Algae - Part two of two

Dec 1, 1998 - © Winston Vaughan Schoenfeld

is of the correct size for your aquarium. As for algae-eating species, the following is a rather general list of some of the things that will do the job: plecostomas, catfish, tankgs, gobies, angels, snails, crabs, starfish, slugs, shrimp, and some wrasses.

The last element that I would like to talk about is carbon dioxide. The main source of high CO2 content in the aquarium is poor circulation. This can come from either poor filtration or water flow. Guidelines here are (1) make sure that you have a filtration pump which is rated for the size of your aquarium, (2) make sure that you clean the prefilter or filter in the filtration system to avoid reduced water flow, and (3) avoid "dead" spots in your aquarium by adding additional powerheads if needed. The first two are rather self-explanatory. The last guideline is for aquariums that do not have good water circulation due to structure within the aquarium, or placement of the filtration. "Dead" spots refer to places where there is little to no water flow. These spots end up being depleted of oxigen, and are rich in CO2. By using additional powerheads to move the water around within the aquarium, you can eliminate these "dead" zones in the aquarium.

So, what does one do if their aquarium begins to be overrun by algae? First, you want to remove the existing algae by scraping it off the walls of the aquarium. CAUTION!!!! - this algae which will be now free-floating in the water of the aquarium is a huge source of nutrients for additional algae. Thus, it is important that the removed algae be siphoned out of the aquarium. In addition, the prefilter or filter of your filtration system should be cleaned. To get the aquarium back on track, you should identify the source of the algae existance (ex. phosphate, nitrate, etc....) and try and use the guidelines above to reduce this source. There are also chemicals you can use which will help. If used, they should be used in conjunction with the siphoning. You will also find that it will help to have decreased lighting hours for a week or two during treatment. I hope that this article will help some of you in the battle against algae blooms. They are much easier to prevent that remove, so taking the time to follow the guidelines above will save you a lot of heatbreak.

The copyright of the article Algae - Part two of two in Aquariums is owned by Winston Vaughan Schoenfeld. Permission to republish Algae - Part two of two in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Go To Page: 1 2 3 4

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic