Great advice. Especially with the truth about the "cleaners" was absolutely spot on. I love plecos but they need a large tank! Algae is okay. It's a sign of a healthy tank. I hate it to a certain point but it just becomes a maintenance issue.
I like your Hillstream Loach, I have two of them in my tank and I think they are an awesome fish. I have a heavily planted aquarium and have never paid any attention to algae at all and it has never been a problem for me. I actually have to do the opposite and go out of my way to get some algae in the tank. I don't want to be totally algae free, it's good to have a small amount of algae. A wise man once told me to forget about the algae and grow healthy plants, if you do that then the algae will take care of it's self. The secret is balance my friends, you balance the tank and the tank will take care of it's self. In order to be able to balance a tank one needs to do their homework to find out what that will take. There is no one thing fix, it is always a chain of many things. No two tanks are ever the same. Everything in a tank needs to work in harmony, when there is no harmony then there will be no balance and without balance there will be many problems in many forms. Edit: Noticed your Hillstream loach is a bristle nose pleco lol. I'll be OK, none the less they are awesome too.
Plants use nitrate in trace amounts. Phosphates are the cause of algae problems. Choosing quality food can help reduce Phosphates but short of that do larger water changes. Your tips will definitely help but it's a bandaid to the problem. I have 17 aquariums all heavily stocked African Cichlid tanks. Not one of them grow Algae. All the tanks in my basement have lights on from 730 a.m. to 730 p.m. everyday still no algae. I do large water changes and also use anoxic filtration. The combo of the two keeps my tanks spotless. My most heavily stocked tank is a 110 gallons with 45 adult African Cichlids. This tank you would think would be an algae farm but it's spotless.
?…….Nitrates are a macro nutrient for plants and you want to maintain your tank at 20-40ppm or you can keep it at a minimum of 10 ppm to encourage color. low phosphates in a planted aquarium can cause algae “green spot algae” to be exact. I understand you are correct with cichlids(non planted tanks) but planted tanks are a different game with different rules.
@Aquatic Highs plants use very little nitrate. They reduce nitrate by consuming ammonia. Phosphates are the number one cause of algae and should be kept below 1 ppm at all times, including in a planted tank. I'm not sure why you think an African Cichlid Tank has these different rules. The things that cause algae are the same in all tanks. Another thing that causes algae is a deep substrate. That never gets touched. It goes anaerobic and literally creates a food source for algae.
@Aquatic Highs I'm sure there are things I need to learn but not about what causes algae or the role phosphates, nitrate, ext play in an aquarium. I've researched this extensively. Read many studies and college courses/papers about the subject. This is how I know that a deep substrate will never do what people in this hobby think it will. Anaerobic conditions grow bacteria that through a process called assimilitory de-nitrification convert nitrate and nitrite back to ammonia or ammonium if you want to be specific. This is why people with deep substrate never see a reduction in nitrate and almost always battle algae. The algae feed of the ammonia being produced. There are bacteria that convert nitrate to nitrogen/nitrous oxide but they don't live in anaerobic conditions. They need oxygen. Very little but some oxygen and through a process called Dissimilitory De-nitrification they convert to nitrogen. Plus even in a planted tank the substrate can start to ferment and create toxic gases. You'll see bubbles and pockets of gas in the substrate. You don't have to believe me though. Do some research if your own. Don't believe UA-cam. Read actual scientific studies and articles. Maybe you'll find you were the one who had a lot to learn.
I have employed all of these solutions, but I still have an algae problem. The difference is that my problem is algae growing on live plants, not on the glass. I have a Fluval Flex 15 aquarium with a betta, 4 cardinal tetras, two Endler livebearers, a mystery snail, a nerite snail, and a few cherry shrimp. I keep the regular light on for only 6 hours per day. The tank is heavily planted. I do feed twice daily, but not to excess. My nitrate reading is 5 ppm. The algae is a black spotted type along with some black beard, and I think that none of the snails or shrimp can eat it. I have trimmed out some of the leaves covered with algae. What I might try next is to replace all of the affected plants and to cut the light intensity.
I am with you. I can't control the algae. Our fish specialists have come up with a variety of different solutions, but none work. Too much light they say, okay, I am down to four hours a day, too much food, I only feed my fish a pinch every two days, you need more plants, I have twelve various types of plants. Unfortunately, the low light makes my plants struggle and get stringy. Then I was told to add plant fertilizer, now my algae is even worse. I have mystery snails and regular ones. If you find any solution that works, please let me know.
