Facing the problem of algae in aquarium is commonplace and became one of the main routines that must be considered for freshwater aquarium enthusiasts. Things that should to know, algae are a perfectly normal part of nature, flora and even the freshwater aquarium.

Their incidence is very common, because the spores of algae is transferred only to plants, but their spores are even carries the air. Can be ascertained, algae are always present in every aquarium, but it depends on their quantity.

Interestingly, for some people see the aquarium without plants which strongly overgrown with algae is look very natural and nice. The problem occurs when we have a nice aquarium plants and algae is ugly scar, but also in some cases completely choked the plants. Nice aquarium plant and algae can not be paired together. I hope that those who decided to algae in their aquarium turn, this article will help in heavy fighting.

Basic types of algae commonly occurring in aquarium:

1. Red algae - Brush algae
Appearance: Creating clusters decorating the edges and aquarium plants. Overgrowth creates a powerful thick carpets.
Specifics:

• very difficult to remove mechanically,
• fish and snails do not eat near it (except Crossocheilus siamensis)
• not affected by the intensity of illumination
• the main cause of high levels of phosphates and other nutrients (nitrates, nitrites, ...), usually caused by overfeeding fish.

2. Green algae - Chlorophyta
Appearance: the most frequently occur as filamentous algae or sessile horizontally.
Specifics:

• one of the main causes is too much intensity, or duration of illumination
• algae eaters tastes of all kinds about the most.

3. Brown algae - Diatoms
Appearance: brown, dry to the touch like a gritty coating on the walls of the aquarium, equipment and plants. Looks a bit like water established in the brown stone design.

• occurs particularly in the absence of light,
• the plant is virtually impossible to mechanically remove the walls of the aquarium enough sponge for washing dishes, even though it is hard work
• can be destroyed by the snails and fish (sucker that can remove it and eat).

4. Blue-green algae - Cyanobacteria
Appearance: glaucoma, or a thick greasy coating on the plants and aquarium equipment, which smells a bit.
Specifics:

• often occur in newly established aquaria, where they have not developed biological balance
• directly love excess lighting
• can be toxic to fish, although they usually taste,
• this algae can in the short term due choke plants,
• it hate the flow of water.

Beware to the most common causes of aquarium algae problem below:

• inadequate intensity or duration of illumination.
• a strong flow of water in the aquarium
• too high content of phosphates and other nutrients in water

How to get rid of them?
If the aquarium algae overgrove to unacceptable levels, the incidence can be significantly reduced if they cease to create suitable conditions for life, unless, remove the causes of their occurrence. The basic steps you can do...

1. frequent water exchange (weekly change of 25 to 30% water),
2. reduce the benefits of feeding,
3. reduce the flow of water (except for cyanobacteria),
4. according to the type of algae to adjust the intensity and duration of lighting,
5. if it is possible, mechanically removing the algae continuously (by hand from plants, magnetic scraper or razor blade from glass)
6. put into an aquarium snail (preferably Planorbis) and fish-eating algae (Crossocheilus siamensis, Xiphophorus helleri, ....),
7. planted into the aquarium as many fast growing plants with high consumption of nutrients,
8. do not use fertilizers containing phosphates and nitrates. If possible, use the exchange of water with low concentrations of nitrogen compounds and phosphates.

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Eradication of algae problem in aquarium could be accomplished simply by periodically scraping the sides of the aquarium or scrubbing the rocks. For those with plastic plants and a entirely white gravel bed, the scenario could be far more tasking as it would be important to bleach the rocks to remove all traces of algae.

Yet, if you do this, do make certain that you rinse the gravel thoroughly afterwards. Bleach is extremely toxic, and even smaller amounts can have a drastic effect on the aquarium fish.

Given that the primary trigger of green algae is too significantly light. The first step in the treatment schedule should be light reduction then partial water changes and an adequate stocking with natural aquarium plants. A final treatment with an algae remedy ought to guarantee that the problem is eradicated and is at least kept at bay for some time.


