I am having problems fighting black beard algae in my cichlid tank. I know how to control it in my planted tanks, but I'm at a loss of what to do for my cichlid tank. One of the main problems is that the rocks are too large for me to remove and manually clean so I'm having a hard time getting an upper hand on the problem.
This is my 90g tank. It currently has no live plants. It is overstocked with haps and peacocks which have been stable for a couple of years. I also have 3 BN plecos and about 7 petricola cats. Two Rena XP4 canisters run on the tank. Substrate is LPS.
The algae is so aggressive that if I bleach the fake plants and return them in the tank perfectly clean, they're covered in BBA in about a week.
I usually do 50% water changes every week; although, while finishing college I did let the tank go and sometimes skipped a week, sometimes even 2 weeks. I got away with this with planted tanks since the plants help take in the nitrates, but I think the combination of having no plants and having larger fish allowed the BBA to take over.
I've cleaned out both canisters (I usually don't clean both at the same time, but I was careful to preserve the bacteria). I just ordered phosphate removers and will increase water changes. I will also work to clean out the caves in the rocks.
If this was a planted tank, I'd use Excel and/or Hydrogen Peroxide to kill the BBA from the rocks, but I'm not sure if this is okay with a non-planted tank. Should I go ahead with this or is there anything else I should try?
This is my 90g tank. It currently has no live plants. It is overstocked with haps and peacocks which have been stable for a couple of years. I also have 3 BN plecos and about 7 petricola cats. Two Rena XP4 canisters run on the tank. Substrate is LPS.
The algae is so aggressive that if I bleach the fake plants and return them in the tank perfectly clean, they're covered in BBA in about a week.
I usually do 50% water changes every week; although, while finishing college I did let the tank go and sometimes skipped a week, sometimes even 2 weeks. I got away with this with planted tanks since the plants help take in the nitrates, but I think the combination of having no plants and having larger fish allowed the BBA to take over.
I've cleaned out both canisters (I usually don't clean both at the same time, but I was careful to preserve the bacteria). I just ordered phosphate removers and will increase water changes. I will also work to clean out the caves in the rocks.
If this was a planted tank, I'd use Excel and/or Hydrogen Peroxide to kill the BBA from the rocks, but I'm not sure if this is okay with a non-planted tank. Should I go ahead with this or is there anything else I should try?
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