Another issue I have with algae eaters being used as an algae solution is that suppose you put an algae eater in your fish tank solely to get rid of your current algae problem, and it works.  What next?  Will you buy algae flakes or blanch vegetables just to feed this algae eater that no longer has anything in the tank to eat?  Will you sell it back to the local fish store?

The point I’m trying to make here is that algae eaters aren’t the best way to tackle algae problems in an aquarium.  Algae problems exist for a reason, and the reason is never because there are no algae eaters. Excess algae growth in your tank occurs because your tank is ecologically unbalanced; algae in aquariums need nutrients and light to grow.  Like so many other aquarium hobbyists, you could be overfeeding your fish, leaving uneaten excess nutrients in the water column for algae to thrive on.  Or it could simply be that your tank’s photoperiod (the length of time your aquarium light is on) is too long.

Why spend the money on an algae eater when your algae problems could be addressed permanently by doing something as simple as feeding your fish less?  If you’re struggling with algae control, I urge you make an attempt at addressing the root of the problem before you add an algae eater to your tank.

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The reason why this algae is such a common problem is due to the fact that they are well-suited to aquarium conditions. What I mean by that is that most hobbyists (in both the freshwater and saltwater scene) don’t keep proper tabs on the nutrient levels in their tanks. It’s not an easy task, that’s for sure!

The two nutrients that red algae love are nitrates and phosphates. Fish excrement, fish food, and gradually rotting detritus lead to excess nitrates and phosphates, so both of these are always found in aquariums with these characteristics.

With regards to fish excrement, obviously the more you feed, the more waste matter is produced by fish and invertebrates in your tank. By feeding reduced portions at fewer intervals, the tank inhabitants produce less waste and uneaten food left to rot becomes less of an issue as well.

Nitrate is significantly reduced via water changes so if you’re dealing with a red algae bloom, do a water change or two per week. You want to aim for a reading of zero. Though phosphates will be also reduced during water changes, they usually tend to rebound in a day or two.

Employing phosphate removal media is also a great method of nutrient control. I highly recommend placing it in an area of high water flow. Follow the included instructions and set the correct amount depending on your tank size. Your phosphate levels should read zero within 48 hours.

Another thing to note about red slime algae is that it doesn’t fare well in high flow areas. If you notice where almost all of your red algae growth is taking place, it is most likely in an area of lower water flow. Increase flow to that area as soon as possible.

These methods of controlling red algae are both proactive and reactive. But if you already have an algae problem, one of the most significant things you can do is begin by physically removing as much of the red algae from the tank as possible. With red slime algae, it shouldn’t be too hard because they tend to form carpets that can be removed with little difficulty. Just scrape it off of your live rock, glass, pumps and any other areas. Make certain to remove any suspended bits of red algae as well, along with any detritus and uneaten fish food.

Lighting is also a consideration when it comes to algae, and red algae is no different. If your lights are older than 6 months, then you should change them. Bulbs age, and the light they emit is going to gradually change in spectrum over time. In the case of reef lighting, bulbs eventually begin giving off more of a reddish color. Unfortunately, the red spectrum allows many forms of algae to really thrive. Other than changing out your bulbs, decreasing your photoperiod to 4-5 hours a day will help to control algae.

There are many ways to control red algae but as with all algae control methods, results take time. Getting rid of cyanobacteria normally takes weeks of thorough care. Follow these steps for at least a month and you should be well on your way to getting rid of red slime algae.

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This pond algae can also appear annually during the spring and summer months, depending on nutrient levels.  When ponds first start warming up after winter, algae reproduction begins to hasten before many of the organisms that feed on them gain in population.  As a result, spring algae blooms are very common.

As rotifers and daphnia gradually repopulate a pond during spring, they feed on algae and bring the algae population back under control.  Later on in the summer months after birth however, fish fry feed on the rotifers and daphnia, leaving an opportunity for a summer algae bloom.

So is there anything that can be done to prevent or get rid of this algae?  Like any algae problem, I always recommend addressing the root of the problem first, which is an excess of nutrients.  An investigation into the pondwater content and source is a good starting point along that path.  If you already have an algae bloom and are interested in removal however, pea soup pond algae is unfortunately too small to be removed using a net or skimmer.  So with that in mind, the easiest way to tackle the problem is to get a UV light or pile on the biological filters.  Good luck!