One of the factors mentioned above is the use of natural aquatic plants as a means of algae control. This is actually far more efficient than numerous people feel.

For a start off, luxuriant plant growth will filter out some of the light keeping algae in check. In addition plants absorb a substantial range of chemicals from the water, thereby starving algae of some of their crucial nutrients e.g. nitrates (not nitrites).

Surprising as although it could seem, an adequate plant stocking level is approximately 50 modest plants per square root of out there space. The treatment I mentioned is the use of an algaecide. I ought to stress the word "use:" it is very various to "abuse"!

However in spite of this distinction, I know that some men and women will still persist in pouring the chemical remedy into their aquarium and anticipate the problem to disappear overnight, even although they have accomplished definitely nothing to alter the conditions in the tank that brought about the predicament in the 1st location.

The conditions I stated above have to be adhering to for any lasting effect to happen! Now that we know how to curb the menace of the green algae, in another write-up I shall discuss it is ugly "sister" brown algae (the brown encrusting algae whose case is the reverse of green algae).

Algae Prevention Video for First Aquarists

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This is a note by Tony Griffitts that will be helpful for those who want to know about lighting types for freshwater aquarium and what things that needs to be considered when selecting a new lighting system for your freshwater aquarium plants.

There has been a revolution in aquarium lighting in the last couple of decades that the marine side of the aquarium hobby has been quick to embrace, but the freshwater side appears to be lagging behind. Perhaps it is because of the misunderstanding, misconception, or just plain old bad information floating around on the freshwater side of the hobby that is making it slow to embrace modern aquarium lighting systems.

The aftermarket of aquarium lighting systems that reef hobbyist have embraced for years have proved to be very beneficial for coral and marine fish. These lighting systems can also provide the same health benefits for freshwater aquariums. These bright modern lighting systems can be found in many types and configurations. The most common aftermarket lighting systems today are Compact Fluorescent, T5 High Output (T5 HO) Fluorescent, HQI Metal Halide (double ended), HID Metal Halide (socketed end), and LED (Light Emitting Diode).

Bright light over a freshwater has health benefits for the inhabitants. Bright light stimulate plants and algae to take up harmful nutrients and produce oxygen. Ammonium and Nitrate are well know plant fertilizers that are constantly being produced in the aquarium. A bright light over a well planted aquarium will help take up the nutrients as they are being created. The benefit is very little to no Nitrate accumulation in the tank. Since Nitrate will lower the pH as it accumulates in the system, a brightly lit aquarium will normally have a much more stable pH. Excessive amounts of Nitrate are linked to Hole in the Head disease (HITH) in large freshwater cichlids and Head and Lateral Line Disease (HLLE) in many marine fish.

Keeping Nitrate under control is very important in maintaining a healthy aquarium eco-system. If you have any Nitrate accumulation in the system over the course of a month or two, your tank is out of balance. Most freshwater aquarium plants hobbyist do a regular water change on their tank (that helps reduce the amount of Nitrate that is accumulating) without understating the reason why they are necessary. The number one health benefit from water changes is the reduction of Nitrate on a system that is out of balance. Adding a bright light over a tank with fast growing aquatic plants can have a significant impact on reducing Nitrate accumulation in the aquarium.

For freshwater hobbyist with large cichlids such as Oscars that like to redecorate, and fish that like to eat plants, keeping plants in a brightly lit aquarium would not be practical, but you can still achieve the benefit by circulating the water through a refugium. Refugiums are very popular in the reef side of the hobby. A refugium is a separate tank with a bright light that is set up with algae (in the case of the reef hobby) or with fast growing plants (in the case of the freshwater hobby). Refugiums are set up much like a trickle filter (a.k.a. Wet/Dry filter) normally located underneath the main display tank.

