# Green And Brown Algae And Baby Snails



## dmackey (Jan 26, 2010)

been noticing alot of algae building up in my tank over the past few weeks , i currently have had no deco in my tank the past 2months so im not sure whats causing the small boom so to say yea its near a window but its alway been there since jan, now i also notice the greenish color algae is starting to show onto my white sand bed really annoying !! not sure if it would have anything to do with all the small baby snails i see in the tank now. i had 2 snails for like 4days 4months ago guess they laid eggs now i must have say 20 baby snails in the tank anyone know how to get rid of them ? i was told copper kills them not so sure bout that tho. any advice? all my water params are up to par also


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## LS1FDRx7 (Mar 6, 2007)

dmackey said:


> been noticing alot of algae building up in my tank over the past few weeks , i currently have had no deco in my tank the past 2months so im not sure whats causing the small boom so to say yea its near a window but its alway been there since jan, now i also notice the greenish color algae is starting to show onto my white sand bed really annoying !! not sure if it would have anything to do with all the small baby snails i see in the tank now. i had 2 snails for like 4days 4months ago guess they laid eggs now i must have say 20 baby snails in the tank anyone know how to get rid of them ? i was told copper kills them not so sure bout that tho. any advice? all my water params are up to par also


Maybe it was due to prolonge daylight in the recent days sitting by the window. Brown algae is caused by nitrate and phosphate level peaking too high. Although Brown algae will still grow without daylight if your nitrate and phosphate is too high. So check your water parameters and do 20% water change every other 3 days and check water parameters again.

As far as Green algae, that's cause by light. Too much daylight or aquarium light being left on too long will tend to benefit the growth of green algae. Solution would be to minimize the light going into the tank whether it's daylight through the window or aquarium fixture lighting.

The snail population can be killed by using small amount of aquarium salt. It does not hurt the fish if used correctly by size of your tank. Make sure you follow it correctly before you have a overdosing of it. Water changes are a much. I've used it before in my shrimps, pleco, aquarium plants, and tetra tanks before. No death rate. That's if you want to get rid of snail permenently, keep in mind some snails are good in aquarium tanks. They keep the foreground clean. If you want to keep snails that doesn't reproduce, get some assassin snail. They eat algae like crazy. Hope that helps somehow.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

dmackey said:


> been noticing alot of algae building up in my tank over the past few weeks , i currently have had no deco in my tank the past 2months so im not sure whats causing the small boom so to say yea its near a window but its alway been there since jan, now i also notice the greenish color algae is starting to show onto my white sand bed really annoying !! not sure if it would have anything to do with all the small baby snails i see in the tank now. i had 2 snails for like 4days 4months ago guess they laid eggs now i must have say 20 baby snails in the tank anyone know how to get rid of them ? i was told copper kills them not so sure bout that tho. any advice? all my water params are up to par also


Copper will also kill your p's. The snails shouldnt be harmful so I would leave them for now as they will be a pita to get rid of anyways. What is your lighting (and duration/cycle)? nitrate? phosphates?

LSIF... Will salt kill snail eggs too? You can usually get the big ones, but its the eggs that seem harder to get


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## LS1FDRx7 (Mar 6, 2007)

From my personal experiences, with having 7 planted aquariums with intense lighting. I have had numerous snail born population through purchasing of plants. In the past, I tried manually removing the snails with nets but they always seem to be some left over and that would breed into more snails. The aquarium salt method works really well, I no longer have any snails. Nor do I see any snail egg sack. I believed the egg sack will have some sort of effect to it when your dosing aquarium salt, which hinders it's growth, thus killing it.

Keep in mind, I didn't use this in a Piranha tank.


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## dmackey (Jan 26, 2010)

i havent tested phosphates, however all other params are good, i have to buy a phosphate tester. what will phosphates tell me by the way ? i use aquarium salt not much but every water change i do 30% every sunday. maybe i have been having the light on a tad bit too much whats the idea time to have the light on in hours per day ? and how do i get the algae off my white sand ? looks so ugly.. should i try maybe buying so plecos even tho they gona get ate in a weeks time just to clean for me ?


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## LS1FDRx7 (Mar 6, 2007)

Are you following the online dosing for size of your tank with aquarium salt since you've been doing that like you stated? A good phosphate level would be 0.05pmm or less. Also keep in mind, your phosphate level might be high due to overdosing of aquarium salt also. I would do 10-25% water change every other 2 days. Until your phosphate is below 0.05pmm. Any higher will give an advantage of algae growth. Minimize the lighting time to 8 hours a day. I would even try to go 6 if your have tremendous amount of algae at the moment. I'm not sure how thick of an algae patch is in your sand but As far as removing the algae thats stuck on the sand, I would scoop up the top layer that it clings on and have it seperate washed in warm water and then reuse the sand. Rinse it really well in warm water. If you dont want to get your hands yet, then grab a few algae eating fish but there's no guarantee that they won't be eating by your fish. Assassin snails are fairly cheap and don't multiple. Great little snails that doesn't grow big and will eat a few different algae. Pleco is a good choice also, Ottos also, but keep in mind they might be eaten!

Keep up with the water change ever other 2 days for a 2 weeks and see what happends.


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