I had an algae bloom and added an algae clarifier and didn't work and didn't want to add those chemicals again so I changed a few things, I added live plants added 4 clown loaches and turned my LED lighting on the green and blue colour and within 10 days back to nice clean water. I purchased some frozen blood worms for the loaches and they love them and so do my other tropical fish. Loaches are a great fish to have and they also cleared up my overpopulating snails of which I think a parasite killed 2 of my Mollies.
Really depends on your algae situation. My guess is you would need to supplement their diet with additional algae wafers to be sure they are getting enough if you try that.
Well. Controlling algea through plants. You are going to need a whole lot more plants buddy.... Also it adds to your problem as well a shortage will cause trouble also.
Bit of a bait and switch here. This isn't "a quick and easy solution" (especially considering these are multiple solutions), you're just repeating basic stuff that literally everyone else has been saying for years. There are a variety of factors involved and the solution has to be tailored to the tank. For example, in a standard tank set up with thin substrate, sponge/fiber filters and little or no plants, a lot of people don't want a dim or lightly stocked aquarium; You either have to add algae eating animals or hyper focus on nutrients by feeding high protein food and keeping the tank very clean. Tanks with lots of animals but little or no plants can also benefit greatly from under-gravel filters which can even reduce total waste through denitrification in time as they develop anoxic pockets here and there, which doesn't happen in a tank without an undergravel filter unless you've got sponge/fiber filters that are clogged. These tanks could use an attached sump with a filter sock to get rid of large waste and some activated carbon or Seachem Purigen (which I prefer because it can be recharged) to clear out the smaller waste. You can always try to talk people into perhaps keeping a deep sand substrate with heavy plantings and opportunistic omnivorous fish that you hardly have to feed because the tank itself produces the food; These tanks rarely have algae issues, and light isn't as much an issue. Blackwater tanks also reduce algae if you've got too much light but you don't just want a dim tank or floating plants, but one where the water itself has a little personality. You can also add sticks and leaf little for a more naturalistic scape. Leaves don't add much in the way of nutrients, and the bacteria itself consumes nutrients, and will even compete with plants for nutrients. You'll still need to clean the substrate in a tank with no plants, and even when doing deep sand with no plants, you still need to gently vac the surface of the sand from time to time with a very small gravel vac because if you have no plants, mulm and toxins will build up more easily(especially for a heavily stocked tank). If doing a high tech high light tank with pelleted aqua soil and plants, aside from keeping it lightly stocked with mostly just a cleanup crew, you have to micromanage the nutrients, since you can't just bleed all then nutrients out of the water (the plants need some) or rely on deep substrate for a sustainable food web. What you do is bleed almost all of the nutrients out and add whatever nutrients are being used up by plants the most. This changes from one species to another and on the amount of plants. For example, java ferns need more potassium than most other plants, while other plants may need phosphates, etc. Water changes are good to not only remove excess nutrients, but to also replenish some metals and minerals that plants need. In all tanks, be careful about water topoffs, especially if you have an open topped tank, and especially if you have marginal plants (because plant transpiration gets rid of more water than evaporation), though you need to be careful in tanks without plants as well. Most tap water has nitrates in it, and RO water will still have nitrates, even with the multistage carbon filtration since it can't remove nitrates; only dissolved organic compounds, metals, and tannins. Nitrates aren't actually that big of a deal anyway (not as much as you made them out to be, although potential nitrate respiration can be an issue for the animals) and other things can trigger algae growth, such as iron. This is one good reason for RO units for topoffs, especially in plantless tanks, because the tap water will add far more metals and various minerals than RO water. That's just the tip of the algae iceburg, because altering any aspect of the tank will mess with other aspects, so you have to think about the aquarium as a system rather than just individual parts operating independently. But yeah lol, to reiterate, to call any of these solutions "quick and easy" is a bit shortsighted. It's not as complicated as it might seem, just pick a tank setup and learn about that set up. Algae's are much like plants, they're a natural part of any ecosystem, and you'll always have at least a little bit of several different species of them in every aquarium. Learning how to control them in an aquatic ecosystem is a study all on its own, there's no magic bullet, and most competent fish keepers will warn you to stay away from algaecides. Those chemicals only treat the symptom, and are like chemotherapy; they will harm your beneficial organisms, plants, and animals to an extent, and the hope is that they will do more harm to the algae then to harm everything else. Sorry for the wall of text, but hopefully I've made my point.
Great advice. Especially with the truth about the "cleaners" was absolutely spot on. I love plecos but they need a large tank!
Algae is okay. It's a sign of a healthy tank. I hate it to a certain point but it just becomes a maintenance issue.
