Drawbacks of Algae

[N©KI]

What are the major problems with having algae in your tank? (Besides Aesthetic)

I have an 80g that recently has had a bloom of green and brown algae on the glass when all of my Otto cats got sucked up in my surface skimmer. (I will never use one of those again.) I keep the front and sides fairly clean, but the back is becoming a problem, but if it's harmless i'll leave it.

All my my chemistry has remained very stable over the last month or so the algae has risen, so would it be detrimental for the fish to have algae in the tank?

 

[valdok]

it's really not a horrible thing, all it's doing is eating up the excess nutrients in the water. this, of course, is a bad thing if you are trying to grow plants. a lot of people just don't like how algae looks on their tank. i, for one, like algae and almost never scrap the tank. algae poses no health risk to fish (at least none i am aware of) and if you don't want to remove it, leaving it is ok. but it will accumulate more and more and more. my suggestion is just to get a few ottos and let them patrol the algae on the glass.

 

[N©KI]

I did have Ottos, but I put in one of those Hagen surface skimmers, and when i went away for a conference for three days, a plant had come unrooted and got caught on the surface intake of the skimmer causing it to drop below surface. It sucked up all my ottos. I hate that thing now.

 

[catfishmike]

too much algae can reduce oxygen levels intanks with very low turnover rates,but i don't think that anyone would evey let their tank get that overcrowded with alage