Aquarium Algae FAQ 2

I have a 20 gal South American biotope tank. I was curious about snails. Do they do anything specifically that a catfish can't as far as scavenging and cleaning the tank?

We actually do not recommend buying animals to perform tasks in an aquarium, as they rarely do a good job of keeping things clean. Often the copious waste that algae eating fish and invertebrates produce can become as bad a mess as the algae they eat. Better to buy aquarium fish and animals because you like them or find them interesting.

Snails can be good algae eaters, but can also breed in such large quantities that they soon over-populate a tank. A couple of good suggestions for a S.A. biotope tank would be the Columbian Ramshorn as they do not breed as quickly as many, or the Apple snail, which lays its eggs out of the water where they are easy to spot and remove. However, in both cases, I would recommend getting only one, and be aware that the Apple snail grows very large.

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We're getting a brown algae build up on the bottom of the tank(on the rocks). We clean the tank and it's back in a matter of days. What can we do to prevent this?

Cut back on your lighting. The lights should be on about 8 to 10 hours a day.

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Would a UV sterilizer help control an algae bloom? Will chemicals like Algae Destroyer harm my Arowana or other fish?

UV sterilizers can be very effective in controlling algae blooms provided you get the correct size for your aquarium. You can look at the UV sterilizers in our online store for sizing charts and we also have an article on the subject.

Most algae control chemicals will not harm fish, but if a large water change is not done after the first treatment, the dead algae that results can decay and this creates toxic organics that can affect the health of fish. Never start an algae treatment unless you are prepared to do water changes in-between treatments.

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How do I get rid of air bubles in the tank?

There are as many reasons for air bubbles in the tank than stars in the sky. This is not nearly enough information.

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Why can't sea animals survive in freshwater, such as Lake Michigan? I'm trying to explain it to a 2nd grade class because we are talking about the difference in animals found in The Great Barrier Reef and Lake Michigan.

I'll try to keep this short, but it essentially has to do with the way marine and freshwater fishes each maintain their own interior salt levels. In the marine environment, the salinity (level of salt)outside the fish is greater than the salinity inside the fish. Because of osmosis, these fishes continually lose water from their tissues to the environment. Therefore, they are constantly drinking salt water and filtering out the salt extremely efficiently, thus maintaining osmotic balance with the environment. I'm not sure how you are going to explain this to 2nd graders, but freshwater fish have an even harder time of it. For them, they have more salt inside them than in the water they swim in. Therefore, because of osmosis, they continually lose salt to the environment--or, they would if they could not prevent it somehow. They do this by NOT drinking water constantly and being very efficient retainers of their own salt. In light of the relative metabolic ease the first (marine) strategy presents versus the second (freshwater) one, a better question may be this: why are there not freshwater animals which can survive in the marine environment? There are! In fact, many estuarine species thrive in water that is at least a little salty, and can even be acclimated to a pure marine environment. This of course makes sense given their lifestyle. Truth be told, there are some marine animals that can survive in freshwater. They tend to be elasmobranchs (cartilaginous fishes, like sharks, skates, and rays), since they exhibit a primitive (but less specialized and, in this case, more effective than their bony cousins) mechanism for osmotic regulation.

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How do you know if a fish is male or female. Because I went to Wal-Mart and bought a BETTA. The container said it was male but I don't think so. Because now he is fat,like if he was pregneant. Can you help me?

Females have almost no color, very small fins, and are rarely offered for sale.

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I have a 150 gal. reef tank with some soft corals and live rock. I am seeing some red slime on my live rock.I do regular water changes using RO water. Any ideas?

Red slime algae is usually a sign of high phosphates and/or nitrates. We would recommend you get a phosphate test kit and check that. If it turns out to be the problem, you should consider investing in a reverse osmosis system to make water for water changes.

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I have a 72gal reef. It is well established, with 0 nitrates and phosphates. I am unable to eliminate matting green algae that is suffocating some corals. I have different snails, hermits, yellow tang, eyelash blennies, efficient protein skimming. Cannot beat the algae. Any ideas?

Sounds like a species of Bryopsis algae. They produce chemical defenses which can be toxic to many marine animals. Therefore, herbivorous animals that naturally eat algae will often avoid this alga species. Many Sea Slugs of the Elysia sp. feed specifically on Bryopsis, so you may want to try thm. They are sometimes sold as Lettuce Nudibranchs. Keep in mind though that once they eat all the algae, they will die as they are very specific in their diet.

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I have a 55G reef tank with prizm skimmer, 2 Rio pwr heads, custom sea life PC w/moonlight, 45lbs live rock, only 5lbs live sand (slowly adding more) plenty of snails and crabs. I am looking into a wet/dry and would like to know what you recommend? I am having algea and parsite problems! will a wet/dry help these problems?

I would not reccommend a wet/dry, but a sump and strong pump would help your system. Any type of sump is fine, given it is a good size for the aquarium (roughly 25% of the tank volume, or around 18 gallons in your case), and includes a safe and reliable overflow device for surface skimming. Your algae and parasite difficulties are too vaguely described to diagnose with any confidence, but I suspect there may be insufficient water movement within the aquarium, which could be provided with three to six small powerheads, either on a wavemaker or not (everyone's preference is different). In addition, if there are stagnant areas within the live sand, this could cause similar problems, and may be alleviated by the use of sand sifting organisms, such as various jawfish and gobies, sand sifting stars, and even more reef hermit crabs and snails (at least 2 per gallon of each, or over 100 of each! It's worth it.)

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I have a two gallon tank and was told the only thing I could raise in it was a beta. Is this true, and if not, how many fish can I keep? What would you reccomend as a good, colorful combination?

Frankly, in such a small aquarium, one or two fish is the maximum. A betta is a splendidly colorful fish, but it must be housed alone. If you'd like a different fish, a zebra danio or a white cloud minnow would provide a different look.

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Frequent Aquarium Questions