I like your Hillstream Loach, I have two of them in my tank and I think they are an awesome fish. I have a heavily planted aquarium and have never paid any attention to algae at all and it has never been a problem for me. I actually have to do the opposite and go out of my way to get some algae in the tank. I don't want to be totally algae free, it's good to have a small amount of algae. A wise man once told me to forget about the algae and grow healthy plants, if you do that then the algae will take care of it's self. The secret is balance my friends, you balance the tank and the tank will take care of it's self. In order to be able to balance a tank one needs to do their homework to find out what that will take. There is no one thing fix, it is always a chain of many things. No two tanks are ever the same. Everything in a tank needs to work in harmony, when there is no harmony then there will be no balance and without balance there will be many problems in many forms.
Edit: Noticed your Hillstream loach is a bristle nose pleco lol. I'll be OK, none the less they are awesome too.
Plants use nitrate in trace amounts. Phosphates are the cause of algae problems. Choosing quality food can help reduce Phosphates but short of that do larger water changes. Your tips will definitely help but it's a bandaid to the problem. I have 17 aquariums all heavily stocked African Cichlid tanks. Not one of them grow Algae. All the tanks in my basement have lights on from 730 a.m. to 730 p.m. everyday still no algae. I do large water changes and also use anoxic filtration. The combo of the two keeps my tanks spotless. My most heavily stocked tank is a 110 gallons with 45 adult African Cichlids. This tank you would think would be an algae farm but it's spotless.
?…….Nitrates are a macro nutrient for plants and you want to maintain your tank at 20-40ppm or you can keep it at a minimum of 10 ppm to encourage color. low phosphates in a planted aquarium can cause algae “green spot algae” to be exact. I understand you are correct with cichlids(non planted tanks) but planted tanks are a different game with different rules.
@Aquatic Highs plants use very little nitrate. They reduce nitrate by consuming ammonia. Phosphates are the number one cause of algae and should be kept below 1 ppm at all times, including in a planted tank. I'm not sure why you think an African Cichlid Tank has these different rules. The things that cause algae are the same in all tanks. Another thing that causes algae is a deep substrate. That never gets touched. It goes anaerobic and literally creates a food source for algae.
@@SG-Cichlids you have a lot to learn.
@Aquatic Highs I'm sure there are things I need to learn but not about what causes algae or the role phosphates, nitrate, ext play in an aquarium. I've researched this extensively. Read many studies and college courses/papers about the subject. This is how I know that a deep substrate will never do what people in this hobby think it will. Anaerobic conditions grow bacteria that through a process called assimilitory de-nitrification convert nitrate and nitrite back to ammonia or ammonium if you want to be specific. This is why people with deep substrate never see a reduction in nitrate and almost always battle algae. The algae feed of the ammonia being produced. There are bacteria that convert nitrate to nitrogen/nitrous oxide but they don't live in anaerobic conditions. They need oxygen. Very little but some oxygen and through a process called Dissimilitory De-nitrification they convert to nitrogen. Plus even in a planted tank the substrate can start to ferment and create toxic gases. You'll see bubbles and pockets of gas in the substrate. You don't have to believe me though. Do some research if your own. Don't believe UA-cam. Read actual scientific studies and articles. Maybe you'll find you were the one who had a lot to learn.
@@SG-Cichlids I work with thousands of fish as a profession including cichlids you probably have never heard of. What your saying is over simplified.
Keep up the great videos buddy
I will! Glad you like them so far.
Great video! Succinct and well done.
Thanks!
I have employed all of these solutions, but I still have an algae problem. The difference is that my problem is algae growing on live plants, not on the glass. I have a Fluval Flex 15 aquarium with a betta, 4 cardinal tetras, two Endler livebearers, a mystery snail, a nerite snail, and a few cherry shrimp. I keep the regular light on for only 6 hours per day. The tank is heavily planted. I do feed twice daily, but not to excess. My nitrate reading is 5 ppm. The algae is a black spotted type along with some black beard, and I think that none of the snails or shrimp can eat it. I have trimmed out some of the leaves covered with algae. What I might try next is to replace all of the affected plants and to cut the light intensity.
I am with you. I can't control the algae. Our fish specialists have come up with a variety of different solutions, but none work. Too much light they say, okay, I am down to four hours a day, too much food, I only feed my fish a pinch every two days, you need more plants, I have twelve various types of plants. Unfortunately, the low light makes my plants struggle and get stringy. Then I was told to add plant fertilizer, now my algae is even worse. I have mystery snails and regular ones. If you find any solution that works, please let me know.
It can be frustrating at times. Good luck!
I had an algae bloom and added an algae clarifier and didn't work and didn't want to add those chemicals again so I changed a few things, I added live plants added 4 clown loaches and turned my LED lighting on the green and blue colour and within 10 days back to nice clean water. I purchased some frozen blood worms for the loaches and they love them and so do my other tropical fish. Loaches are a great fish to have and they also cleared up my overpopulating snails of which I think a parasite killed 2 of my Mollies.
