some don't grow well in direct sunlight. And a slow growing plant usually means, it's a shade plant. Another thing, most all plants need time to adjust to their new tank and water perimeters. So just because a so called fast growing plant seems to start slow. Don't keep uprooting it and moving it all around the tank. Give it time to establish itself. Moss is considered a very slow growing plant. But once it gets going, it grows like crazy. I have long wood branches set upright that resemble trees. I glued small bits of moss all over the small branches. In six months they looked like trees with a thick canopy of foliage.
I believe the pearl weed floating carpet is in Cory’s trout goodied tank.
@aquariumco-op is there some sort of contest I’m unaware of? Or is this a spam scam.???
I've got anubias covered in this black algae. I don't dare try to scrape it off because I fear I'll break them. I'll try these tricks and see how it goes
Yeah its impossible to scrape off, any algae on and you have to remove the whole leaf
Black beard algae is bad but there's one more type that is absolutely horrible and it plagued me for months. It's the red algae, or staghorn algae. It looks like mini tree branches or deer antlers. There's two ways that I finally killed it off. I used the Flourish liquid, which I disliked using, because it can hurt plants and melted some of mine. I also invested in a true siamese algae eater. They can be hard to come by so if you see one - get it! They actually do eat staghorn algae pretty voraciously.
Ugh my tank is perpetually plagued by hair algae
For me it was this LEAN DOSING method and loads of plants from the beginning that made the difference. I now gave zero algae in this tank and all my plants are healthy and algae free. And 90% of my plants are Java fern, anubias and bucifelandra. I dose in the morning, before the light comes on and if I test water in the afternoon it will have zero Nitrites, zero Nitrates
How do you guys not get your filter to just suck the floating plants up? Thanks
Put a filter over the intake part 😉
@@BubblesandFun678 well yeah but they still get sucked to the filter and get stuck there
What are the name from your thumbnail video?
What happens to Anubias of it gets too much light?
Algae
Can you save it if it gets algae on the leaves edges?
You make some dope videos
My tank is _lousy_ with algae. I've shortened my photoperiod and started turning it off for 2 hours midday. I use Easy Green and Easy Carbon. I've cut down my excess feeding. I switched to 80% RODI/20% treated tap water. I use a phosphate absorber. I do big water changes. I have floating plants and emersed pothos. I physically remove clumps of algae. Still, nothing works.
Maybe cut down on your fertilizing? Excessive nutrients could be causing it
I second this ^
What would be a good low light plant that I can put in the sump of my African cichlid tank? Ph is around 8.2 and temp is 78*F. Preferably something that is a water column feeder.
Maybe try a spider plant? As long as their leaves are above the water they can be grown in an aquarium
You can stick pothos in a corner not anywhere near a window and it'll do fine, so it'll probably do fine for you, too. Just have the roots in the water and the leaves out of the water
What's the plant in the thumbnail?
I think this is happening to my plants 😢 I had a massive algae explosion and while some are found super well my Anubis doesn’t seem to be doing as great. But it is also kind of fast growing so I’m not sure if it’s getting rough due to the algae or the fact that it’s getting close to the end of its lifespan.
in theory, plants can grow forever, so lifespan wouldn't be an issue
@@lemonlizard1 in theory but in actuality that’s not the case for most plants especially aquatic ones it seems
Plants like Anubias dont just die like that. They are kind of like pothos and are practically immortal if the conditions are right. You might want to cut some of your plant off and divide the rhizome into 2 or 3 new plants and let them grow separately. Cutting or pruning puts the plant into a survival mode and it puts out new shoots to grow more to save itself. Most other underwater plants can also be kept alive by trimming them and replanting the cuttings which not only provides you with more plants but also encourages the plants to grow more shoots and grow denser .
Still giving away care packages? New to the hobby. But doing awesome.
Still haven’t figured out how to out-compete staghorn algae
My pearl weed and moneywort both rekt algae ☝️
I am really struggling with the fight against algae. I have a 100% naturally planted 30 gallon aquarium, I have snails, cut back the lights to four hours a day, scrape, scrape and scrape, flip the gravel... almost at the point of quitting. With the low light, the plants get spindly and don't do well, the local shop advised plant fertilizer, it makes the algae worse.
Try a uv light
Alan: I have a multi-spectrum LED aquarium light, but it doesn't do anything for the plants.
@@darylwade2335 I have that too but I also have a seperate uv light for algae. Also flourish excel seems to help as well
the uv light (plumbed into the filter line) solved my algae issue
I'm always surprised that plants like anubia and java fern are considered as beginner plants, mine don't manage well in my tank, even if it lacks good light. Maybe it's because the water parameters are not good for them, or the CO2 level is too low due to Kh and high Ph?
I had green algae twice, and each time they didn't grow only in places with no plants, but also in places with lots of plants (very developed egeria and hygrophila) in the shadow, and during the summer.
I think they're considered beginner plants because they're not difficult to keep alive. They are pretty slow growers though, so even if they're not dying they also don't look like they're doing very much so people can definitely get discouraged
Super silly question, but I'm curious: I have a new tank that has nothing in it but water (to check for leaks, and I've been slowly buying everything I need over the course of many months). The tank is located under an east facing window about 2' above the tank. There has been zero algae in the 6 months that it has sat there. Why not? Again, no filtration, supplemental lighting, etc. - just water.
Nothing in the water for algae to eat without fish producing waste.
Algae and other plant life feed off of Nitrates among other things. Nitrates come from beneficial bacteria breaking down Nitrites, which, in turn, is produced by beneficial bacteria breaking down ammonia. Ammonia comes from fish waste, decaying fish food that didn't get eaten, dead plant matter, etc. So if there is nothing producing ammonia then there is nothing eventually getting converted into nitrates for algae to feed on. Hope this helps.
@@shanes-aquaticNot sure about the OP but it sure as heck helped me. 😊
I learned more in those few sentences than from any video I have seen on the topic here on UA-cam.
@@neilmartin99 Glad I could help, Ned!
My algae only grows on my plants though 😂
I have a cynobacteria issue...😭
Add snails
What is that nano fish @ 8:15 ? It looks like the dragons from avatar!
It appears to be a school of pygmy hatchet fish, Carnegiella myersi.
Looks like marbled hatchet fish to me
Trying to balance my light and nutrients...have hair algae on leaves and my buddah 🤦♀️
Cichlids love algae, I have a large cichlid tank and no algae
❤❤❤
👍🏻👍🏻
reduce your lighting
WHAT IS IT WITH NANO FISH , THEIR DAY BY DAY DEATH RATE IS NOT OK WITH THE WALLET LOL , 25 YEARS OF AQUASCAPING AND HAVE NEVER DONE DIE EVERY DAY NANO'S, SUCH A WASTE OF MONEY
First!
@Grace Onoja ???