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Today, I can think of numerous times when my aquarium test kit has saved me a huge amount of money.  In my early days, I would buy fish and put them in a new tank, only for them to die because the tank wasn’t fully cycled.  I’d then go out and buy fish again for the tank, and they would soon die for the same reason.  I was practically flushing money down the drain.

API Freshwater Master Test Kit

But now with my test kits handy, I know exactly when my tank is fully cycled and ready for fish (I do fishless cycles, which are more humane and inexpensive).  This is just one of the reasons why I see aquarium test kits as being must-haves.

Of all the freshwater aquarium test kits on the market, the one I use and highly recommend is the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Aquarian Freshwater Master Test Kit.  This test kit gives you the ability to test ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels, as well as pH high range pH.  Instructions, test tubes, and color charts are all included.

Testing for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate is extremely simple.  All you do is fill up one of the test tubes with tank water up to the line.  Take the appropriate test solution dropper (the ammonia and nitrate tests consists of two) and add the specified number of drops to the test tube.  Cap off the test tube and shake the water/solution mixture until everything is mixed and dispersed.  After five minutes, compare the color of the test tube contents to the color cards provided in order to determine the concentration level.  That’s it!  Pretty simple, right?  :)  I probably test my water once every two weeks to a month.

One last note: there are other important water parameters that the master aquarium test kits don’t include tests for.  In most cases, a master test kit is all you need, but I highly recommend an additional copper test kit for anyone who keeps invertebrates, as invertebrates are particularly sensitive to copper.  I enjoy keeping red cherry shrimp, so I always have my Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Freshwater/Saltwater Copper Test Kit around.  It’s a small investment to make for the peace of mind in my opinion, especially since the mineral contents of municipal tapwater can change unexpectedly.

So with all the benefits of aquarium test kits and their incredible ease of use, I consider them must-haves.  Aquarium test kits not only help ensure that your fish and invertebrates are healthy, but they’re also indispensable tools for finding out the root of any algae problem.

One reason brown algae appears in new tanks is because the cycling process of a fresh tank ends with a spike in nitrate levels. Diatoms thrive on nitrate, and algae blooms are very common during this time period.

The more significant reason that brown algae rears its ugly head is that new tanks tend to have a high concentration of silica, which brown algae in particular need to . Silica in the water column can come from the tapwater, the aquarium glass, or the substrate (especially if it is sand). This silica supply will eventually be used up but the initial dispersion of it will give diatoms a chance to take hold all over the tank.

To make matters worse, brown algae grows in wide range of light levels, though many believe they grow best in low light.  Regardless, this means that the ambient lighting in a room is enough to create ideal conditions for diatom growth.

So with the odds seemingly stacked against you, is there anything that can be done to minimize the appearance of brown algae, or even avoid it altogether? Well, I must admit that in all of the aquariums I’ve ever kept, I’ve always had some level of brown algae growth for a period of time, whether it was widespread and drawn-out or extremely minimal and short-lived.  But I’ve slowly amassed an arsenal of techniques over the years to control diatom growth, and here are just a few of my favorites:

• Pack the aquarium full of fast-growing rooted plants early.  Since plants and algae have a lot of the same needs (light and similar nutrients), healthy plants do not bode well for algae in general.  The substrate in a planted tank provides nutrients for rooted plants that aren’t accessible to algae above the substrate, giving these plants a tremendous growth advantage.  Fast-growing plants also suck up nutrients in the water column quicker, leaving less for algae to use.  Many of the Rotala, Hygrophila, and Ludwigia species of aquatic plants are perfect for this.
• Keep otos in the tank.  I talked briefly about Otocinclus affinis catfish being effective algae eaters in this post.  Aside from being peaceful community fish and being enjoyable to watch, otos love to eat brown algae and will gladly do the algae-cleaning dirty work for you.
• If your tank is completely overrun by diatoms and you’re running out of ideas, it may be time for a three-day blackout.  Basically, this means isolating the tank from any light for three days straight.  The easiest way to to this in my opinion is to just cover the tank entirely with thick bath towels and disconnect the aquarium lighting.  After three days, a lot of the brown algae will have died and turned a darker color, and should be removed immediately (decaying algae can cause more algae outbreaks).

Brown algae in aquariums is extremely common, so there is a lot of info and stories out there about how to control it.  How have you dealt with brown algae in your aquarium?