Just a tip your heater would work better at an angle.
How many bristlenose plecos can you have in a 40 gallon breeder tank plus I have 2 clown plecos
Really depends on your algae situation. My guess is you would need to supplement their diet with additional algae wafers to be sure they are getting enough if you try that.
@allthingsfishkeeping Thanks I am giving them algae wafers to make sure they are getting enough they are really active
What is the name of the fish which is swimming upside-down on the surface at 2:08 in this video?
That is an African Butterfly Fish. He's actually swimming right side up. Unique fish though.
7 hours for plants if your fertilizer your plants check to see if it has nitrates and phosphates dont over feed your fish
Well. Controlling algea through plants. You are going to need a whole lot more plants buddy.... Also it adds to your problem as well a shortage will cause trouble also.
Bit of a bait and switch here. This isn't "a quick and easy solution" (especially considering these are multiple solutions), you're just repeating basic stuff that literally everyone else has been saying for years. There are a variety of factors involved and the solution has to be tailored to the tank. For example, in a standard tank set up with thin substrate, sponge/fiber filters and little or no plants, a lot of people don't want a dim or lightly stocked aquarium; You either have to add algae eating animals or hyper focus on nutrients by feeding high protein food and keeping the tank very clean. Tanks with lots of animals but little or no plants can also benefit greatly from under-gravel filters which can even reduce total waste through denitrification in time as they develop anoxic pockets here and there, which doesn't happen in a tank without an undergravel filter unless you've got sponge/fiber filters that are clogged. These tanks could use an attached sump with a filter sock to get rid of large waste and some activated carbon or Seachem Purigen (which I prefer because it can be recharged) to clear out the smaller waste. You can always try to talk people into perhaps keeping a deep sand substrate with heavy plantings and opportunistic omnivorous fish that you hardly have to feed because the tank itself produces the food; These tanks rarely have algae issues, and light isn't as much an issue. Blackwater tanks also reduce algae if you've got too much light but you don't just want a dim tank or floating plants, but one where the water itself has a little personality. You can also add sticks and leaf little for a more naturalistic scape. Leaves don't add much in the way of nutrients, and the bacteria itself consumes nutrients, and will even compete with plants for nutrients. You'll still need to clean the substrate in a tank with no plants, and even when doing deep sand with no plants, you still need to gently vac the surface of the sand from time to time with a very small gravel vac because if you have no plants, mulm and toxins will build up more easily(especially for a heavily stocked tank). If doing a high tech high light tank with pelleted aqua soil and plants, aside from keeping it lightly stocked with mostly just a cleanup crew, you have to micromanage the nutrients, since you can't just bleed all then nutrients out of the water (the plants need some) or rely on deep substrate for a sustainable food web. What you do is bleed almost all of the nutrients out and add whatever nutrients are being used up by plants the most. This changes from one species to another and on the amount of plants. For example, java ferns need more potassium than most other plants, while other plants may need phosphates, etc. Water changes are good to not only remove excess nutrients, but to also replenish some metals and minerals that plants need. In all tanks, be careful about water topoffs, especially if you have an open topped tank, and especially if you have marginal plants (because plant transpiration gets rid of more water than evaporation), though you need to be careful in tanks without plants as well. Most tap water has nitrates in it, and RO water will still have nitrates, even with the multistage carbon filtration since it can't remove nitrates; only dissolved organic compounds, metals, and tannins. Nitrates aren't actually that big of a deal anyway (not as much as you made them out to be, although potential nitrate respiration can be an issue for the animals) and other things can trigger algae growth, such as iron. This is one good reason for RO units for topoffs, especially in plantless tanks, because the tap water will add far more metals and various minerals than RO water. That's just the tip of the algae iceburg, because altering any aspect of the tank will mess with other aspects, so you have to think about the aquarium as a system rather than just individual parts operating independently. But yeah lol, to reiterate, to call any of these solutions "quick and easy" is a bit shortsighted. It's not as complicated as it might seem, just pick a tank setup and learn about that set up. Algae's are much like plants, they're a natural part of any ecosystem, and you'll always have at least a little bit of several different species of them in every aquarium. Learning how to control them in an aquatic ecosystem is a study all on its own, there's no magic bullet, and most competent fish keepers will warn you to stay away from algaecides. Those chemicals only treat the symptom, and are like chemotherapy; they will harm your beneficial organisms, plants, and animals to an extent, and the hope is that they will do more harm to the algae then to harm everything else. Sorry for the wall of text, but hopefully I've made my point.
Can u make video for ur explaination
Get plecos and hillstream loaches.. no more algae. Simple. Short of that nothing will reduce algae except for having less time with lights on