Algae?

[Ftskayla]

There is a light film of algae on the sides of my tank. What do I do about this? And would putting small catfish or like a pleco in there hurt?

 

[Ftskayla]

I'm also kind of worried about my lotl. He's normally swimming around but he's been laying in his little dinosaur head since I got home around 6ish. Is this normal?

 

[Jen10s]

Please don't add any catfish to your tank, they are a serious danger to your Axies.
There are some real horror stories with mixing species, so check out the other threads on here.

Maybe you could add some glass shrimp or cherry shrimp, I hear they are OK and are good at cleaning ? Plus they make a tasty snack for your axolotls too.

With your Axies lack of activity - most are bone lazy and will lay around doing nothing for long periods of time, mine sleep nearly all day until dinner time then they get active....

Not sure what to do with the algae, I've never had any but I'm sure if you post all the information about your water parameters, temperature, tank size etc. I'm sure the experts here will be able to give you some great advice.

Good luck, don't forget to post that info and some photos of your tank might help too :happy:

 

[EJgraydon]

He's probably just azy. If you're in a 10 gallon I reccomend 1-2 smaller glass or ghost shrimp. They like to eat all the slimy stuff

 

[snuggly time]

Keep lighting down if it's algae. I've got a big algae problem in my tropical fish tank. I've been advised to reduce the amount of light in the tank. So far this has worked well, a lot of it has gone. Also make sure you keep the tank clean. Algae will bloom if there's plenty of nutrients in the tank, so over feeding can be bad too. Remove any uneaten food within 30 mins.

:happy:

 

[FX1C]

High levels of phosphate in the water can cause & feed algae - if you can take the water to your local fish shop ask them to test the phosphate or buy the liquid test kit for it.

I now use phosguard & purigen in my tropical tank & my 6ft axolotl tank & the phosphate levels are barely showing on the test compared to off the scale when I noticed algae. Too much natural light / lighting as mentioned can help the algae get a foot hold in the tank.



<3 >o_o< <3

 

[Ftskayla]

I'm still having problems with this stuff. I'm working on getting a full tank testing kit soon so I can tell you everything. Right now I only have an ammonia one. Would empting out the whole tank and washing it help any? Although I've noticed the algae is also in my filter.

 

[mikeg]

I have 2 apple snails that are about 4 inches big now they do an AMAZING job with cleaning the algae off the tank walls and rocks. I had to clean my class every month now it takes 3 months before i can even see algae on the glass, they also eat my axies left over food so thats a bonus!:happy:

 

[snuggly time]

Emptying the tank is tempting but I wouldn't. If you remove everything you'll kill the beneficial bacteria in the tank and have to start your cycle all over again. Can you get a picture of the algae?

I got rid of mine in a few weeks. I found that I was over feeding and the left over food was getting trapped in my gravel (for a fish tank - not axie). So I removed a large amount of gravel from the tank and reduced the feeding. I siphoned the tank once a day to suck up any food and dirt from the tank floor.
The other thing I've done is cut the lighting. The tank gets natural sunlight during the day but at night I have no lighting at all. Can you put the tank in shade so it's got as little light as possible? Algae thrive from light.

If you want to clean the filter make sure you do it in dirty tank water so you're not destroying the bacteria. I gave the inside of mine a really good wipe and just squeezed some of the dirt from the sponges.

Also small pond snail may help, but I've found the ones in my tank produced a lot of mess! Large snails can be potentially harmful to your axolotl.

 

[FX1C]

I'm still having problems with this stuff. I'm working on getting a full tank testing kit soon so I can tell you everything. Right now I only have an ammonia one. Would empting out the whole tank and washing it help any? Although I've noticed the algae is also in my filter.

Please DO NOT WASH EVERYTHING down - that will reset your tanks cycle completely & is NOT NECESSARY!

I think you might be mistaking slimy beneficial bacteria for algae.

What happens while you are cycling the tank is bacteria a needed to build up on EVERY surface - essential in the filter.

After a while this bacteria settles in & with regular SMALL DAILY WATER CHANGES - the bacteria will do the job of converting

Ammonia -> converted to -> Nitrite

NitrIte -> converted to -> NitrAte

NitrAte is the least toxic of the 3 & is easy to control with weekly water changes.

If you have an ammonia test - what is the current reading? How often & how much water have you been changing?

Are you using dechlorinator in the new water you add back into the tank? Which brand is it & are you careful measuring it out or just sploshing it in?

Please post a picture of the tank & your axolotl - just in case we can see something you might've overlooked.




<3 >o_o< <3

 

[Hayleyy]

In my tropical tank we've got huuuuuge amount of algae (the catfish are being lazy I think!) but we have these pellets that are supposed to reduce the algae. Not sure whether they're safe for axys though. But, in case it's beneficial it might not be worth removing it, unless it's taking over.
It's what we get for having the fish tank next to our glass back door- hellooooo natural sunlight!

 

[snuggly time]

In my tropical tank we've got huuuuuge amount of algae (the catfish are being lazy I think!) but we have these pellets that are supposed to reduce the algae. Not sure whether they're safe for axys though. But, in case it's beneficial it might not be worth removing it, unless it's taking over.
It's what we get for having the fish tank next to our glass back door- hellooooo natural sunlight!

I've read some of the bottles for algae removal products and didn't like what I read. Many of them said they may have a 'negative' effect on sensitive aquatic animals. To be honest it's probably going to cause more problems by unbalancing the tank further.

Looking at some of the products, they simply just remove phosphates too. As Nikki explained earlier, high phosphate levels can also result in algae blooms.