# Algae in Water features



## bricespice (Jan 4, 2010)

I have a waterfall lined with aquarium pebbles and the pebbles are coated with a dark green slime algae. However, I don't have this problem anywhere else (in the pool of water).

What would be safe to debride this?

I do not have any fish in the water pool.


----------



## markpulawski (Nov 19, 2004)

I feel fairly safe in saying the majority of this board has no idea what debride means, so for us dummy's...
Debride: To remove dead, contaminated or adherent tissue or foreign material
Manually cleaning by hand would be your best bet but algae is usually caused by nutrients or "algae food" in the water, for it to be on pebbles in the flow and not in the pool is a bit unsual and likely it will continue to come back unless the nutrients are removed, is this a pump that recirculates tank water, which i assume it is or is it filtered during the process as well?
Here in Florida aquarium algae is rampant unless RO water is used in tanks, you could try switching to that but your spraying and frog waste may likely put you back in the same boat. Do you want to remove it just for the aesthetics?


----------



## Quaz (Nov 13, 2005)

For the tanks that I have waterfalls I just brush the waterfalls and flip the rocks when the get covered. when you flip them it gives time for the down side algae to die and you have a fresh side exposed. Also, I noticed that one tank that has a lot of foliage shading the waterfall and stream doesn't get algea bc of the shade. Just keep a tooth brush near the tank to manually debride the algae. Also a water change will help but you'll have endless flies and poop to feed the algae but the plant roots will help filter the water. 

Best


----------



## habubak (Jun 7, 2008)

Don't mess with it - it is part of your terrarium's bio-filter. At this stage of grow-in, anyways.

I noticed algae in my water features (before I got tired of fixing the durned pumps all the time!) early in the tank's setup or after a "disturbance."

I also noticed that as the tank "grew in," the algae declined. I attribute this to shading (as one of the previous responders noted) and possibly equally responsible to my terrestrial plants finally getting their roots into the water below the false-bottom. Those roots took up (some) of the nutrients that were keeping the algae happy.

It sounds like you are describing blue-green algae, but I could be wrong. Does it come off in "sheets" or is it tiny little green spots? If the former, you're in luck - blue-green algae is not actually an algae at all and can be killed with some of the aquarium antibiotics for fish. Not gonna speak about the safety of those meds in with your frogs though, I'd hesitate and research long and hard. If the latter (tiny green spots), well, you're in trouble. Don't mess with them - the tiny green spot is actually one stage in the organism's lifecycle. If you scrape it off/abrade/debride it, you just "reset" its biological clock... it will re-attach and re-set and re-grow, and you're back to square one. Takes it about 2-weeks to go through its sedentary phase, you'll notice it start to turn jungle-green and then to brown, then it can be scraped off.... Basically, green spot algae is best left to just run its course, and try to correct any of the factors that are favoring its growth.

To take up excess nutrients, you can try duckweed in the pond (which you will then have forever... not a bad thing, its good in tadpole containers IMHO). 

To shade the water fall without hiding it, you could mount a couple of Anubias (A.nana stays small and compact and even blooms once it establishes). Beware - they're slow-growing. Java fern is an option too, I've had it go crazy in my tanks! It can get too big.

Cheers,
Steve


----------



## angry gary (Dec 9, 2009)

if it truly slime algae then my guess would be too much phosphates in your water.


----------



## Mitch (Jun 18, 2010)

I'd just let it be and let the tank run it's course. If its still there after a month of so then there may be too much nutrients in the water. Have you tried using a floating plant in the water feature? They look nice and out compete the algae for nutrients, causing the algae to die off. Duck weed and mini water lettuce are two good options, but duckweed grows REALLY fast and could be hard to get rid of once introduced. There are a bunch of others, you can check this site out to look/purchase some.


----------



## leuc11 (Nov 1, 2010)

Personaly I sometimes like the look of algae on a waterfall it adds a nice look in my opinion and it does act as a biological filter it will catch any debree coming down thats what it does in the wild. if it gets out of controll take some out but definitly keep it for filtration


----------



## Ed (Sep 19, 2004)

I always get nervous about cyanobateria in freshwater enclosures as a number of species of freshwater cyanobacteria also produce toxins.. and there are reports of amphibian deaths in the literature (see Reviews of Environmental ... - Google Books) and in relation to fish keeping (See Ecology of the planted aquaria, Echinodorus Press). 
I'm not saying you will have a problem, just that I get nervous. 

Ed


----------



## berrymilan (Aug 16, 2010)

If you dont have any fish in the pool there is no need to worry but you have to repair it as soon as possible because instead of waiting for the big problem its better to fix it now.


----------



## bricespice (Jan 4, 2010)

My main reason for focus on this is because it is drastically slowing down the water flow and water is close to being stagnent. I have been using my hand mister dialed to the straight flow to "spray it off" and I also have been using qtips.
I can't "flip" the rocks over because they are siliconed in.


----------



## Quaz (Nov 13, 2005)

I personally wouldn't worry about the toxicity of cyano. I've had it in nearly all tanks with a waterfall. If it's dinoflagulates or however you spell that then that might be a concern but I don't think it is. 

from your last post it sounds like you might improve the condition a lot by increasing the water flow. I've often resolved cyano in aquariums by uping the flow/oxygen. It will also help wash of debris. I think heavier water flow on waterfalls looks better too.


----------

