![]() It will quickly drape all that it can in a tank with thin, expansive sheets that often peel away in large pieces. Blue green algae isn’t algae in the true sense, but is a type of bacteria that can photosynthesise. If you suffer from this, then I feel for you. Not a true algae, but a bacteria, blue green algae can be a nightmare to control. Image by George Farmer. Oddly, in heavily planted tanks, a low level of nutrients can be part of the cause, but unless you’re a dedicated aquascaper you won’t want to add more plant food! Given time to cement itself in place it can be stubborn.Īttacking it frequently seems to make it linger, and aquascapers will sometimes just leave it alone for several weeks (until the glass becomes near impossible to see through) before removing en-masse by scraping it from the glass with a blade or plastic edged cleaner, and then syphoning out the removed algae from the base. It mainly forms on the glass and hard, smooth decoration like rounded stones, and To add to the frustration, it will often disappear in a day or two entirely on its own.Īn alga type that’s found mainly in new set-ups, green dust lives up to its name. Off the shelf algaecides may help, water changes do very little, and my own experiences have found that a temporary black out where lights are turned off and the tank shrouded to keep out any external light will help reduce it, but not always eradicate it. ![]() The cause is a unicellular alga that lives free in the water, too small to get trapped in filters, and too persistent to be diluted out with a simple water change or two.Īmmonia is implicated in causing and sustaining green water, and stirring up substrates, subsequently releasing ammonia in to the water, can be a trigger. This is quite a rarity in tanks (as opposed to ponds) unless you’re tampering with carbon dioxide and nutrient levels, but it can still strike out of the blue. Where are the fish? Green water in an aquarium. It’s important to diagnose and understand what type you’re up against before you decide on what action to take against it. There are the greenĪnd red varieties, needing different handling approaches, plus the peril of ‘algae’ that isn’t even true algae. ![]() The basic algae problem involves a tank full of water, light (which supports plant life), nutrients (either too much or too little) and carbon dioxide (which may or may not be in your control.) Wherever these ingredients are found, they present an opportunity for algae to grow.įor the everyday aquarist, there are a few strains that might appear, and there are different ways to deal with each one. Algae are numerous in their forms, from microscopic green ‘orbs’ that drift like balloons, to long, pernicious strands of red or black that carry the resilience of a born survivor. It’s no coincidence that some tanks are hit harder with the green stuff than others. The trick is to learn to manage, rather than completely eradicate it.Įvery newcomer to the hobby will be united in asking, somewhere around three or four weeks into their experience, about how to deal with the algae forming in their tanks. Any tank you ever set up will be subject to an algae outbreak sometime. Green dust algae is more common in new tank set-ups. ![]()
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