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Hypostomus plecostomus

Most of the time when I see someone make a forum post inquiring about algae eaters, it’s in the context of freshwater aquariums.  The Hypostomus plecostomus, or pleco for short, is one of the most common algae eaters found today in freshwater tanks.  These fish are easy to find in fish and pet stores, relatively inexpensive, and effective at eating many types of algae.  They are nocturnal in nature but can be fairly active under aquarium lighting as well.

Unfortunately, plecos may become territorial with age and grow to a size unsuitable for most of the tanks they’re placed in.  Even though fish can adapt somewhat to the size of a tank and stay smaller than they would have grown to in their natural habitat, this has a negative impact on the health of a fish.  Fish that are forced to stay small due to the size of their living space are more prone to diseases and live shorter lives.   It is for this reason that I very rarely recommend plecos.

Otocinclus affinis

I prefer and often recommend another popular freshwater algae eater known as Otocinclus affinis.  Affectionately referred to as the oto, these fish will never grow to more than 2 inches in length, are inexpensive, and have a lot of character.  They do well in schools and are known to be very effective at eating brown algae.

Otos are my favorite algae eating fish because they are more suitable to small tanks and I like watching them dart around to new places to graze on.  You can see their bellies bulge when they are well-fed, and many people (including myself ) find this endearing.  I feed my otos algae discs and the occasional blanched zucchini when they have no algae to feed on.  I’ll talk more about the proper way to prepare fresh veggies for fish and invertebrates later on in another post.

Neocaridina heteropoda

Freshwater shrimp are also great algae eaters, and they are really fun to watch in an aquarium.  The most common freshwater shrimp is the Neocaridina heteropoda, also known as the red cherry shrimp (or RCS for short).  RCS can be difficult to find in local fish stores but are readily available for sale online at great prices.  These shrimp can adapt to a wide range of water temperatures and conditions, so they tend to survive the shipping process if bought online.

RCS are easy to care for, don’t require much food (given the size of a colony), and will breed non-stop.  They are also far more interesting to watch than any fish in my opinion.  They tend to swim slowly around from place to place until they find a suitable feeding site, and they feed by grabbing food with their tiny pincers and placing it in their mouths.  Pregnant females carry their eggs around with them, and it’s very to cool to witness their maternal behavior first-hand.

RCS are very small and they don’t eat much, so their algae eating ability comes from strength in numbers.  A colony of RCS can be very effective at controlling soft green algae, which is why their ability to reproduce quickly and easily makes them ideal for algae control.

The pleco, oto, and RCS are just a few of the common freshwater algae eaters.  While they’re all very effective, some may not be appropriate for your tank.  As I mentioned, the pleco can grow to be very large and they also tend to produce a lot of waste, so they aren’t suitable for smaller tanks.  Both otos and RCS are great at clearing algae from aquatic plants without harming them, but these algae eaters are small and can get harassed or eaten by larger fish.

Just as with any fish or invertebrate, please consider an algae eater’s needs and well-being before adding one to your aquarium.  The question of what eats algae should really be, “What eats algae that’d also work well in my tank?”  

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There are so many factors that contribute to algae issues, but is there one that stands out above the rest as the most significant?  Is it even possible to generalize all the types of algae and identify a single cause for brown algae, green algae, blue green algae (which is actually bacteria), etc?

In my opinion there is one characteristic common to all aquatic settings that have been overrun by algae, and it is something that boils down to the essence of life.  Luckily for us, this one characteristic is also one that we potentially have the most control over in our aquariums, ponds, and even pools.

I asked a friend of mine if he knew what the primary cause of algae problems is, and he said, “It’s gotta be light. Almost everyone who has algae in their [fish] tank has too much light.”  I can agree that lighting is definitely a major factor in algae control and in the environments that we care about, is easily a contender for the top cause.  But just as food for thought and for the sake of argument, consider that scientists have been able to create a form of algae that grows without light.  Pretty crazy, right?  So is there some other algae growth requirement that modern science can’t alter or remove?

When it comes down to it, the single most significant cause of algae problems is the availability of nutrients.  We now know that it is possible to create algae that grows without light, but nutrients provide the bare building blocks of life that algae and all other organisms need to live.  This concept may seem obvious to some but if you sit and really think about it, you can begin to theorize why there might be excess algae in your pond or aquarium.

Where might the nutrients that support this algae growth be coming from?  Could it be the fish?  Perhaps the fish food?  If you keep live plants and fertilize, could it come from the ferts?

How about all of the above?

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