Water is brought to the refugium by either a hang on the back overflow system or by a built in overflow system in the aquarium. A small sump pump is placed in the refugium to return water to the main display. You do not need to cycle water very quickly through the refugium to achieve the benefit of Natural Nitrate Reduction (NNR). The refugium can also be used to house freshwater shrimp that help control algae, or other small freshwater fish that would be eaten if they were placed in the main display.

Freshwater aquarium hobbyists often worry about adding bright light over their aquarium will cause an excessive algae outbreak. Algae is a natural part of the aquarium. Excessive algae growth is not caused by bright light; it is caused by excessive nutrients. Algae growth will often be excessive in the beginning, until the plants have established themselves, and then start out competing the algae for nutrients. It is always best to start off with fast growing plants or add fast growing plants when the aquarium has an algae problem.

Indeed, Green water algae bloom will sometimes occur on aquariums with bright lighting systems. In some cases the algae bloom may go away on it’s own after a month, but in some cases, the nutrients the algae may be thriving on may be coming from your tap water. The addition of a small Ultraviolet Sterilizer to the filtration system will eliminate any green water. Once the bright light system is well established with plants the algae will no longer be a problem.

Many freshwater aquarists with brightly lit planted tanks will confess that they rarely have to clean algae off the tank walls. This is a fact, when the nutrient level is low, there is very little if any algae growth. In many cases, you may find that the addition of aquatic plant fertilizers may be necessary to keep your plants growing well.

Bright light also helps enrich the color of the fish. Bright light helps darken the pigments of many fish, making them stand out. Discus hobbyist; don't buy into the myth that discus don't like brightly lit tanks. They may need a few days to acclimate to the brighter light, but in time they will settle down, their colors will start to become even brighter, they will grow quicker, they will spawn, and their water quality will improve.

The addition of a CO2 (carbon dioxide) system will speed up the rate at which plants will take up nutrients, and their rate of growth - see Light CO2 and Aquarium Plants. While CO2 systems are not necessary on a brightly lit system, they can help speed up the uptake of nutrients in a system that is out of balance.

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Hygrophila polysperma is an ideal freshwater aquarium plants for beginners and help with algae problem in aquarium. Commonly known as Dwarf Hygrophila, Dwarf Hygro, Miramar weed or Indian waterweed, Hygrophila polysperma is an aquatic plant in the acanthus family. It is native to India and Malaysia, and has also been introduced to the US states of Florida, Texas and possibly Virginia.

The Dwarf Hygrophila is a really popular plant among aquascapers. Its not slow growing aquarium plants such as Staurogyne Porto Velho. It is extremely fast growing with good light and CO2 injection. Therefore Hygrophila polysperma needs to be pruned regularly to maintain its health. The growth of this species is often so rapid that a trim of some sort is required within two or three weeks of the last pruning. It reproduces from both cuttings and side shoots. The cuttings can even be as small as a single leaf in nutrient-rich environments.

Scientific name: Hygrophila polysperma
Common terms: Dwarf hygrophila, East Indian hygrophila, Indian swampweed, Indian waterweed, Miramar weed, hygro
Family: Acanthaceae
Genus: Hygrophila
Location: India, Bhutan, Malaysia
Hardiness: Very Easy
Lighting required: Moderate to High (I have had mine with success from between 1.5-3.7 WPG)
Temperature: 20-30C
Water chemistry requirements (pH, hardness): Can be kept under various conditions
Growth Rate: Very fast
Plant Structure: Stem
Size: Individual stem width: 8 - 15cm (3 - 6in)

Hygrophila polysperma also listed on the Federal Noxious Weed List in the US and is illegal to import and sell in a number of states including Kansas and South Carolina. If you're looking for aquarium plants that will add a thick bushy garden look to your tank the Indian waterweed is the plant for you. It's really easy to grow and it will multiply just by putting the clippings back into the gravel, even a free floating leaf of this plant will make an entire new plant!

