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The end of the year is a good time to prep for a fresh start to the New Year. If you have an aquarium or plan on purchasing an aquarium for your home, it’s a good time to learn about algae control for your freshwater aquarium.
Although algae can never be completely eliminated, you can keep it under control. Algae residue commonly appears on glass, driftwood and plants within a freshwater aquarium.
But what conditions allow algae to develop and thrive? The answer is light and nutrients.
Algae can thrive under low or high intensity lights. This is why it is important to have aquatic plants within your aquarium because aquatic plants help prevent low light conditions so algae growth is less favorable for your tank. When your aquatic tank has no plants, there is virtually no competition of algae to maintain adequate light and other nutrients.
One way you can keep algae under control is with the use of aquarium lamps for plant growth and don’t forget to change the lamps frequently to discourage algae growth. Only turn the aquarium lamps on for 10 to 14 hours a day when you have plants in your aquarium. For ornamental setups, keep lights on for 6 to 10 hours.
As for nutrient buildup, nitrate and phosphate need to be kept under control to prevent excessive nutrients from developing. Too much nutrients in the aquarium will inevitably result in wide spread algae growth.
Nitrate and phosphate develop in the tank because they are end products of your fish and their bacterial digestion of food.
With plants, you can starve the algae from the nutrients it needs. Put plants in the aquarium and keep the pH level between 6.5 and 7.0. Why? Plants can use ammonium as a nitrogen source at this pH level range without making the ammonium toxic to your fish.
Use pads to control the phosphate every 72 hours to reduced its build up and resins in the filter system to maintain long-term control.
More importantly, purchase a glass or plastic aquarium hood or canopy for your freshwater aquarium.
The aquarium hood will prevent your fish from dangerously jumping out of the tank and keep water evaporation under control and prevent elements that would assist in excessive algae growth.
Glass canopies have better sealing but they don’t feature a light. Therefore, glass canopies allow more natural light to enter the tank. Plastic canopies commonly include a light.
My Pet Store and More has a variety of algae solutions to help you control unwanted algae growth for your freshwater aquariums.
Here is just one of our many algae control solutions:
The Discus Tank
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http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Aquarium-Hoods-Canopies.aspx