# Keeping a tank spotlessly clean of algae. Particularly Diatoms and BBA



## Aeropars (8 Mar 2016)

Hi All,

I've ran planted tanks for years and something always seems to cause me a problem where the old leafs of some plants get diatoms. This is predominant in stem plants more than anything and really looks ugly. My plants seem to be growing fine and I don't think I have any sign of deficiency.

Similarly, I've had very small amounts of BBA on the slower growing plants like Java Fern and Bolbitis.

If you look at my latest post in my journal you can see some pictures of the problem. http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/...ets-in-4-3-2016-180l.37684/page-4#post-436078

So my question is: How do you keep all the old leafs clean and vibrant? Others manage it but I cant seem to.

Lee


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## Aqua360 (8 Mar 2016)

Aeropars said:


> Hi All,
> 
> I've ran planted tanks for years and something always seems to cause me a problem where the old leafs of some plants get diatoms. This is predominant in stem plants more than anything and really looks ugly. My plants seem to be growing fine and I don't think I have any sign of deficiency.
> 
> ...



I would have assumed a lot of people prune old leafs, to allow new fresher leafs to establish


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## rebel (8 Mar 2016)

Aeropars, I think your tank has some sort of imbalance. I don't have to constantly prune old leaves to keep them clean. They remain fine as long as the tank is balanced. 

Why don't you add some shrimp or ottos to eat the diatoms?


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## Aeropars (8 Mar 2016)

Hi Rebel. I do have some Ottos in there however the smaller leafs on some stems dont get touched. I did think about getting some shrimp also however I have Angel Fish which are likely to eat them.


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## xim (8 Mar 2016)

Amano shrimp 

I didn't acquire any biggish fish after my Angelfish had died.
Keeping those fish in a planted tank is not easy to get the best of both worlds.


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## Mick.Dk (8 Mar 2016)

1/ We all discharge of old/unhealthy/ugly leaves, Aero (especially before photo*lol*) - partly because they're unsightly, but primarily because they do no good to neither plant or surroundings. They can even cause trouble.........
All and every leaf have a "lifetime", different for different plants and depending highly on surrounding parametres - at old age, they weaken and get attacked by "decomposers".

2/ I have (huge) angelfish, too (I breed them) - they've never eaten neither Oto's or Amano's (full grown).....they happily snack on Guppy and Red cherries, though.


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## Sudipto (8 Mar 2016)

I have had good success against BBA by bumping up CO2 just a bit and increasing water flow considerably. Of course I reacted fast. Almost like as soon as I spotted the first traces of it.
My four Otos in my two-footer take care of my diatoms.


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## alto (8 Mar 2016)

Aeropars said:


> I did think about getting some shrimp


these really are great algae crew but I'd be disinclined to add them to a tank with adult angels ... juvenile angels that grow up with shrimp _can_ be OK with shrimp but there's really no way to predict, so unless you have an alternate tank to move shrimp or angels to, I'd not chance it.

Nerite snails are decent algae eaters & can't multiply in freshwater BUT they can lay eggs, hundreds of eggs, stuck everywhere with SuperGlue  ... at least that was my experience with some cute zebra nerites, this time around I've some horned nerites (super cute!) & some red onion/tire track (or whatever names catches your fancy) nerites ... no eggs yet 

Various livebearers - guppies, endlers, sailfin molly, shortfin molly, swords, platy's etc will often pick away at various algaes - of course, they may also pick away at some fine leafed plants so hopefully you can find a shop that will allow you to trade unsuitable candidates back in  
(I've had chocolate gouramis suddenly decimate _M umbrosum_ thickets  - I watched them clip away leafs & stems, taste & spit & then take up the next leaf - & then go back to completely ignoring plants )

SAE - great algae crew as juveniles but grow too big for most tanks & not as keen on the maintenance as adults (unless you're feeding very sparsely)


An angel only tank - that is, a second tank for your angels 


What's your current livestock?


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## zozo (8 Mar 2016)

If you read the forum thorougly with an algae search query, you'll read enough treads that even the members with the very best references and background have algea in their tanks and sometimes even algea issues. So that spotless clean. maybe (more likely) is a not achievable goal and will every tank have algea to a certain degree. But than not on the plants so much that it shows with the naked eye. Even tho many tanks look spotless clean at first glans in a show picture. Even award winning aquascapers use liquid carbon for the algicidal properties or other products to achieve that clean look they long for.  Ofcourse i do not know, but wouln't be surpriced of the numbers of show tanks displayed on photos have undergone some kind of algicidal treatment before the photo shoot is rather higher than you might think.

There might be something more researh for you to do regarding your water chemistry or light schedule etc.. Specialy if you have recurring diatoms build up in a mature setup which likely indicates there might be something wrong. Rather find out what's wrong than do symptoms treatment only.. Did you for example ever test for silicates?? Could be in your tap water?? An excess of silicate in the water collum could be a cause of recurring diatoms.


