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Algae, best way to remove them from the ground.

damien

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My tank has quite a lot of algae in it, and I can remove them from the glass etc no problem, but I can't think of a way to get rid of it when it's fallen on the ground. On the sand itself there are also algae (like a carpet) and they cover the leaves of my plants. I'm currently changing the water every day (about 1/3) to lower the nitrate level.

The removal of the algae is a bit of a problem for me. The largest parts that are on the ground are picked up easily by hand, but the smaller chunks are impossible to pick up. I tried a small net. This works a bit, but it also it takes a lot of sand with it, so that isn't ideal.
I also tried a vacuum cleaner for aquaria, but that also sucks up the sand and most of the times it isn't powerful enough to suck up the algae.

What are your ways of removing algae?
 

kapo

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We don't get much algae in our tanks. Is your tank by direct light (window or light source?). If it is move your tank or partially cover it, that could be why you have the problem in the first place.

What are your nitrate levels?

For removal of algae an gravel cleaner will generally work, though it will suck up part of the sand. Turkey baster probably wouldn't do much of the job if you have a lot of algae. Do you have a thin tube or the thicker tube one. Our thin tube gravel cleaner sucks up hardly anything so we got a fatter tubed one which is much better for cleaning/sucking up things.
 

damien

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The only light source it has is the light from the aquarium (2 TL-tubes (is that the name?) for aquaria)
The curtains in the room (my bedroom) are always closed.
If I turn that light off, I can't see my axies.
The nitrate level is 12.5-25mg/l. This is too high, so I do 1/3 water changes until it is below 12.5.
 

kapo

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That nitrate level doesn't seem excessively high. A high reading would be 60+ppm/mg. Ours sit between 20-40ppm. We don't use aquarium lights, so it may very well be due to the aquarium lighting. How long do you keep the light on?

We cover some of our tanks completely (as they're in high traffic well-lit areas) and the others are partially covered (top and sides but not front of tank). But we tend to roll the blinds/shades on tanks up at night so they can be seen and fed.
 

damien

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The light is on about 12 hours per day. If I turn off the aquarium light, I can hardly see what's in the aquarium, and that is kind of the point :p.

The kind of vacuum cleaner I have:
4154MKYC0WL._AA280_.jpg

stolen from amazon.co.uk

Mine has a wider part at the end, but the size of the tubes should be about the same.
 

Daniel

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Algae can be a neverending story of pain and despair...
The only way to remove them constantly is to remove the source of the problem - what can be many factors. Two of them were already mentioned - light and nitrate.

But depending on the kind of algae (what do they look like?) there may be different sources: Too much / too little light, too long / too short photoperiods, old lamps with unvafourable spectrum of light (lamps, especially fluorescent tubes, should be renewed every year at last).

As for water parameters - nitrate (as well as nitrite and ammonia) is an important factor, but not the only fertilizer for algae. Phosphate is important, too (but is hardly ever measured because the tests are not included in the standard test-boxes).

The best way for me to kill of most algae in the first step was the following:
1. Do a waterchange of at least 50%
2. Shut off all light - cover the whole tank in blankets or something else to keep every light out.
3. Keep it that way for at least 7 to 10 days.
4. When removing the coverings, do another water change of at least 50% (you better have a cycled tank with a well-running filter for that)

This way, most of the algae die and can easily be sucked out of the tank (when dead, most of them do not cling to the plants, substrate etc. anymore).

This way you get rid of the symptoms (i.e. visible algae); you still have to find the source and remove the problem.
 

grunsven

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Is it a slimy carpet that easily removed? of hairy stuff that is well attached?

If it is the first it is blue-green algae (not algae but bacteria actually) The second is green algae. google some pictures if you're not sure.

You say you've got plants, which species? are they growing? are they yellowish?

If it's a slimy algae and you're plants are not growing and yellowish it could very well by blue-green algae and they can fix nitrogen so they don't need nitrate.

I had the same thing but theyre gone and my plants are thriving since i started adding Calciumnitrate.
Te plants started growing again and depleted the phosphorous and other nutients and the algae were gone within a week.
 

damien

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It is a carpet, but not slimy. It can easily be removed, but there are always small chunks that break off and fall on the bottom.
They are most likeley cyano bacteria, since they STINK when I remove them from the tank.
On the glass I have 2 different types of algae: on the front and sides I have brown algae that is hard to remove, because it attaches itself very well to the glass.
On the back (against a wall) I have green algae that are like a thin film. These are easy to remove from the glass, but fall apart when I try to pick them up.

I don't really know what kinds of plants I have in there, I just bought plants that were suited for cold water aquaria.
The carpet-algae also cover the leaves of my plants, but the when I brush them off the leaves are still green.
 

MRIGUY

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I recommend gettin a floating plany like Salvinia natans (floating water moss). It grows fast, consumes nitrogenous wastes and blocks light from getting to the bottom and feeding the algae. The bottom algae needs to be mechanically removed daily and the Salvinia as needed. You will see an improvement in the overall quality of the tank. You should continue with the regular water changes till ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate normalize. I have seen others use duckweed in the past but duckweed can be too hard to permanently remove when needed. Salvinia is larger and can be totally removed though I have never seen reason to do so.
 

grunsven

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Sheets that are easily removed and break does sound al lot like blue-green algae indeed.
The brown algae aare normal and they only grow in the darker areas.

