Help black algae on all ornaments??

Question

Hi I have a fresh water aquarium that I replaced all the ornaments because all the black stuff would not come off no matter what I did!! I spent 250 dollars in new ornament stuff and withing two months all my fake plants and ornaments are covered with it again and it wont come off?? any suggestions ???

Answer 1

Keep it away from the window it's near. The most likely reason for dark algae but I would suggest getting some algae eaters and Algaefix drops. No bleach

Answer 2

A couple of chinese algae eater fish will do the job quite well if it is a relatively warm tank. If they are hard to find, a pleicostomus fish or two will also do the job.

Both species are pretty much left alone by other fish in the tank as they keep to themselves and don't bother anybody.

Answer 3

It sounds like you have some kind of an algae outbreak.  I'm not sure what kind of an algae outbreak as you don't give any more details than that it's black, but there are various things you can do for different types of algae.  If it's short, fuzzy tufts, it might be black beard algae.  I've had a lot of success killing this off with hydrogen peroxide treatments.  You don't need much and it won't hurt your fish.  Just add 1 teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide per 1 gallon of water to your tank.  It's best if you can spot treat the algae directly.  That is, measure out the amount of hydrogen peroxide, then use a syringe or an eyedropper or something and put it directly on the affected decorations.  The black beard algae should die off within a day or two.  Peroxide breaks down into its component elements in a couple of days, so you can re-treat every 3 days to prevent re-infestations.  As a side benefit, it'll help heal fish wounds and prevent bacterial infections and fin rot, too.  You might want to look up types of algae and see what type of algae you have if it's not black beard algae.

http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/algae/...

Answer 4

You can use plain unscented bleach to clean any aquarium implements.  Bleach is just a stronger form of the chlorine in drinking water.  Soak the implements in a strong bleach and water solution until all the algae is gone, rinse them well, and then soak them in a water and de-chlorinating solution for a while.  This won't hurt the fish, and is an easy and cheap way to clean off algae.