Algae problem in 10 gallon betta tanks

[M Brown]

I have several 10 gallon tanks, each with one male betta. Each tank has live plants and a led plant light. I use aquarium gravel in some tanks and CaribSea EcoComplete plant substrate in other tanks. I’m careful so that I don’t over feed, I keep the tanks cleaned, change the water as needed, and make sure the parameters are what they should be. I recently added 2 nerite snails per tank in some tanks for algae control, but it doesn’t seem to be enough to keep the algae at bay. And  I’m having a problem with hair algae  particularly in the one tank, and that tank now has a gazillion copopods, which I would prefer not to have. I  just started to lessen the time the lights are on to see if that helps with algae control. I’ve seen where Cory has mentioned an algae clean up crew, but now can’t find the article where he described exactly what the crew consists of. What would be a good algae cleaning crew for my 10 gallon tanks? Thanks

[FrozenFins]

Amano Shrimp and Snails would make a good algae clean up crew.

All though if your dealing with algae this much you need to think whats cuasing it. It could be excess lighting or high nitries and amonia. How long do you have your lights on for?

[gardenman]

I think people worry too much about algae. If you have light and water, you'll get algae. More light means more algae, but even with next to no light, you'll get some algae. Algae is everywhere. You can live in the middle of America, hundreds of miles from the nearest body of salt water. Set up a marine tank and add a light and within days, you'll have marine algae growing in the tank. Where does it come from? God only knows.

I only clean the front glass of my tanks and just let the algae grow everywhere else. When I get hair algae (only in one tank is it ever an issue) I just pull it out and toss it. It tends to go away for a good long time then. My lights go on at six in the morning and stay on until nine at night. That's when I'm typically up and I like to look at my fish, so I keep the tanks lit when I'm up watching them. Would I have less algae with less light? Sure. But I like watching my fish.

I have way too many bristlenose plecos (who frankly suck at eating algae despite their reputation, maybe because they like the green beans and other stuff I feed them more) but I've learned to live with the algae. It does good stuff in a tank. It can serve as an emergency food source for fish. I ended up in the hospital for 15 days in 2018 and my fish (primarily swordtails at the time) survived on algae and pond snails in that period. They don't normally eat pond snails, but when having nothing else to eat they opted for a bit of escargot. Once back on their normal diet the snails got ignored again.

If you have water and light, you'll have algae. You can try to fight it, or learn to live with it. I've learned to live with it. It does good stuff. It absorbs nitrates. All kinds of interesting stuff can live in it. It's an emergency fish food. Some fish like mollies consider it a primary fish food. It can even be kind of pretty at times. Adjusting your attitude to algae is much easier and more rewarding than trying to fight it. It's a fight you'll never win.

[Will Billy]

Here are some tips ive learned about algae in general, as well as black beard algae specifically. I have a planted aquarium as well and i have even gone as far as to purposefully grow green algae in a clear plastic cup in a window to dose my aquarium with beneficial green algae for my ottocynclus catfish, snails, guppies, etc... green algae is the good atuff that most fish and invertebrates like to eat. I do scrape the front and sides of my tank for viewing my fish but mostly leave the back and decorations alone. Like my various plants the algae also helps reduce nitrates in my tank. That being said i have run into black beard algae on some plants i bought from a big box store, (which is why i prefer aquarium co-op plants now) that contaminated all my plants. I pulled all my plants out and soaked them in 3% hydrogen peroxide for no more than 5 minutes, 3-4 minutes is usually best. Then i rinsed them off with tap water, followed by a good rinse and soak in dechlorinated aquarium water before replanting them. After 2-3 days the black beard algae turned red and after 2 weeks was totally gone. Before you attempt this method and maybe someone can further explain why, but all of my thick leaved plants like java fern and anubias all did well and are now free of black beard algae, however my softer leaved plants like my bacopa shed all its leaves wilted and died. Perhaps a more diluted solution would work better for those plants, but i am only speculating. The cause of the unwanted black beard explosion aside from not quarantining infected plants was aided by high oxygen and iron in my water. After i rebalanced my iron in my fertilizers and with some airstone altercations and loss of some plant life to reduce oxygen a bit it has never returned.  

[Jennifer V]

@M Brown here is the link to the info:

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-algae

You'll find Cory's video about algae eaters there.

I have a 10g with brown algae so I was thinking of getting a couple nerites and some amano shrimp just as @James Black suggested and based on Cory's advice but that's just my interpretation of what I read/watched.