Algae No More!

Nov 5, 2002
260
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54
Auburn, CA
#1
Recently I was having aproblem with cloudy water. I thought it was a bacteria bloom due to an overly aggressive cleaning I performed a couple weeks ago. The difference was that the water was not white cloudy but rather it had a greenish color to it.

I let it go for a week or two but finally got tired of the green cloudy water. So I go to my LFS and buy this stuff "AlgaeFix" and put the required amount in both my 30 gal tank and my daughter's 7 gal. Within a couple hours all the water was crystal clear! The filters however were saturated with all the algea and required cleaning . . . but hey the water has never looked better!

I would recommend this product to anyone with a similar problem. Have any of you out there had any experience with this or similar products??


*celebrate
 

Oct 22, 2002
985
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Edmonton
photos.yahoo.com
#2
Right on! Glad it work for you! Do you have live plants by any chance?

Just a pre caution though! If you have live plants, be careful with chemicals that destroy/kill aglae. Algae is also a plant and if it kills algae, it has a good chance of harming your plants EVEN if the product claims not to harm plants. I also had green water and tried a product called Velvet something by Jungle. Claims to clear up green water but safe on plants. Cleared up the green water sure enough but my plants also died.

Other than that, no live plants, go for it! Another tip! Find out cause of algae bloom also because it may return again after the chemicals loses its effectiveness!
 

Nov 5, 2002
260
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54
Auburn, CA
#3
Sorry to hear about your plants. I fortunately have the "Plastic Paradise".

I know that seems not to be the favored practice by many of the people here but it is less to worry about when maintaining the aquarium. I am a law student and have very limted time.

:p
 

Nov 5, 2002
260
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54
Auburn, CA
#4
Oooops . . . . as for the cause you mentioned. There has been an increase in the temperature here due to the onset of Spring/Summer. With that the light from the outside may have increased thus causing more growth.

My thought was the higher temps and more light were the culprit. Correct??

:confused:
 

Feb 18, 2003
190
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Durham, NC
#5
I have the same problem in my 10 gallon that i setup just to learn about live plants. All the water is green but I do water changes and it seems to help. There is a window 30 feet away from it and I rarely open the blinds during the day. I hadn't cycled the tank before because there are no fish in it. It got cloudy before I started the cycle process. So I wonder if once it's cycled it will clear up or not.
 

Feb 18, 2003
190
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16
Durham, NC
#7
I think I just figured out my algae problems in both aquariums. At times the brown algae is everywhere in my 20. I just checked the light buld i have in it. It's a coral life 15 watt (i think) full spectrum bulb. I've heard its either 1 watt per gallon or 2 watts per gallon. I can't remember which one of those is right. But my 20 is under lighted (plastic plants but will soon get live plants), and my 10 is possibly over lighted. I remember it costing me 20 bucks at the store. The light in the 20 is a Coral life but not full spectrum. I've had it since august last year so it's probably time to replace it. I leave the lights on for 7 to 8 hours a day. Thanks in advance for any insight here.
 

Aquaman

Large Fish
Oct 22, 2002
116
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0
South Africa
#8
My understanding of algae blooms:
1. Too much artificial lighting (lights on for too long/too bright);
2. Tank exposed to direct sunlight;
3. Not enough live plants or no live plants;
4. Filtration too efficient, resulting in overdose of nitrAtes;
5. Overstocking and overfeeding, eventually resulting (through the nitrogen cycle) in an overdose of nitrAtes;
6. Inadequate water changes to remove nitrates;
7. Not enough algae-grazing fish in the tank.

Regards.
 

Last edited:

Scrumpy

Large Fish
Oct 22, 2002
214
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London, UK
#9
I tried eSHa PROTALON-707 in my planted tank to help limit a BBA outbreak.
It claimed to be completely safe for plants even helping them grow, and to kill all algae.
Well I can report that it was safe for my hygro polysperma and anubias nana, but killed a crypt wendii and my lovely lush bushy hornwort.
I wasn't impressed.
During the course of the week long treatment my plants looked a bit sad, and the algae flourished. Overnight my tank grew fluffy brown tufts of algae on the glass....and all the usual algaes seemed overjoyed and grew prolifically.
I would say that my tank was in a considerably worse state (algae wise) after the treatment and I've been hampered by the loss of 50% of my plant volume which is giving me nitrate and therefore algae problems.
Sadly hornwort can't be bought in the UK and I'd cultured mine from some tufts found in a pond. It will be very hard to replace and I'll have to wait until summer.
 

Nov 5, 2002
260
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54
Auburn, CA
#10
AlgaeFix Update . . . .

While I still have a crystal clear tank I have noticed that the snail that resides in the tank is not doing so well (lying on its side and fully retracted into the shell for over two days). So what do I do . . . I read the bottle more carefully and it indicates that it should not be used in tanks with crustacians (sp) such as fresh water shrim or crabs.

My thought is that the snail may have been adversely affected by the AlgaeFix chem.

What do you think??