It has proven to be a true survivor - Hygrophila polysperma survived and thrived for 6 weeks without adaquate light, filtration, CO2, or fertilization. A truly difficult aquarium plants to kill, and a lovely addition to the planted aquarium.

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Beard algae was a class of Red Algae, shaped like a beard with a length of yarn to 15 cm, and the little blackish green branches. Beard Algae very strongly embedded in the leaf and could hardly be removed without causing damage to the plants leaf. Their presences in the water plants aquarium are usually derived from the new plant.

This algae type usually attached to the plants that were growing and close to the source of light. The favored conditions by this algae type is aquarium water with high hardness, low CO2 levels, and high pH. The high nitrate levels are also a trigger of growth. If the algae growth was bad, then they will damage the leaves concerned.

Cleaning the algae forcibly will cause damage to the leaf because they attached itself firmly to the leaves. Thus, the infected leaves should be cut and allowed the new sprout. To prevent new leaves infected by the algae, could be by put the Siamese Algae Eater fish or algae shrimp into the aquarium to clean the algae which new grown. The addition of a dose of carbon dioxide (CO2) can suppress the algae growth because Beard algae can not grow well in the aquarium with an adequate CO2 supply.

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Ramshorn snails (Planorbidae) is a kind of aquarium algae eater which feed on most types of Algae, as well as any dieing or decaying waste in the tank. As an algae snails, they will not eat live plants or damage live plants; however they do make very short order of any wilting leaves in a tank.

The aquarium experts found that ramshorn will even remove Cyanobacteria (Blue green algae) from a tank. The effect is not only one of regulating the organics that may contribute to Cyanobacteria, but the snails attack and eat the bio-film which makes up the base of blue green algae.

A few of these algae snails can strip a pretty large plant of all algae or Cyaonobacteria overnight. Red Ramshorn snail are also said to eat Hydra. They are considered to be the best available cure for aquarium hydra on the market. Better to have not personally tried them for this particular issue, but given their other merits and their seemingly unconditional appetite for anything nasty in a tank, no doubts they would be worth a try if you had an issue with hydra.

Aside from food Ramshorn snails have very few requirements. They do breathe air, and need to travel to the top on occasion, but from some resources it is not often that they need to do so. They have a very large pulmonary chamber inside the shell which allows them to store a lot of air. They are a true aquatic snails but do not have gills.


To control snails population in your aquarium you may should keep reading on these below. If there is abundant food and calcium to promote growth, then the Ramshorn snails like most scavengers will reproduce at a rate relative to the available food in a tank. If you have a lot of waste and a lot of Algae, then you will have a lot of snails. However, if you limit waste, feeding your aquarium fish conservatively and do not promote algae growth, then the population of Ramshorn snails and other algae snails will remain smaller.

If the Ramshorn snail population explodes, first you need to clean the tank for the snail control and then you can reduce the population by removing the smaller snails while leaving the largest ones in order to keep control the algae growth in aquariums. Since the larger Ramshorn snails eat more, there will be less available food per snail and less of a tendency to reproduce as long as the tank stays clean.

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Blue Green Algae grows from the aquarium sand and identified by its shape which resembles the skin coat the leaves, stone, wood and the aquarium sand. The growth of these greenish blue colored algae was indicating that the levels of nitrate and phosphate in the aquarium water were very high. This algae type is in addition to look dirty, also issued a stinging odor when removed from water. If the aquarium is large and the Blue algae was rampant, imaginable how the room smell when the blue algae removal was being done.

Blue algae included in the dangerous group of algae, together with the type of Red algae because these two types of freshwater algae were so difficult to clean, and sometimes because it is so difficult with very compelled the aquarium plants must be removed too due to infection of this algae.

The kind of algae eater fish is not effective for this type of algae. The fish do not appetizing with it because the bitter taste of algae. However, the types of algae snails such as Ramshorn snails could eat these algae type, but the Blue algae growth faster than the amount consumed. Darkening the aquarium for 4-6 days and water replacement in several times could make the Blue algae lost. Anti algae (if used) would be more effective if accompanied by darkening the aquarium for 48 hours. The Blue green algae do not like the water with pH levels below 6.

