I want to get a Siamese algea eater STAT!! any advice??

mags2313

In my 32 g I have black spots and black air all over my jungle val, and I have the spot on my brazil swords as well.. My b.f's 55g, he is getting brown spots all over his plants and rocks too.
We are worried about it getting out of control and we want to just add siamese algea eaters right away without the 2 week quaranting period that we usually wait in our qt tank.

any advice??

aunt kymmie

Better to risk losing the plants than the fish in your tank. I'd QT. When I've had that dreaded algae I trimmed off the most affected leaves and got rid of them and then addressed the issue of why I was seeing it. In my case it was an issue of the wrong combo of ferts/lack of ferts.
I'd still like to add a true siamensis but am having trouble finding one.

What type of lighting and how long do you leave them on? Are you dosing with ferts and/or root tabs? What type of substrate??

SinCrisis

i introduce fish to my tank without a quarantine period all the time, unless the fish looks sick. However black beard doesnt kill your plants quickly. Im pretty sure it kills by blocking out light. I had dwarf subutula covered in it for almost a year before introducing my Siamese Algae Eater and the plant was perfectly fine. Like, it looked like fuzzy tenticales. So im sure the 2 weeks will be fine for your plants. If your worried about the BBA getting too established, just trim off affected leaves. BBA can be slowed or even stopped by, as aunt kymmie said, proper ferts for your plants, and the increase in CO2 levels. From what ive heard, overdosing Flourish excel is a good option, just make sure your not overdoing it too much, ie make sure your fish arent behaving diffrently.

1077

Introducing fish to your tank without quarantine is risky buisness. You run the risk of infecting the whole tank if new fish are carrying a pathogen or bacterial disease . There are few who can identify fish suffering from bacterial infections which may or may not be present.

Tyyrlym

QT the fish. The algae won't hurt anything in the two weeks, a sick fish can kill every swimmer in your tank.

WisFish

My tank started getting BBA back in August. I had a planted tank but at that time I decided to dive into doing a planted tank right. I increased the lighing, added ferts and started using Excel. I also added a canister filter to increase water flow (and to eventually stop using an UGF). The BBA started to fall off all the plants and wood and I haven't seen it since. About a month later I bought 3 SAE. I have to be honest and say the CAE eat more algae than the SAE. (yes I'm positive I have true SAEs)
Now I get a small amount of green spot algae and hair algae that has to be removed about every 8 - 10 weeks. I can live with that.

But I agree that you need to check the balance of light intensity & duration, ferts, water current and water changes. That's where the real issue is.