Can I see your algae walls?

[FishObsessed]

Hi, I know this is random. I've seen ppl on here say they like the look of the naturally occurring algae in a tank/on the walls. Im thinking of letting this happen in my tank and just cleaning the front glass for viewing. If youve done this with yours would you post a pic of what it looks like? Do you find it's more of a benefit for your tank or a negative? (Plants or not)

Thanks!

[Bill]

I have diatoms on my two newest tanks, I know they don't bother anything but I'd rather not look at them, at least on the glass, and on the plants... It's been over 3 months, and I'm starting to finally see plant growth picking up, so I'm hoping that reduces them. I'd post a pic, but I just cleaned most before last water change. Always starts to form within a week. 

[David Ellsworth]

I only scrape the glass on the front panel for most of my aquariums. I leave the side and back. I find it beneficial because I keep some blue bolt shrimp and cherry shrimp. The biofilm is great for shrimp and my snails.

I've neglected my 10 gal blue bolt tank and plan to clean up the stuff off my plant leaves today, but took a picture before so you can see. It has hair algae and the viewing panel isn't cleaned yet. You can see the green on the back glass. I saw some tiny shrimplets fluttering around the tank today, my first blue bolt babies since i got them about a month ago. 

 

My 30 gal guppy tank has mystery snails, bladder snails, and cherry shrimp. All those like the biofilm so i only scrape the front panel. It is a little dirty atm. I even add Bacter AE, and other shrimp supplements to the water occasionally to help keep the biofilm going for them.

 

I have some pretty green hair algae in my 20 gal rainbow shiner tank that i think spread from a moss ball to my eco-complete substrate. That is starting to spread so I'll see how well that turns out.

[Daniel]

I used to have some nice attractive green algae in this tank,

but recently it is the unattractive brown diatomaceous kind.

[MickS77]

One of my 10 gallon QT tanks I let it grow in, fish pictured are Bleeding Heart Tetras. 

[FrozenFins]

I have a pleco or some kind of algae eater in my tanks, so I don't have much algae.

[Fonske]

9 hours ago, FishObsessed said:

Im thinking of letting this happen in my tank and just cleaning the front glass for viewing.

I did that in my tiny fry raising tank (bare bottom, no plants or decor). The algae that grew all over the walls looked like a lush thick uniform bright green velvet background. Very pretty, actually. I wish I had taken some pictures. 

[FishObsessed]

5 minutes ago, Fonske said:

I did that in my tiny fry raising tank (bare bottom, no plants or decor). The algae that grew all over the walls looked like a lush thick uniform bright green velvet background. Very pretty, actually. I wish I had taken some pictures. 

Ahh...that would be pretty cool

[Fonske]

2 minutes ago, FishObsessed said:

Ahh...that would be pretty cool

The tank had pretty bright lights on for 12 hours a day and 50% water change daily. And a lot of protein-rich food. I don't know whether these factors favored the pretty algae growth or the tank just happened to have more of this particular type of velvet-like algae  than of usual green spot one. Maybe both. 

[H.K.Luterman]

I only clean the front pane on all my aquariums, but the algae is the most noticeable on my 40 and 75. 

I just like the look of a "well seasoned" tank, personally. Looks more like an ecosystem to me.

Edit: Sorry for all the reflections, but hopefully you can see.

Edited December 4, 2020 by H.K.Luterman

[MattyIce]

From the front:

closeup:

From the back:

Don’t really leave it for beneficial reasons, more just lazy.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2020 by MattyIce

[FishObsessed]

5 minutes ago, MattyIce said:

Don’t really leave it for beneficial reasons, more just lazy

That made me laugh! 

 

Thank you all for sharing these!