Algea party

Hi,

This is my firs tpost to the forum here, though I have been lurking for months. Anyhow, I have this 30 gallon fresh water tank and was having major issues with the water. It took me months to clear it all up and for the past 6 weeks the tank has been sweet, I show it off to people lol.

Now.. more them half my fish just died.. most I found only the bones too, which was.. well icky. I have a little 'shark' in there, its black with a bright orange taila nd has two little whiskers on it, I can take a pic of him. I was told he was a community fish and would NOT attack the others. But.. can fish die and erode in a day? Or maybe there is a 'fish flu' in my tank?

Also.. my pleco died, may he rest in peace, and we got three chinese algea eaters.. one died, two are left but wow is my tank GREEN. its in big spots on the glass and covering the plants. I do not want to drop in the algea tabs, I heard they woudl do more harm then good. Should I get another regulat pleco? Maybe the chinese guys just arent enough?

Any Advise would be super! Thanks and no I don;t spell check and I type faster then I should. I'm an official friend of the typo fairy. )

Fish don't rot in a day, what's probably happening is that they are dieing and other fish are eating the carcasses. Gross, but common, fish aren't ones to turn down a free meal.

The algae tablets don't do anything about the algae on the plants and glass, what they do is cause algae that is free floating in the water to clump up so that the filter can remove it. I would get another pleco because chinese algae eaters arent' the most effective. CAE's actually stop eating algae when they get bigger and start attacking the slime layers of other fish. Never put CAE's in with discus, they will stress delicate fish like discus to death.

To get rid of the algae short term do a large water change of 50% or more, vacuum the gravel really well and put in fresh filter media. Then wrap the tank wiht something so outside light can't get in and turn off the main tank lights. Leave the tank wrapped and dark for 3-4 days and most of the algae should be gone. The darkness won't hurt any live plants for that short of time.

And your shark is called a redtail shark, they can be pests in some tanks, if you notice him chasing the other fish you may want to get rid of him. Or you could get rid of the other fish and just have a group of redtailed sharks, it's interesting to watch them interact with their own kind.

Hope this helps.

I agree with what Hlynn1975 recommended to you, however I did want to add a couple of ideas.

Make sure that your tank isn't in any sunlight during the day. And try decreasing the amount of time you have the lights on in your tank. If you don't have any live plants, try a snail or too, I have a couple golden snails that keep my tanks nice and tidy. They do eat plants though. I feed mine lettuce once in a while. Actually they lay eggs every now and then and I get a whole swarm of snails that I give to friends. If you do get a regular pleco,b e forwarned that they get rather large. I wouldn't want you going out and purchasing a 40 or larger tank in a few years just because you have a big old pleco. I made this mistake, and now I have a 55, with a big old pleco and an Oscar a friend dumped on me. (he's cool though, you can pet him!) You could try a gold nugget pleco, those are suppose to stay small. If push comes to shove a razor blade works wonders at removing algae from the glass.

Good luck! I'm glad to hear there are other fish people here!

I had the same problem when I started my tank. My suggestion is to get a aquarium class cleaner and scrub the algea off that is already in there. Then get one or two snails and they should greatly reduce the amount of algea that grows in your tank. Hope this helps.