Are you bothered about Algae inside your fish tank?

It said that fish keeping is a great hobby and there have been a lot of studies that proves this said hobby offers great health benefits to owners and even to those who are just viewing it for a short time. However, when you own an aquarium you have to do a lot of maintenance to keep your tank healthy. And one of the most irritating issues in fish keeping is when you see algae invading your tank. The buildup of algae inside the tank depends on the lighting condition in the room where the fish tank is set up.                                 

Algae help supply oxygen into the water and aids filtration as well so they are not really bad at all. What makes them annoying is that, as an aquarium keeper you always make sure the whole tank is clean, clear water and healthy fish. But too much algae will make your tank look green and dirty. Not only that, this event will affect your fish inside.

You can check out your pet supplies stores and see if they got a special algae scrubbing pad, this will help you take away the algae from the sides of your fish tank and decors inside. Friendly reminder: put away the thought of using any household scrubbing pad or sponge because these stuffs may contain chemicals that are harmful for your fish. For acrylic tank owners, make sure to use scrubbing pads made particularly for acrylic or else you will scratch your fish tank's surface. You will notice while you are scrubbing the algae from the walls of your tank that many of the algae will build up on the water and they will grow more and more as days go by. While doing the scrubbing, make sure your mechanical filter is working well and leave it running as is and you will realize most of the algae have been filtered out of the water after few hours. Grab this moment also to check your filter system and might as well change the pads.

Apparently, the most excellent way to take away the algae in your aquarium is to make it sure it doesn't accumulate in there in the first place. Algae crave for sunlight to build up, so if you will place your fish tank away from the windows where light peeks in or take your fish tank out of the sun will minimize the growth of algae in the tank.

But it is not good to hide your aquarium from the light all the time, especially for the planted aquariums since plants need sunlight to grow for them to add the supply of oxygen for the fish. You can set the lighting system of your tank to make sure there lesser light at daytime.

Feeding the fish is one of the most favorable moments you can have in fish keeping and there is a tendency for some people to over-feed their fish without thinking that this activity can somehow increase the growth of algae in the aquarium. The excess foods that were not eaten by fish will stay in the water for days and later on will provide essential nutrients that algae need to build up. It's not wise to over-feed your fish because it is also over killing them! The excess food will just make the water cloudy and it is not good for the fish.

Moreover, it not advisable to crowd your tank with fishes because the excess wastes will just provide the algae with nutrients they need to thrive in the tank. As an alternative of placing too many fishes in the tank, why not put many plants in it for this decreases the massive growth of algae. Furthermore, you can add some scavengers like crabs or snails these creatures will eat the excess food that has dropped at the bottom of the tank.

Is there a fish called an “algae eater"? Yes, there is! And it is called the Chinese Algae Eater and from the name itself, yes it eats algae. So worry no more and this fish will help you get rid of the algae. This fish is not among of the most favored fish for fish keepers, but it does its jobs amazingly! You will be surprised at the amount of the algae it can scrape off the tank. Try to experiment, put one inside your tank and when you rise up the next day you will think your neighbor had been in to your house and do the scrubbing of the algae on your tank. Funny huh? But this is true! But as this algae eater grows up it turns into a large fish and might end up dominating the whole tank so be careful.