My newly acquired 10 gallon tank has a really bright Aqua-Glo bulb that is made even brighter due to a metal reflector on the hood. As a result, I have been suffering from major green algae breakouts all over the tank. I've been scrubbing the tank walls a lot and all the fake and real plants need to be scubbed/rinsed too. So much algae all over my anarcharis that it's hindering its growth.
I used to have an otocinclus catfish which did an excellent job cleaning but both of them died due to poor health/starvation?! So I will no longer resort to buying algae eating catfish. =(
Here's some of the things I've tried to do in order to reduce the algae:
- Turn on the lights for only 8 hours instead of 12 hours. (Still too much light! O_O)
- Reduce feeding amount so there's less waste that algae can use to grow.
- More water changes to remove nitrates that algae needs to grow.
- Introduce Ghost Shrimp to eat algae (DOES NOT WORK, they don't eat algae)
I was considering getting some CHERRY SHRIMP but they are quite expensive and way too tiny. They will most likely just get sucked onto the filter intake tube. I DO however, have a sponge covering the intake tube so if I did choose to get them, the shrimp wouldn't enter the filter. Little red shrimp would disappear amongst the neon blue gravel though....
Neon blue wouldn't be my first color choice, but it's the only kind of gravel I've got at the moment. Besides, it looks nice as it matches my Betta's colors. However, the dye has been coming off, staining my filter pads blue. This is some cause for concern, but I'm hoping the carbon will take care of it??
I've almost been keeping fish for 4 months now. =)
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