Question: Algae in Fire Newt tank..

Since I started the tank over a year ago, its had a severe dark green algae problem. It will come as huge sheets/films that look disgusting and I scrub the tank out every few weeks.

Thing is, i'm having troubles getting it all off the plastic plants and peice of driftwood and rocks. What's the best way to get it all off?

Its a 32 gallon long tank with river rocks for substrate and two 2-inch firebelly newts, Fig and Isaac. I used to have two small siamese algae eaters, but they've been missing for ages (I think the newts may have eaten them). It has a filtration system - an over-the-tank-edge type with a long pipe and a grill to slow the water's descent. It is kept half full and has the plants, the substrate, a clay pot (tested to make sure it doesnt affect the water) and the small peice of driftwood.

It is located in the living room and gets no more than 1 hour of sunlight a day due to positioning and furniture in the way. I had the same problem in a smaller tank of mine that got NO direct sunlight at all! I'm not sure where this stuff is coming from!

Any ideas will help.

Ironically, it may be that the problem is caused by trying too hard to keep the tank too clean. When you say "scrub the tank out every few weeks", can you describe what this entails?

The great part about having a nice big tank, as you do, is that it should require very little maintenance beyond the usual 10-20% water change weekly. Leaving SOME of the algae to grow will reduce the growth of additional algae because the algae that is there will eat up the nutrients from the water. Removing ALL of it just makes it grow back faster.

Another factor to look at is leftover food. Does the tank have gravel? Depending on the size of gravel and the type of food being used, a lot of food can end up hidden in the gravel, and this will fuel algae growth.

See:
http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/Tank_critters.shtml

I have tanks that have been set up and running for 6+ years, and I've never removed more than about 25% of the water at once, and I rarely remove algae, except for the front glass. After the first year, they have had very little algae growth. I just have to wipe the front glass occasionally with a pad. Some of them grow a little blue-green algae (grows in sheets), but it is easy to remove with a turkey baster. I use a gravel-washing siphon to remove the crud from the sand about once a month, and I'm fanatical about removing leftover newt food.

Good luck!

I remove the plants and log, siphon the gravel (I usually do 25% water change) and put in pre-treated (with proper conditioners) water of the right temperature. I also give the sides a scraping to remove it as you can't see anything through it.

I was thinking perhaps overeating may be it. The river rocks are about 1/2 an inch to 1.5 inches across in varying sizes, very smooth. I was thinking maybe moving the newts to a feeding area (or somehow training them to come to a clean area of the tank) as well as reducing feeding? Usually I give them 1 cube worth (thawed) of blood worms a week, but that may be too much anyways. They are nicely shaped (not too plump but definitely not thin)

I cannot ever remove all the algae really. Bits are always floating in it. so no worries there.

I feed them bloodworms. There's little else in the area that I think they would eat. They're frozen, then thawed in a bit of water in the fridge a few hours before feeding (my hands usually end up thawing it the rest of the way. washed of course, no sanitizers)


I did see that article after posting this. I will try a snail next.

You said that it gets minimal if any sunlight but what is the regular lighting like?

You mean the lighting I use for the tank? I use a standard 20 watt white light bulb, one of those new fancy 'strip light' types that are coiled up, though I do not always turn it on. The lamp stands near the tank and i turn it on in the morning for about 9 hours total.

I think the combination of river rocks + frozen bloodworms may be the problem. I would recommend engineering some kind of feeding area - either a rock-free zone on one side of the tank, or some kind of platter where the food is placed. Then remove all uneaten bloodworms after each feeding. Do you have a turkey baster for quick cleanups?

Otherwise, what you are doing sounds good! You should consider varying their diet. It's easy to get into a routine with one kind of food, but they would benefit from something with a higher calcium content, such as chopped earthworms. Or the Rangen salmon pellets, if they will take them. The earthworm pieces are also helpful as they are easier to clean up after feeding.

The amount of light doesn't sound like a significant factor.

No. my living room is really dim, especially in summer (I block the windows with panelling to keep the heat out.).

I'll try to vary the diet. I /do/ have some frozen brine shrimp mix that I bought when the nearest pet stores were all out of BW. But the one time I tried feeding them it they did not seem interested at all.

A thought... when I do the weekly tank cleaning (I stirr the gravel a bit, siphon some muck out and clean the algae), I like to remove them during the process so I dont squish them. Would this perhaps be a good time to feed them? It would mean that I can easily clean out uneaten food and perhaps keep stress down as they will be distracted by ymmies. I do not have a baster that would work (I have one but its for my paint water so no go there) but I can get another one easily!

I'll see about the earthworms or other things. I know one place that has earthworms to feed.

Oh! an idea: If I do go to Worms, i could try a pair of tweezers and see if they'll feed bit by bit. I know a few times while feeding bloodworms they've swum up TO me and stuff (and one time I held a bit of worm in front of Isaac's face and he chomped it there). That could be a solution too that would minimize stress as well.

They sure will eat from the tweezers. Earthworms are a superb choice as they are nutritionally very complete. You can also offer waxworms, small slugs, small crickets, isopods, whiteworms, even pellets.

