Fighting GDA (Green Dust Algae)...where to get bristlenose plecos? other suggestions?

[Urban Aquaria]

Just to add, the funny thing is that the big driftwood which the Ferns and Nanas are attached to are spotlessly clean. No trace of GDA at all. Something must be cleaning it. But the Ferns and Nanas for some reason don't get the same attention from the algae cleaning crew, whoever they are.

Probably the same reason why the glass gets hit by GDA. Simply less attention paid by the cleaning crew I think.

I encountered this issue before whereby a few anubias leaves had green algae on them but the rest were spotlessly clean (even though they were next to each other)... so what i did was just manually pick up all the nerite snails in the tank and place them on those algae covered leaves, if any of them move away, i place them back on the leaves. After 1-2 days all the algae were gone from those leaves.

Maybe you can try that out, guess its sort of like "targeted cleaning".

[cheeboonyong]

Managed to get hold of 4 bushynose plecos today from OTF. $8 each. about 1.5 inches long

so here's my current algae cleaning crew as of today:
x2 L183 juvenile (0.5 inch and smaller)
x6 bushynose pleco (1.5 inch average)
x1 unidentified pleco (2.5 inch). Bought it a year ago from Seaview which was sold as L183 but it doesn't look like it anymore. Still has the white spots but totally lost the white reams. Not sure what pleco it actually is

x6-8 nerite snails

x4 otos

x8 yamatos

will monitor to see if the GDA gets better

[Ralph]

I can see that the battle against algae is beginning to consume you..

Managed to get hold of 4 bushynose plecos today from OTF. $8 each. about 1.5 inches long

so here's my current algae cleaning crew as of today:
x2 L183 juvenile (0.5 inch and smaller)
x6 bushynose pleco (1.5 inch average)
x1 unidentified pleco (2.5 inch). Bought it a year ago from Seaview which was sold as L183 but it doesn't look like it anymore. Still has the white spots but totally lost the white reams. Not sure what pleco it actually is

x6-8 nerite snails

x4 otos

x8 yamatos

will monitor to see if the GDA gets better

[cheeboonyong]

I can see that the battle against algae is beginning to consume you..

what can I say?

I can confirm that the nerite snails do eat GDA. I pulled one snail and trapped it together with my outlet pipe which had GDA. Within 1 hour, the GDA was gone.

I think the challenge is how to get them to clean the specific area/glass. No way to direct them to a particular spot. Maybe can place them on a nana leaf but no way to get them to stick to the glass without them falling down though

[Urban Aquaria]

what can I say?

I can confirm that the nerite snails do eat GDA. I pulled one snail and trapped it together with my outlet pipe which had GDA. Within 1 hour, the GDA was gone.

I think the challenge is how to get them to clean the specific area/glass. No way to direct them to a particular spot. Maybe can place them on a nana leaf but no way to get them to stick to the glass without them falling down though

For glass surfaces, what i do is just use a pincette to carefully slide the nerite snails away from where they are (pulling may injure them), and then position them up against the affected areas on the tank glass.

Usually their "foot" will still be out and grasping around, so i just hold them against the glass for a few seconds until they grip hold of it and continue crawling about.

For those snails that somehow just retreat and hide inside their shells, i simply place them on the substrate against the bottom of the glass, so they will start crawling once they emerge again.

I find that for effective GDA management, its still a matter of number of nerite snails vs tank surface area vs rate of algae growth. More nerite snails means more of them will be continuously cleaning all the surfaces repeatedly 24/7.

Just have to progressively add more nerite snails until their numbers match the amount of cleaning to be done.

[Urban Aquaria]

Found a good video example of horned nerite snail clearing algae from an anubias leaf (video at 15x speed):



Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M2EKN678t0

Good job!

[Allan Asis]

May I know what type of light are you using? Is it T5HO? If yes, how high is it from the top of the tank?

[cheeboonyong]

quick update: Bought more nerite snails 4 days ago.

