3 Things You Can Do to Control Algae Growth

Freshwater Aquarium Maintenance

What Is Algae?
Algae is often referred to as a plant, in fact algae is a complex unicellular organism referred to as a protist in the eukatyotic kingdom. Sorry to use such long words but basically it is not a plant it does however share the same ancestors.

Algae appears in a number of different colours and forms. The most common is as a green film over the surface of the aquarium glass but it can be brown, red or blue-green and it can coat the plants,gravel rocks etc. as well as the glass.

Types include:
Brown Algae - often appears in newly setup tanks and can disappear as quickly as it arrived
Green Algae - Likely to appear in any properly running tank
Hard 'Green Dot' Algae
Hair Algae - Long greenish or grey strands which can be removed with a toothbrush. Algae eatnig fish also like it
Red/Brush Algae - Often appears on plants and can be removed using a weak bleach solution. Can be the result of overfeeding your fish
Green Water - Also called 'Algae bloom'. It is a suspension of microscopic algae. Water changes and low light for a few days normally gets rid of it
Blue-green Algae (cyanobacteria) - This is not a true algae. It appears as a slimy coating smothering plants. It can release harmul toxins. It is easily removed manually. Fish will not eat it and sometimes increased aeration helps to prevent it.

Green algae is to some extent inevitable and is not always a bad thing. Algae needs both light and nutrients to survive which is exactly what your fish and plants need so you are never going to eliminate it completely. All you can hope to do is to manage it by scraping the glass on a regular basis probably every couple of weeks. The best tiem to do the scraping is just before you use your siphonic gravel cleaner when you do a water change.

3 Ways To Control Algae
Control the light
There are a number of things that you can do to minimise the growth of algae due to too much light. The first thing is to avoid direct sunlight hitting the tank the second thing is to make sure that you do not to illuminate the aquarium for longer than 12 hours every day. These two things alone will help to minimise algae growth but, as I said, it cannot eliminate it.

Control nutrients
The nutrients in question are nitrates, phosphates and silicates. Nitrates are always present in a well-run aquarium and phosphates and silicates are contained in the fish food so there is no way that these nutrients can be eliminated completely. They can be minimised by not overfeeding the fish and by frequent water changes. You can also plant the tank heavily so that the plants take up the majority of the nutrients.

Add algae eating fish
There are a number of fish that eat algae but you cannot rely on them to completely remove it, you will always have to scrape the glass. Among these vegetarian fish there are:
- Common plec which likes green brown and brush algea
- Siamese algae eater which likes green brown and brush algea
- Chinese algea eaters/sucking Loach
- Bristlenose
- Peckoltia catfish
- Whiptail catfish
- Algea eating shrimp

By : John Thomson - John Thomson is an aquarium expert. For more information on aquarium maintenance visit http://www.freshwateraquariumsecretsonline.com

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How To Setup A Freshwater Tropical Fish Tank

Step 1 : realize the responsibility. Tropical fish a reservoir is just like having a dog or cat when it is the amount of effort on your part. In order to have a reservoir fish successful you will have to work. Once a week, or at most once every two weeks, you will need to make some type of maintenance on the shell. Most of the time, you will be making changes of water. You will also to feed your tropical fish at least once per day. If you are up to this challenge, please proceed!

Step 2 : decide the aquarium size. It s a good idea to have in mind this kind of tropical fish that you want to keep before buying a aquarium. Some tropical fish grow to one or two inches, while the other types of tropical fish can grow 12 or 13 inches in length! Knowing what kind of tropical fish that you want will help you decide the size of the tank that they will need. If this is your first time with an aquarium, I would recommend goes with a 10 or 20 gallons aquarium for the moment.

Step 3 : Decide on the aquarium location. Place your aquarium in an area where the light and the temperature of the tank has won t be affected by external sources such as windows and heating vents. You want to place your aquarium in a position which will be able to hold its total weight. A good rule of thumb to determine the total weight of a full aquarium is 10 pounds per gallon of water. For example, a 55 gallons tank weigh approximately 550 pounds when filled with water!

Step 4 : buy your aquarium and the equipment. It is now time to decide what type of filtration you want to use. You will also need to buy a heating apparatus capable of heating of the size of reservoir that you have. Buy the gravel, plants, a power blades and other decorations. A good rule of thumb for the amount of gravel that you will need is 1 to 1.5 books of gravel per gallon of water.

Step 5 : put in place your aquarium and eligibility. Rinse your tank with water only! Do not use the soap or detergent. Soap residues left will be harmful to your tropical fish. If you use a sub gravel filter (not recommended) today would be the time to put in place as well.

Step 6 : wash Gravel, plants and decorations. Be sure to wash the gravel carefully before add to your tank. An easy way to do is to put some of the rocks in a pulp strainer and wash them in your bathtub. Then Place the clean gravel in a clean place 5-gallon bucket of transport to the aquarium. After adding gravel you can place your plants and decorations.

Stap 7 : add water to the aquarium. In order to avoid your gravel and plants, you can place a plate or saucer in the middle of your aquarium and direct the water run on the plate. Use the ambient temperature water during filling. To delete the chlorine and chloramine, use something like Tetra AquaSafe for aquariums. Don t completely fill the aquarium up to what you are sure of the provision of your decorations. Otherwise, when you place your arm in to go stuff around water will spill. Doh!

Step 8: Put in place equipment. Install a heating apparatus but don t connect up to the thermostat in heating has adjusted to the temperature of water. It usually takes approximately 15 minutes. Connect your filter and any other equipment you have, then top off water at just under the cover lip. Place your hood and of the light on the aquarium and then to verify your power cords to be sure that they are free of water. I also recommend to use a drip loop on all power cords to be extra cautious. Connect all equipment on a barrette and then turn on the aquarium.

Step 9 : Wait, wait, wait and then wait a little more. I know, you want to add some tropical fish. But, in order to make this right you have to wait until your aquarium has travelled before adding any fish. There are ways to accelerate this process. Departure nitrogen cycle page to learn more. If you must use the fish cycle, try to get a bolder species such as the zebra danio or cherry barb.

Step : 10 Add the tropical fish. To add one or two fish at a time. Adding a couple tropical fish at a time gives your filtration system the necessary time to take to the increase biological burden that the new fish introduce. When you bring the fish home let the bag float in the reservoir of approximately 15 minutes in order that the fish can become acclimated to temperature and the pH of the water. After 5 minutes of floating the bag you should add some of the water to the pocket in order that fish can become acclimated to pH level in the aquarium. This will help to reduce the amount of stress imposed on tropical fish. Stressed tropical fish often leads to death of tropical fish! Don t feed your tropical fish on the first day. They probably not eat more food on the first day of any way. Let them to familiarize themselves with their new house.

Step 11 : Get ready for a regular maintenance. Be willing to spend a certain time once a week or two to clean your tank. Regular water changes will reduce the rate of nitrates and keep your tropical fish happy and healthy.

By: Michael Magnum

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