I think removing them is not the best option. Handling amphibians causes them stress, and is potentially dangerous to their sensitive skins. It´s always better not to touch them unless strictly necessary.
I would encourage you to consider a change of substrate, since fine sand or no substrate at all are far better choices. No risk of impaction and cleaning becomes incredibly easy. It may seem like a lot of work at first, changing the whole substrate, but on the long run you wouldn´t regret it at all, trust me.

well, the substrate is much larger than the newt's heads right now. unless they can dislocate their jaws like a snake, there's little worry to it. I'll definitely look into it though.

I'll see about some tweezers or something else (I do not mind holding earthworms in my hands though, but it may become awkward with fat fingers and worm. They could look so much alike!)

Thank you for your help.

update: my filter is not working, bah. The tank is without the filter until tomorrow when I can clean it and see what's wrong with it, or replace it.

I have 8 tanks going right now for all the C. Orientalis larvae at varying ages, morphs, and adults. For some reason, I only have algae in one of the tanks. It's a tank in my middle son's room near his fishtank (which also gets algae). The newt tank has aquarium lighting, while the fish tank is by an internal window that overlooks a very bright foyer - maybe hard to envision, but the foyer is two-stories and the front wall (front of house) is basically all glass. So, it gets natural light but no heat. Anyway, I can't pinpoint the problem as the newt tank is near the fish but farther from the window and usually the drape over that internal window is closed for the most part. I have a bare bottom in the newt tank and no filter as it houses larvae. I don't think I feed them more or less than the other tanks, so I just don't get it! If you find anything that works, let me know! My larvae have a very varied diet, so I can't point to a single food, either, and I do turkey baster it all out afterwards...

I'm not sure which link they gave you, but I did read one that made me not worry about the algae, other than how it looks to me - kind of dirty and creepy!

Dana

Update:

I got the tank clean. no algae growing yet so I guess the water change helped.

I haven't put back the rocks or anything yet though or the plastic plants as they're still quite algae-covered. What's a good way to remove this? I tried scrubbing it but its on there good. (I'm pondering simmering it on the stove to 'tenderize' it. If it works, then it should come off easily as bones out of one of my stewed chickens.)

There's a film of oil or something on the water as I haven't got the water filter set up (still not working, grrr. if It doesnt work today I'll be buying a new one after work tonight.) so I'm getting this done asap.

I would recommend leaving the algae on the rocks. As I said before... trying to remove ALL the algae is actually counterproductive. The leftover algae will absorb nutrients from the water and help reduce the growth of the NEXT generation of algae. Try to view it as giving your tank that "natural" look:rofl:

Dana, is the algae-growing tank at a different temperature? Warmer temps may be more conducive to the type of algae you have. (Though there are probably some algae that do better at cool temps).

there's no way to get ALL the algae off. but its coated the plants completely amd makes them look disgusting. I just want to get them to look like plants againand not 'plant shaped algae blobs of slime'

any suggestions?

I'm sorry, but my suggestion is to buy new plants (preferably live) ,and not worry about the cleaning of such replacable things. They are temporary at best anyway. You have to be comfortable with a little "nature" in the tank.

-jbherpin-

But I /am/ comfortable with a little algae. I'm not asking for a way to remove ALL algae from the tank.

What I'm NOT comfortable is algae that coats every single leaf of every single plant and grows and grows until you can't tell what kind of plant the plastic plant is supposed to imitate, and then coats the entire inside of the glass so you cannot see anything at all but slimy green. I dont WANT to remove it all, I know you're not supposed to. I just want to clean them up decently so they look better and keep the algae from getting out of hand. That's all.

I had a little amble around the internet and found this from www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/algae.htm

Quote.
Blue-green algae/Cyanobacteria

"Blue-green algae" is not really a true algae at all, but Cyanobacteria - a group of bacteria capable of photosynthesis. It can appear as a slimy coating in a number of different colours. It can smother plants and may release toxins harmful to fish. It can fix nitrogen and may therefore occur in tanks with zero or very low nitrates (but possibly high levels of other nutrients, particularly phosphate). It can be removed manually quite easily, as it often forms loose sheets, but it's likely to return quickly. Improving circulation/aeration in the tank sometimes causes it to decline.

Hope this helps.

bellabelloo said:

I had a little amble around the internet and found this from www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/algae.htm

Quote.
Blue-green algae/Cyanobacteria

"Blue-green algae" is not really a true algae at all, but Cyanobacteria - a group of bacteria capable of photosynthesis. It can appear as a slimy coating in a number of different colours. It can smother plants and may release toxins harmful to fish. It can fix nitrogen and may therefore occur in tanks with zero or very low nitrates (but possibly high levels of other nutrients, particularly phosphate). It can be removed manually quite easily, as it often forms loose sheets, but it's likely to return quickly. Improving circulation/aeration in the tank sometimes causes it to decline.

Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

Good info. When Horsetuna referred to the algae as "huge sheets/films" I was thinking it might be blue-green algae (BGA). However, if it were BGA, she wouldn't be having difficulty removing it. BGA tends to rinse off fairly easily. I am able to control BGA by sucking it off with a turkey baster. So... it's unclear if this is what she has.

that and if its photosynthetic, then it wouldnt be alive in my tank as it doesnt get much light at all.

Anyways, I simmered the plastic plants last night to soften the algae and it came right off, so all is good now.