Algae is controlled by maintenance!

[BryanM]

My only real algae issue for a long time now is on the glass, which is inevitable.

 

[Paul B]

And former "Yacht" owner.

I had to sell it because I couldn't get coal any more for the boilers and no one wanted to shovel it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Everyday we see several posts about algae problems. Often times the advice centers around nutrients being too high or too low based on inaccurate, low resolution hobby test kits. If there is algae, regardless of the kind including dinoflagellates, there are plenty of nutrients. A clean, well maintained aquarium will never have algae problems including dinoflagellate. If you have algae problems your aquarium is dirty and you are not doing enough maintenance. It is that simple.
My saltwater aquarium never has algae problems because I maintain it properly. The same can not be said for my freshwater aquarium. I’ve gotten lazy and have not touched it in over 3 months. The tank is over feed and doesn’t have significant plant growth. Today I decided it needed some maintenance: a WC and manual removal. This was not a “rip cleaning” that some suggest, but I did remove and clean the decor. Does not matter if it is saltwater or freshwater, aquariums are maintained the same way. Keeping them clean with maintenance is all that is required.
Here is my before and after today, only took about an hour….

I have a reef tank that I am too lazy to do that on. Would you stop by and clean mine? :)

 

[bristleworm]

I'm a little confused. You manually removed a large algae outbreak.
But you dont address the root of the problem.
In my mind maintenance means managing the tank so I DON'T have to deal with manual removal and large outbreaks.
In high tech planted tanks(my personal most experience) the holy grail is the right amount of co2, right amount of plants and fert regiment to keep it all going with little to no algae.
In summary in my mind-maintenance means doing all the things needed to not have an algae breakout and having to manually remove algae.

 

[CHSUB]

I'm a little confused. You manually removed a large algae outbreak.
But you dont address the root of the problem.
In my mind maintenance means managing the tank so I DON'T have to deal with manual removal and large outbreaks.
In high tech planted tanks(my personal most experience) the holy grail is the right amount of co2, right amount of plants and fert regiment to keep it all going with little to no algae.
In summary in my mind-maintenance means doing all the things needed to not have an algae breakout and having to manually remove algae.

Yes…. if I was more serious co2, more plants and fertilizer would probably do the trick but I wanted to try without co2 and algae started smothering the plants when I got lazy. The tank looked decent for about a year and a half with just wc and maintenance, however 3 months of over feeding and no cleaning tank became a mess.
Imo, the same philosophy applies to reef tanks, “the holy grail is the right amount of co2, right amount of plants and fert regiment to keep it all going with little to no algae.” ; except with different ingredients.

 

[bristleworm]

Yes…. if I was more serious co2, more plants and fertilizer would probably do the trick but I wanted to try without co2 and algae started smothering the plants when I got lazy. The tank looked decent for about a year and a half with just wc and maintenance, however 3 months of over feeding and no cleaning tank became a mess.
Imo, the same philosophy applies to reef tanks, “the holy grail is the right amount of co2, right amount of plants and fert regiment to keep it all going with little to no algae.” ; except with different ingredients.

We are on the same page.