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## xim (8 Mar 2016)

Yes at some point we should remove old leaves. And although they can ruin an aquascaping photo
but they generally don't look "dirty" if the tank is in good condition.

I think the problem in the OP's tank can't be corrected by just pruning old leaves.
Because it seems they become dirty before really getting old.
There is detritus everywhere that should have been removed by shrimp.

My Angelfish never ate Amano shrimp but always chased them away when they got too close.
The shrimp could never do their job effectively. It seemed both were afraid of each others .
I still miss my (funny) Angelfish.


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## zozo (8 Mar 2016)

xim said:


> My Angelfish never ate Amano shrimp but always chased them away when they got too close.
> The shrimp could never do their job effectively.



I see the same happening with always hungry barbs.. Free swimming shrimps get inspected as possible food and get chased but not eaten. I see all my shrimps most off the time at the left side of the tank which has the large wood and dense plantmass.. The free open swiming space at the right gets avoided, that's where the barbs always are. Some shrimps seem to be very smart and sneek over the bottom into the danger zone. There they are untouched.


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## MrHidley (8 Mar 2016)

Stronger flow and a clean up crew would be my suggestion. I use Otos, Amano shrimp and Ramshorns (which i find the most effective overall)


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## Aeropars (9 Mar 2016)

Thanks for the replies guys.


Mick.Dk said:


> 1/ We all discharge of old/unhealthy/ugly leaves, Aero (especially before photo*lol*) - partly because they're unsightly, but primarily because they do no good to neither plant or surroundings. They can even cause trouble.........
> All and every leaf have a "lifetime", different for different plants and depending highly on surrounding parametres - at old age, they weaken and get attacked by "decomposers".
> 
> 2/ I have (huge) angelfish, too (I breed them) - they've never eaten neither Oto's or Amano's (full grown).....they happily snack on Guppy and Red cherries, though.



I understand old leafs start to look rusty but in my case its very much different as pretty new groth is getting a light dusting of algae as you can see in my photos. It's interesting that your angels don't eat the shrimp. I might add one or 2 to see how they all get along.



Sudipto said:


> I have had good success against BBA by bumping up CO2 just a bit and increasing water flow considerably. Of course I reacted fast. Almost like as soon as I spotted the first traces of it.
> My four Otos in my two-footer take care of my diatoms.



The Ottos do a great job with the diatoms but on some fine leafed plants where they can't easily sit, the algae doesn't get touched.



alto said:


> SAE - great algae crew as juveniles but grow too big for most tanks & not as keen on the maintenance as adults (unless you're feeding very sparsely)
> 
> An angel only tank - that is, a second tank for your angels
> 
> What's your current livestock?



I was thinking about SAE's. I've kept them before and never had any BBA until they died so I know first had how good they can be.

My livestock is 6 Ottos, 5 silver danios, 5 tetras (i forget the name) and 2 angels.


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## Aeropars (9 Mar 2016)

I've done a small video to help show the issues.


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## PARAGUAY (9 Mar 2016)

this is from Richard at AE


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## PARAGUAY (9 Mar 2016)

Sorry very poor image but the importance of substrate clean  in a CO2 aquarium if not done is a recipe for algae is the part I found imformative


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## Sudipto (14 Mar 2016)

Aeropars said:


> I've done a small video to help show the issues.



Lack of flow is definitely not an issue here  I have no idea why such a lovely tank should have BBA. I hope you manage to get rid of them soon.


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## sciencefiction (6 May 2016)

I am a few months late but noticing a few issues in the tank... The flow in itself is not a problem but looking at the video, it is setup in a way blowing all the debris in the water column. I'd advise switching off the koralia for a couple of weeks. Also, put medium coarse sponge in the filter at whichever layer you can fit it but to fully cover at least layer of biomedia. If you can put more, put more, just make sure its medium or coarse sponge but not a fine one. This will help catch all the particles instead of them landing on the plants and it won't affect the flow.
 I don't know what the filtration is like in the tank but you need a second filter because looking at the pictures, there's definitely not enough filtration in the tank coping mechanically. If a filter can't cope mechanically, it surely doesn't cope biologically either. I'd use the extra filtration to compensate for flow rather than the powerhead. Once the tank and water column start looking crystal clear, the algae will go away too.
There could be other problems too. I see what looks to me like iron deficient plants. You can try some extra iron a bit more regularly for a week or two.


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## Halley (7 May 2016)

For me algae issues are nearly always about too much light.  Reduce the lighting intensity as much as you can and then slowly increase until you hit the sweet spot.  Make sure enough fertilisers for plants aswell.  The tank is nearly there just needs a bit of tweaking.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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