My 40 gallon aquarium has suffered an algae attack. Bright greens Long velvety flowy kind AND the rise from the bottom brownish green algae AND the form on the wall greenish brown slimy kind…
I used an aluminum welding rod and spun it like a cotton candy maker to remove huge blobs of algae from my tank…
I do KNF living soil…
Could i use this algae as fertilizer? soil ammendment?? top dressing???
Or would it continue to grow and choke out roots or maybe attract gnats… if i put it on a pan in the sun and dried it maybe???
Or do you think its too concetrated in nitrogen and might be “too hot” for the roots???
Live algae growing in soil is generally a bad thing because it reduces oxygen in the soil and subsequently increases the chance for mold and pathogens, however, making some FPJ with it is fine. Also aquarium water in general is great to water with.
When I was in high school, I raised freshwater tropicals for a local pet fish store. I had an algae eater, a plecostomus in my case, in each tank except my birthing tank.
I’d have one today to keep the algae at bay in our 150 gallon turtle tank, but we’re afraid she’d eat the fish. Fuckin’ turtle weighs 9.5+ lbs!
Stop feeding your fish for 3-5 days and turn all your lights off around the tank, only give it a couple hours of soft light a day. Your fish will do their job and the lack of light will kill off the excess. If needed, go to 7 days. If after that it hasn’t drastically cleared up, hit up amazon for an algae filter. They’re small filters that go in your tank and run water through a UV filter. It kills everyrhing in there, even bacteria, so be careful with its use if you’re feeding plants through the water (from experience, mine doesn’t go in any of my system water tanks )
I wouldn’t put algae like that near your plants. @resimax is right, it will compete with your plants for the nutes, and will choke your plant at the roots if it gets in there. Maybe if you dried it and ground it up, but even then, I don’t think the risk is worth the reward, just toss’r
Hope any of this helps. Like I tell my Mrs’ kids, I’ve messed up enough times, learn from what I’ve done and mess up in whole new and exciting ways, haha
They also sell pills to drop in the aquarium to kill the algae. But and it can’t be underlined more Quit FEEDING the fish so much. You are creating a toilet that will killl everything.
Ill post pictures today of pre clean and after…and again next week to see what happens.
While ive got your attention.
I wanted a more natural looking “pond” instead of clearwater aquariums at the stores.
My base layer is my knf soil, fluvial balls on top to hold the dirt down, teeny tiny river pebbels to hold down the fluvial. I figured replicating layers like actual nature would benefit the tank and filter. Everything was going fine for about 2 weeks untill my wife demanded i get some algae wafers to feed the plecos…2 days later ive got an algae problem
I swear its from the wafers, she swears its from my knf base layer…could be both…what do you think?
Sorry to say, algae wafers don’t cause algae, your wife has you on this one, lol
What you’re talking about is aquaculture… You can get some gorgeous setups with it, but I don’t know enough to be of a ton of help. I do know there’s Facebook groups with some very helpful people, I’m part a couple lol.
Honestly, you only need to drop in 4-5 wafers a week, max. As your system cycles (which reminds me, how long have you had it up? Has it had a chance to really cycle?) it’ll probably generate enough food for your fish without adding anything else.
My wife and i are gonna drain and sanitize and rebuild the entire tank next weekend…were gonna put em on a diet and see what happens…after that ill start doing %10 monthly changes
If you’re completely rebuilding, you’ll need to cycle again, for a bit at least. Your kmf base will help with the beneficial biological build up, but unless you let that build you’ll forever be chasing your tail with issues.
Check your tap water condition with your water changes too. I had all kinds of problems until I started treating the chloramine in my water properly.
On my display tanks, I usually do 5-10% weekly, then top up with tap water and condition. In my system tanks, when the plants are going, I can’t keep enough water in the tanks to do any sort of water change, I strictly refill, usually about 10-15%, lol… These are thirsty plants!
They weren’t all connected??? After 10, I think you should be running lines through the walls to drain/fill each tank, hahaha.
The easiest/quickest/best way I’ve found to a water change, get a garden hose. Unless your tank is on the ground, it’ll be higher than the closest tub/drain. Start a syphon from the tank through the hose, with your fingers - or whatever - mess with the rocks at the bottom of the tank and have your hose there ready to vacuum up whatever comes up. When you’re good, lift the hose up and connect it to the tap in the bathroom, refill. I used to work with buckets, gah, that sucked and my back can’t do it. I tried this once and laughed the entire time, it’s sooooo much easier.
G’luck man… And fire up some pics, so we know what we’re talking about here
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