Mbuna and BBA

[kennyman]

I have a healthy coating of red beard algae on the rockwork in my mbuna tank. It doesnt really bother me at all, but my fish are not eating it. I don't want the algae to grow unchecked so i figgure I need something to trim this stuff back a bit. What do you recomend to restore the ballance?

[repeej]

Wouldn't it be wise to figure out why you are getting this algae before trying to come up with a solution for it.

How's your lighting cycle?  Aquarium temperature?

[brad]

Water changes water changes water chnages.

BBA is from varying co2. When you do a water change, you`re adding lots of co2, then a few hours later, it`s all gased off. You`re also confusing your vals in there. Do the water changes at night, so that it has time to gas off.

[artw]

I have heard that siamese algea eaters eat black brush algae.  I read this on a forum I used to moderate a few years back.

[kennyman]

I thought this was naturaly part of low light aquatic environments and since it is a mbuna tank I figgured it would get munched up. But appearently my fish are not interested in it enough to keep it cropped down.

The tank has stock lighting of 26w no florescent in a 55g running for 12hrs/day. nitrates maintained below 20 with weekly waterchanges. Temp 74deg.
Here is shot to give some perspective. This is from the side of a 55g. That rockpile is atleast 3 feet long.

[edit] I heard that about SAE's aswell Art. I see there are some mature ones for sale on the clasified board. Are they a possabillity in a mbuna tank? Will they get along with a sydonotnis too?

[repeej]

[edit] I heard that about SAE's aswell Art. I see there are some mature ones for sale on the clasified board. Are they a possabillity in a mbuna tank? Will they get along with a sydonotnis too?

Large/mature SAE's no longer feed on algae and can be quite aggressive.

[Mettle]

I have 3.5" SAEs that tore apart and clensed my tank of all of my BBA in a matter of days. But that's just my experience. ($5.98/ea at SP Barrhaven - less if you buy two or three.)

[Eheim]

I have 3.5" SAEs that tore apart and clensed my tank of all of my BBA in a matter of days. But that's just my experience. ($5.98/ea at SP Barrhaven - less if you buy two or three.)

I had two 1.5" SAEs that did a nice job of considerably reducing but not completely removing BBA in two of my tanks.  One of my SAEs is now 2" and as someone else mentioned before, SAEs of this size seem less interested in BBA than gobbling up flake food and whatever else I provide to the other fish.  Might be that they'll fill up on other preferred food if available?  Also, I'm not sure if s/he's becoming a tad aggressive or just falls into a cantankerous mood sometimes and will chase the glowlites and neons (but not actually bite them, I think).  I picked them up earlier at Big Al's for 2/1.99, great price for the great stock that they were.

I also have a 2" Chinese algae eater  that seems to nibble on BBA without touching any other kind of food aside from other algae.  S/he's so far very peaceful, only chasing around a 2" BN pleco while leaving the SAE and the others completely unmolested.