Bettas

I have an outbreak of black brush algae for some reason in my trops tank. Its a pain, and impossible to get rid of. I have just had to throw away 2 plants because it was covered with the damn stuff!

Reading online, apparently it can be treated with copper (no thanks) or bettas will eat it.

So, can I get a couple of female Bettas? - I have BN's, cherry barbs, harlies, emerald eye rasboras, panda corys. I dont think there will be any porobs with them but just want to check.

You can have bettas in your tank with no problem in terms of other fish compatability - but thery wont touch the algae - betta are predatory insectivores - they eat small bugs (mozzie larvae that sort of thing)

I know exactly the brown black stuff you mean - its a dog yo get rid if and you wont be able to do away with it in any kind of huury - its a lonfg war on this stuff.

You could and should reduce the lighting levels - perhaps seriously consider getting some rowaphos or something similar to remove phospahte from the tap water - I have high phosphate levels in mine and algae loves it - but i have now gotten a system whereby I dont need rowaphos anymore (its expensive stuff) - Im assuming you insist on keeping your realplants so your always going to be a a catch 22 situation.

Id say romve plants that are caked inthe fluff (as youve done) also get some fast growing plants - treat them as a temproy fixture - onion plants I belive are good for this - but you need to out compete the algae

Withthe phosphate thing in mind - unless you use RO water - cut down a bit on the water changing - if your frequently changing water - your also topping up the food for the pest - when I had to do a lot of water changes in the past in any tanbk - the end result has always been a massive outbreak of algae.

Ottos eat algae - so do most livebearers - expecting a betta to eat it is like trying to buy a vegetarian pirahna - it aint gonna happen.

The Aquakat liquid i use DOES work and its 100% naturaql non chemical solution - a tad expensive but it really does work - dopnt buy it from LFS - they rip you off - buy diorect from manufacterer - the delivery time is usually very very prompt

web link to the stuff you want is

http://www.aquakat.co.uk/products.php?item=3

Thats strange Rich because two sites I have read on mention Bettas as liking this stuff - as well as shrimps. It only started when I began to give the plants some fertilizer - Seachem Flourish, amount accordint to tank size and water change.

I can only guess that it upset the nutriend balance within the tank and allowed the algae to take hold.

As for the plants - I am seriously thingking of going back to fake. The plants I have loook very weedy anyway thanks to the BN's constantly uprooting them, and now with the leaves being covered in a fur coat iit's just not looking great.

I have no strong feeling about live/fake tbh, although do like the way real plants move in the water flow, other than that I am not a purist in any sense of the word.. Funnily enough, when I had fake plants I used to get the Cherry barbs breeding, but since I changed to real plants they have never managed to raise a brood at all!

I might do a bit of a look round and see if I can get any decent loooking plastic plants - silk are no good because the BN's peel the top layer off!

i know mollies like algie if this helps ?

I dont want livebearers though - fussy aren't I

lol then shrimps i cant think of any other algie eating fish i vae some ramhorn snails coming but no idea if these are anyhelp mate i got a shed load of them too

One female Betta would be fine as I have a single one in my 90L community tank and she's very peaceful. I didn't know about eating the BBA thing - maybe that's why I've never seen any...

if youve added ferts - then actually id think its best to continue as normal and dont do anything different ie with lights - we all know algae is oppourtunist - it will take time for the plants fo rcatch up (and they will)

I found witht he stuff you have growing that the easiest way to remove it id to use an old toothbrush and do a spaghetti twirl thing to gather as much as possible before ripping it off - as you know, it comes off relatively easily - make a daily chore of it and soon it wont grow - algae hates being bullied

Aslo - try to make sure your filtration ios as good as it can be - so that any stray bits gte removed before it gets a chance to settle and grow more

Now you know why (partly) I gave up on real plants

You know about the flourish excel overdose trick of course (the carbon feed one) - that worls but gets expensive - the stuff I linked too will work and it wont upset any balances with the plants etc - no need for copper -ime - it doesnt work too well for long anyway

Just cos two sites say bettas eat it - doesnt mean they are correct that aside - female bettas are great little characters - but always watch out for illnesses - mine seemed very prone to dropsy - i cured them a few times but eventually lost the fight (after three times) maybe bad luck on my part but be warned

my word sounds like you have a real problem diana sorry i can't help never had any probs with algae - but like rich i have fake plants i only ever get a small amount on front panel
of tank and my weekly water change gets rid of that - hope you sort it soon.



dekker

After reading your thread Diana, I checked my tanks today and it appears that I also have BBA on the "faux foliage" in the goldfish tank...

I checked over my tank diary (my paper one not the one here) whilst having females bettas - I too suffered the BBA and they didnt eat it

Least with the fake foliage - you cant do it any harm by boiling, scrubbing it and generally being nasty but as I think I said, when I had real plants, my amazon sword plants suffered most from, BBA - also - in terms of fakes - ive stopped using the ones with really fine almost brush like 'leaves' as these not only trap the most food etc - by also ggorw the most algae (and are very hard to clean) something to think about when shopping for fakes

Hi gang, got a couple of days off so thought I would come and spend some time with you reprobates

Reading through, I am surprised that adding the right anount of ferts would cause bad algae! Thats really bad when you think of it - you either let your planst die a slow deaath from malnutrition, or have some hairy algae beast take over the tank

Is there any value in feeding less than the recommended amount - surely that degeats the whole object?

betterto get some than none at all - my idea being to allow the system to adapt gradually overtime - we all know nothing in a fish tank does (or even should) change rapidly

Had an unteresting convo with my KLFS bloke - he was showing me a new two part tank cycle product tgat claims to do a fresh tank in 12 hours and a marine in 24-36 and thats from totally brand new kit and no donar media - as kuck would have it - a microbiologist was inthe shop as well and he checked the bottles over - he said its possible to work with the ingredients - but is it the right thing to do? could it lead to rapid systrem crash in the near future for blast startiung a styem?

Basically he said - the old ways are the best (prawns or peeing) and that if your in a hurry, your in the worng hobby (ie in fishkeeping)