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Filamentous Algae problems in the live plants aquarium was easily recognizable through the threads or the light green hair. This is a kind of green algae which easy to clean. You do this by lifting directly with hand or strapped it in a small timber, and then withdrawn.

Although this algae type are harmless but the existence of Filamentous Algae in the aquarium can not be tolerated. The reason is the Filamentous Algae will compete with other plants to obtain nutrients and will greatly disturb the plant growth and the appearance of your freshwater aquarium plants.

The Filamentous algae usually formed due to several causes, such as the residual feed, rarely water replacement, or because of the light exposure in the aquarium was too strong. The algae problems can be minimized if we adding a kind of algae eaters shrimp from the beginning to eat young algae which new grow. The algae eater shrimp species usually did not eat green algae that were old.

Another way to handling Filamentous Algae are by reducing the dose of fish feed, reducing the time of aquarium lighting and frequently do water replacement. If we do not reducing the time flame of aquarium lamp or the strength of the aquarium lighting, the algae will quickly grow again in the new water.

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One thing that most annoying and often make frustrating on aquarium plants care is the algae problems. Algae usually appears in the aquarium so we put plants or fish. The large majority of aquarists have found themselves confronted with undesirable levels of algae that are sometimes difficult to combat. Generally speaking, it is better to avoid excess growth in the first place than to have to try to fight it – often with varying degrees of success.

Algae overgrowth can be recognized by its greenish or yellow-brown color, while whitish or gray filamentous masses, made up of bacteria and fungi, may also bi mixed in with algae. This type of growth can form quite thick layers on the glass panes, the bed, and the décor, appearing as filamentous tufts or even completely covering other green algae.

While a modest presence of algae can be considered a sign of equilibrium, this overgrowth is evidence of a degree of imbalance, and so algae are often referred o as biological indicators. We must be careful, however, as every live aquarium is a special case, and applying a generalization to a specific situation could ultimately lead to the wrong conclusions.

Apart from being an eyesore, excess algae grow on the panes, reducing the visibility. They attach themselves to plants and proliferate, with the subsequent risk of suffocating their hosts, as the plants are prevented from exchanging gases and absorbing the salts in the water. Finally, they incrust themselves on the slightest details in the décor, which does nothing to enhance the visual effect.

But, algae also give their advantages. These are substantial. Algae consume nitrogenous substances, particularly nitrates, and sometimes ammonia. This is the normal role of plants in fresh water, and algae can therefore complement this action or, on the contrary, exert an antagonistic effect by diverting nutritious salts away from the plants. The vegetation is less abundant in marine tanks, and so algae – particularly the filamentous green ones – can play an important role.

Algae can also be grazed or ground by some fish. In fresh water, this applies to the Poeciliids and the species known as “suckers” or “washers” (Gyrinocbeilus, Ancistrus, Hypostomus, Pnaque, Otoclinchus, Epalzeorbynchus). In sea water, algae from part of the diet of fish families, such as the Chaetontids, Centropyges, and Acanthurids; their presence in an aquarium can help these fish acclimatize themselves to the artificial environment of the domestic aquarium.

Basically, algae is a type of aquatic plants are most easily and rapidly growing in the aquarium, especially in the new aquarium setup. The algae problems of course can be frustrating for those who have just started the "aquascaping aquarium" hobby.

Every aquarium must have algae problem and almost impossible an aquarium 100% avoid algae or moss. So thin difference between the mossy aquarium with an aquarium that have not algae, just like a hair. If algae have not seen, it just waiting to the suitable conditions for life and then it will multiply rapidly. Some types of algae can even be twice as much in two hours. Because until today there is no way to prevent the entry of algae into the tank, then that we can do is controlling and suppress the growth of algae to a minimum.

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