algae fix & pleco

[outsideinside]

i had greenwater and used algae fix after trying long and hard to clear it up naturally. does algae fix harm plecos? i dropped some algae tablets in there for him to eat. the bottle says to retreat in 3 days, then weekly thereafter in order to prevent the algae from returning. i don't want to harm my pleco though.

thanks for your help.

 

[Pure]

I've taken batches of java that was over run with hair algae and put it in a 1 gal then dosed this stuff 5 times the recommended dosage (at least) then put it in a dark place. The java survived and so did a good portion of the algae. I also know of people using similar products that were supposed to be safe for plants and fish. It killed every living organism in the tank.

Green water is normally caused by excess light and over feeding. Normally the light comes from the room the tank is in gets too much sunlight or the tank itself is in direct light from the sun.

You say you tried natural ways to combat the green water but didn't mention what ways these were? I personally would never put this chemical in any of my tanks. As far as the plec goes. Well they don't respond well to some most medications, I can't see how this would be any different.

Did you already dose this tank?

Welcome to the board!

 

[outsideinside]

thanks for the input. i dosed it once but am leaning toward not doing it again. think i'll just leave the light off for a while longer. it's a 65 gallon fw i set up thanksgiving week. i'd upgraded from a 29 gallon and transferred as much of the old water as i could but didn't transfer the filter. once i got the algae bloom, i lowered the light to 6 hours for several days then went to no light at all for the past 10 days or so and did 20% water changes every single day. i also tried wrapping it completely with a thick blanket for 36 hours. i wasn't seeing any improvement (i assumed a couple weeks was enough time??). as a last resort i used the algae fix and it cleared the tank of in a matter of hours and my fish look okay, very luckily (angels, khuli & clown loaches, pleco, a tiny algae eater, butterfly catfish, tetra). i'd read that chemical drops will only work if the algae is already dead, which may have been the case here but i'm not certain.

 

[Lotus]

I found that the biggest problem with that product is that it doesn't kill your plants immedietly, but does harm them for several months (slow growth, weak growth). I believe it contains copper, which can be hard on scaleless fish like plecos and loaches. It will usually kill any shrimp you have, too.

If you need to remove the copper from your tank, you can use PolyFilter to remove it (carbon doesn't remove copper).

If you decide to do a blackout again, you need to do it for at least 4 days, with a water change before and after, and absolutely no peeking, no lights and no feeding during the blackout.

Green water is often caused by ammonia in the water, even though it may not be detectable by a hobbyist test kit. As your tank is only about 6 or 7 weeks old, it's very possible you still haven't fully cycled.