The GDA is much less, in the sense that it doesn't overwhelm the tank glass in 2-3 days. However, it is still obvious that they will sprout back within a week but in much less quantity that is at a tolerable level, in the sense that I have to look out for it up close before I will see it. I am holding back my itch not to scrape them off just to see how bad it will eventually get.

Since I've been paying more attention to this, I've also noticed that the GDA does grow on the driftwood and some plant leaves, particularly on my java ferns. The driftwood does get cleaned eventually by either the snails or the plecos (don't know which) but the java fern leaves usually don't get the same kind of attention, so the infected leaves do get progressively worse.

as for the lights, I'm using Maxspect LEDs, not T5HO. I still have them turned on at 100% intensity, have not experimented yet with turning down the intensity.

Lastly, dwarf botia and nerite snails are a bad combo. My botias will harass the nerite snails, esp the smaller ones, non-stop.

[Allan Asis]

That's good to know. I have no idea about Maxspect LED intensity and PAR but i'm pretty sure it's a lot higher than say EVO LED which is what i'm using now.

Based on my experience with GDA's, particularly those that builds up on glass walls, I used to have it a lot when I was using T5HO 4x24W. T5's are omnidirectional in light spread and PAR is high even on the sides. When I switched to a lower intensity light such as EVO, GDA stopped. as in I don't even try to wipe the glass on a weekly water change anymore except for minor stains on corners from diatom buildup. EVO LED has lower PAR than T5 and the LED is very directional, pointing only downards so PAR on the side is close to non-existent.

I would expect Maxspect to be very directional as well but maybe you can try to lift the light higher, possibly 6-8 inch from the top of the tank. Or if you have dimmer, maybe you can dial it down as well to 50-60% intensity and leave it for a week or two then observe?

[Urban Aquaria]

quick update: Bought more nerite snails 4 days ago.

The GDA is much less, in the sense that it doesn't overwhelm the tank glass in 2-3 days. However, it is still obvious that they will sprout back within a week but in much less quantity that is at a tolerable level, in the sense that I have to look out for it up close before I will see it. I am holding back my itch not to scrape them off just to see how bad it will eventually get.

Since I've been paying more attention to this, I've also noticed that the GDA does grow on the driftwood and some plant leaves, particularly on my java ferns. The driftwood does get cleaned eventually by either the snails or the plecos (don't know which) but the java fern leaves usually don't get the same kind of attention, so the infected leaves do get progressively worse.

as for the lights, I'm using Maxspect LEDs, not T5HO. I still have them turned on at 100% intensity, have not experimented yet with turning down the intensity.

Lastly, dwarf botia and nerite snails are a bad combo. My botias will harass the nerite snails, esp the smaller ones, non-stop.

Okay, next step is to add even more nerite snails... no kidding, i find that the rate of algae growth is inversely proportionate to the number of nerite snails i keep in a tank. In some of my 2ft tanks i have up to 12+ nerite snails. For larger tank i'd guess you'll need even more to manage the larger areas and plants.

I usually keep adding nerite snails until i notice that my tank glass and plant leaves stay clean for weeks, then it means the nerite snail population vs algae ratio is at equilibrium (so much so that my algae scraper ends up just collecting dust in storage drawer).

Reducing the light intensity can help to slow down the algae growth. Gradually tune down the intensity and observe the plants, if they still grow well, then reduce abit more. Eventually you will reach a balanced light intensity level whereby the plants can still grow well, yet not too much that it favors algae.

Yeah, botia loaches do tend to harass nerite snails, some aquarists utilize them to hunt and eat snails too. Best not to have them in the tank so that the nerite snails can do their jobs in peace.

[cheeboonyong]

It's been 2-3 weeks now since I got the extra Nerites and Plecos. Results have been quite satisfactory. The GDA still exists, particularly in odd spots where the cleaning crew have difficulty reaching. Rest of the tank are quite clean, so long as I don't scrutinize too closely as in putting my face right next to the glass.

After about 2 weeks, the GDA on the glass will become more noticeable in the sense that it becomes visible from normal viewing distance. I think I can live with that.