Im algeafied! what fish are good algae eaters?

[Mr.Jingles]

Im looking for something that wont eat my peppermint shrimp (or bug them) and can live peacefully with a jaw fish, some blue cleaner gobies, a firefish, and a clown fish.

I have green hair algae and some red stuff growing on my rocks and glass. the hair stuff is mostly on the glass, but it has worked its way to the rocks and has a foothold. the red stuff has isolated itself to one spot on the rocks. the aptasia dont seem to mind growing in the red stuff. the red stuff is like a filimentous film.

[ignite1402]

tangs! tangs are good algae eaters... are you placing your tank under direct sunlight? pehapse its good if u move it away!

[Anildo Matos]

Hi Mr. Jingles,


I think that besides introducing algae eaters to the tank, you should also atack the real cause of the problem, like fosphate and nitrate levels , quality and proper movement of the water etc.
The red stuff, probably slime algae, will hardly be finished by algae eaters. Once they stablished, the best you can do is not to give them the proper conditions to propagate even more.

regards,

[na1paj]

my Molly Miller Blenny eats algea like crazy! it's so fat now it's cute!

[EdKruzel]

Mr.Jingles,
Anildo is correct. You need to figure out why your nutrient level is high enough to sustain the algae growth.

The red stuff is most likely Cynobacteria. This stuff thrives in high phosphates.

Ensure you feed good quality foods and not just flake or brine shrimp.

Also choose the proper amounts for the fish you have. Too much will definitely cause excess nutrients in the water.

By your bio I would stay away from Tangs. You need a really large tank (6' +) to ensure their long time survival.

Look into clean up crews, Algae Blennies, or a Dwarf Angel.

Take Care,
Ed

[kungen]

Reduce nutrion in the water first..

Then snails are excellent algae eaters..

[ozadars]

Yes snails and hermits are good eaters also some even eat the cyanobacteria, as fish, you can buy a lawnmover blennie i think, they love algea also most blennies loves them

[Mr.Jingles]

yeah, the tank is a 30 gallon.

Im guessing my tap water is the cause of high nutrients, along with dead stuff from the rocks. the thing is, I only have tap readily available. so for the 4 weeks that the tank has been up, its been running tap water. I COULD get RO from the LFS, but I dont know if it costs anything. It would also be a pain cause I dont drive. I have a bunch of those tiny rolly-polly type amphipods in my gravel, so I think they will do a good job with using up nutrients in the gravel. I have a DSB of 3-6 inches. the majority is about 5 inches.
wont DSBs get rid of nitrates?

right now I only have the peppermint shrimp. Im not feeding anything. Im waiting for the shrimp to get rid of some aptasia first.

anyway...gtg.

[Anildo Matos]

Ohhh yeahhh,


Than your system is a brand new ? That's ok, I mean, algae always means that it is not ok at all, but most of the times it makes part of the natural process in a new enviroment, many things are taking place there right now.

For sure it is time to hire the clean up crew and keep on controling the water quality to void troubles in the future.


Good lucky,