If it is blue-green algae the last thing you want to do is remove nitogen. Thes things occur when the nitrogen to phosphourus ratio is wrong. This is known as the redfield ratio (give it a try in google).
If there is a lot of phosphourus relative to nitrogen blue green algae thrive as they fix their own nitrogen, but your plants don't and are overgrown.

I would say add nitrate not remove it. (or remove phosphourus)

Have your N and P levels checked and calculate the redfield ratio!!
 

damien

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I'll try that.
Just wondering, how does it happen that the ratio changes?

Back to the removal thing: are there more powerful vacuum cleaners then the one posted above?
 

lims

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all the above is good advice, i had the same problem.
You have to be patient, it may take a long long time for it to go away, but it will if you do everything suggested and keep removing it.

I also heard that a branch of birch in the water will suck a lot of nutrients away from the algae, but be careful as it may suck too much if left in for a while, it will have to sprout roots first too.
 

timg

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One of my tanks has suffered like this for ages, and nothing I do seems to make any difference to it. I use a standard gravel vac to clear it from the gravel, but within a day it's back, I keep a bristlenose plec in there and he clears about half of it every night, but it comes back the next day. I change the water regularly, clean the plants, wipe the glass, cut down the light, have water moss floating, added java moss to try to suffocate it, but it still keeps coming back!

It is something that I just can't clear, no matter how hard I try, and the strange thing is, that it is only in one of the six tanks in that area! I have even removed most of the fish from the tank, just leaving a few tetras in there to keep it going.

The tank was cleaned just 3 days ago, with a 40% water change, glass wiped, gravel vacuumed and covers washed. Here are some pics of the tank today:
algae1.jpg


algae2.jpg


algae3.jpg


Notice the difference in the two tanks in the last image. I have no solution to this problem, or any suggestions as to the cause, or why it just affects the one tank, but I do know that it has been an on-going problem for months and nothing seems to affect it.

I'm not trying to hi-jack your thread, mearly showing you that you are not alone in this problem! I wish I could offer you a solution, but I haven't got one, and to be honest, none of the possibles suggested here have worked on this one, I've tried them already, with the exception of the phosphate testing. Funny thing is, this used to be our best display tank!

Good luck, I hope you can solve your problem, and if you do find the miracle cure, be sure to share it!

Thankfully, this tank isn't one of the tanks I have for the axies, they are in clear, cold water, not tropical, like this tank!
 
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grunsven

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This looks exactly as what I had, sheet of blue-green algae growing rapidly. Plant with hardly any leaves and what remains as plant leaves is yellowish and not bright green

I also tried black-outs, massive water changes, removed all substrate. Nothing helped untill I tried adding nitrate and it was cured in a week.

Plants do best at a nitrogen to phosphate ratio of 16 (There is 16 times as much N in the water than there is P).
When this is >>16 you'll get normal algae
When this is <<16 you'll get blue-green algae

Of course this is within normal ranges of P and N. High concentration are toxic.
 

OziOscar

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Try leaving the lights off for two to three days.

You can't see your babies but the algae will suffer and may die off in the process. Also consider introducing some biological filtration (ie plants) to assist.

Cheers - OziOscar.
 

damien

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Will it help if I clean my external filter? I can't remember how often you should do that, but I think I haven't done that in a long time.
The filter is set up as a biological one.
 

damien

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I've been out shopping for stronger cleaners, but I've come back empty handed.
I found a gravel cleaner from eheim in a couple of shops for €100+, and the shopkeepers couldn't reccomend it. They say that they are about as powerful as those battery ones and that the sand gets stuck in the engine really easy.

This is the one I'm talking about:
11442382253909814_live.jpg

image stolen from eheim.de

I think that the price for that thing is just insane..

I did buy a Phosphate test thing. I'll try it out today.
 

grunsven

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A gravel cleaner does remove the algae but does not solve the problem.
 

DantezGirl

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sorce a culture of daphnia and they will clean it right up and provide a food sorce for your axies correct me if i am wrong i want to set up a daphnia tank to breed for food for baby axies and my newt how do i get algie to grow in a tank for the daphnia there will be nothing but daphnia in it
 

oceanblue

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I do not think daphnia are an answer to blue green algae. This is not green water. I've put daphnia into a tank with this problem without any change to the green slime. I've got this problem in one tank lightly stocked with fish. I've noted the comments above about the nitrogen/phosphate ratio and my nitrate levels are very low, phosphate a bit high and plant growth poor compared with my other tanks. Increased water changes, more plants and heavier stocking to raise nitrate levels seem indicated. I'm going to remove the fish, move in an axolotl and add watercress which is cheap and available at the local supermarket and for me even cheaper because it is growing vigorously in my main axolotl tank. It will be nice to get rid of this green carpet with a clinging smell which makes me need a shower every time I reach into the tank.
 
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