FISH TANK

I have had fish for a long time currently I have a 55 gallon tank and 2 fish one 1.4 ft long catfich and one 1 ft long plocostumus ( sucker fish )
but latly the watter has been darkgreen from some alge or whatnot iv tried everything you can buy but nothing works. I dont over feed them and there are no plants in the tank. please help me

where do you have your tank? we used to have a problem like that but we found that if our tanks were too close to a window or if they recieve a lot of sunlight then the algea will not go away but rather get thicker and greener. we were doing a water change once a week and even scrubbing the tank. as well the size of the pleco and the type of pleco can also create a problem. some of the common plecos that you buy from the pet stores get realy lazy once they are older and bigger. if you stick to a small pleco, i recomend something like a gold nugget pleco, they dont get lazy. if you notice that the pleco is swimming to the top and skimming food off of the surface of the water i would have to tell you that his useful days are over. try to see if any pet store in your area will take him. you may not be able to sell him but they seem to take freebees and then charge exorbant amounts for a large pleco to those who are looking for one for a bigger tank. i would also suggest looking at your heat. if you only have a cat fish and a pleco in there you can lower your heat level and you should find that that will slow the metaboilzing down on the fish and lower the ideal conditions for algea growth. i hope that helps

kristine

The fact that there are no plants in the tank could be a factor in this. I would probably advise planting some, at least that way the algea has somwhere to grow other than on the glass itself

It's been a while since I've had fish, but I used to have this problem in one of my 4ft tanks. Similar setup to what you're describing, but with a 10" Plecostomus, and a 12" Tilapia Maria - It basically ended up being that my pump simply wasn't powerful enough.

Like Kristine says, sunlight & UVB exposure can cause the algea to grow much quicker and thicker, although UVB can not penetrate glass, any reflected UVB can cause them to grow quicker.

I used to have two methods of cleaning the tank when there were algea problems. One was simply a razor blade on the end of the cane, and I'd just scrape it away. The other was a super-strong magnet. Two pieces - one inside the tank, one outside. The outside piece had a velvet type covering on it so it didn't scratch the glass. The inside piece was like the plastic part of velcro, enough to scratch off the algea, but not to do damage to the glass.

I also had another tank, which was the same size, that was basically a community tank full of guppies, mollies, platies, etc. and we never had algea probelms in that tank, although it was on a much larger pump & filter.

Like Kristine says, a huge plecostomus is a nice attraction to a tank, but they do get kinda lazy when they're real big, so you might want to think about getting some smaller ones (remember, the smaller ones will usually need to eat a lot more, so they can grow into big ones). You might also want to think about some Kuhli Loaches. They stay real small (about 3" total length), are super fast so can evade many larger predators in the tank, and can squeeze themselves into extremely small spaces for extra protection. They're another great fish for preventing buildups of uneaten food & algea at ground level, although they usually won't eat it off the sides of the glass. At least if you've got Kuhli's in there keeping the ground cleaner, you know your Pleco's are gonna be up the walls

I think that live plants would be an excellent solution. So would adding a plecostomus, if your tank still has room for one. (Don't forget that these suckers can grown huge!)

Alternately, you could get one of the smaller species of pleco, such as a clown plecostomus or a bushynose pleco.


Or better yet, trade your fish tank in for a bunch of <A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/johnnyt84047/tarantulas.html">tarantulas</A>.

I do have the 2nd to top of the line pump its an empor 400 ( with bioweels ) and the plecostomus is eating all the time
the tank is next to a window so i dont know what to so about that
I will get some of thoes fich you recomend I got a potted plant wich does not do much I dont overfeed I used axe's style of cleaning the tank wich I hope does somthing THANKYOU all who responded

No problem, good luck.. Those magnetic scrapers really are worth every penny, especially on a big tank, then just the razor blade to finish off. Handy stuff