# GDA algae solution



## JL15219 (Nov 10, 2008)

Tom do the BN plecos need to be younger/smaller in order for them to eat the GDA? I currently have two but they are over 5 years old. I have an all ready pretty much overstocked African Cichlid tank....seems like adding 10-12 more plecos might cause something to go wrong. hmmm


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

JL15219 said:


> Tom do the BN plecos need to be younger/smaller in order for them to eat the GDA? I currently have two but they are over 5 years old. I have an all ready pretty much overstocked African Cichlid tank....seems like adding 10-12 more plecos might cause something to go wrong. hmmm


Well, you move and rotate them to other tanks or sell them at the local clubs, takes a few months/years, and they tend to sell well or breed easily, so you can end up with a never ending supply if you want to breed and raise the fry.

I think the smaller young ones are useful and after a good while, I think you might be able to remove them without the GDA coming back also. Have not tried it, but if after a year or so, seems the algae will have given up by then.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

*Tom *

glad you posted this, we will see if anyone else had the experience with these plecos on GDA. my question is will the GDA return if we remove the Pleco?


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## ChadRamsey (Nov 3, 2011)

i foresee an explosion in BN pleco sales in the near future!

wish i could buy stock in them. :icon_cool


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

i bought 14 of them for $3 each and lets see if they will make any difference.


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## frrok (May 22, 2011)

What's the minimum tank size? Are they good for nanos?


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

happi said:


> *Tom *
> 
> glad you posted this, we will see if anyone else had the experience with these plecos on GDA. my question is will the GDA return if we remove the Pleco?


Good question.

I can do that.
They seem effective at removal, so if I get algae again(and I know I shall), not an issue.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

ChadRamsey said:


> i foresee an explosion in BN pleco sales in the near future!
> 
> wish i could buy stock in them. :icon_cool


You can breed them.:icon_wink The client's tank was clean again even at the high high light values.

Seems that other plecos might do the job well also if you have enough of them.
Sturisoma, horde of otto's perhaps, Gold nuggets, but for the bang for the $, the Bushy nose seem pretty good.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

frrok said:


> What's the minimum tank size? Are they good for nanos?


I think the min size has to do with the GDA issue, I've rarely seen it in a nano.

20-400 Gallon tanks, yes.

I suppose 3 ought to fix a 10 gallon.
So maybe a 3-4 gallon till they out grow it after a few months, year etc.


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## frrok (May 22, 2011)

plantbrain said:


> I think the min size has to do with the GDA issue, I've rarely seen it in a nano.
> 
> 20-400 Gallon tanks, yes.
> 
> ...


Can I get one for a mini-m. I have a really bad outbreak of GDA and BGA! (From a failed dry-start)


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## Kate6790 (May 30, 2013)

I have a question about the bushy nose pleco. I was told that they become territorial once they reach a certain age/size, is this true? I have a 55 gallon that im struggling with algea and would love to add some of these guys. I have a single albino pleco right now but was planning on moving it to my new 20 gallon.


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## Jahn (Apr 26, 2013)

Ayep. I used to give my albino BN pleco an algae wafer once every two days. Had a bit of an algae buildup on my glass, bought a magwipe thing to clean the glass...but then hold on, how about just not feeding the pleco? No more algae wafer, and now at night the pleco furiously wipes a 20 gallon high tank clean of algae off the glass...and leaves...and petrified wood...and tank decorations, haha! Absolutely clean other than some tough bits of isolated BBA here and there which I take care of, and isn't in outbreak mode. That magwipe thing was a waste of cash, hah. It's been 2 weeks now, the pleco still seems happy, and the tank is super clean.


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## samee (Oct 14, 2011)

Just to confirm, bushy nose or other plecos dont touch green spot algae and blue green right?



> Green spot algae, but you have to look closely, the Bushy nose do not remove this, but no algae eater does really


Not to mention bushy/bristle nose pleco is $10 a piece here. That might be cheap for you, but not for me 


EDIT: Maybe I need some clearing btw the different algae. On my glass what happens is that green spot algae covers it and right after bga covers that algae.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

samee said:


> Just to confirm, bushy nose or other plecos dont touch green spot algae and blue green right?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


i don't think they could do anything to GSA, it is hard to come off, need razor blade to make it come off. if you are getting blue green algae then you are lacking Nitrate in your tank, GSA is related to low Phosphate.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

frrok said:


> Can I get one for a mini-m. I have a really bad outbreak of GDA and BGA! (From a failed dry-start)


Clean the snot out of the tank 1st, then EM or blackout the tank for the BGA, then after a good sized water change, then add say 2 relatively small ones. 

Nano's are tough, the water level changes cause CO2 issues and changes in the degassing rates. I no longer keep them for that reason, but I like them very much.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

samee said:


> Just to confirm, bushy nose or other plecos dont touch green spot algae and blue green right?
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Not much will get rid of that other than good general conditions, they do seem to reduce the likelihood. Lower light and non CO2 etc, rarely have GSA issues.

I do not mind once a month or two to clean the glass, but GSA on leaves is a no no. Good plant growth takes care of that.

BGA is symptomatic of other plant growth issues.
You can get them cheap on line. 

Amano shrimp run 2-4$ each also, but most do not balk at the cost there. 
Amano's will clean the plants and other surfaces well, the BN will clean the smooth surfaces well.

Together, that's a pretty good algae crew. Yes, they do grow and become larger, but this takes some time.


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

*Tom*

does it matter if bushy nose pleco will eat GDA or ignore it depending on their age???
i cleaned my entire glass with Excel and sprayed some on rocks, it seems to clean the GDA off really well, there is some GDA on the rocks and plants, i haven't seen Bushy nose working much on plants or rocks, they seems to be ignoring them, always working on glass. they seems more active when lights are off. 

i also have done an experiment for 2 days, i took 2 glass, one with tank water and one with 100% RO water, i left them outside in full sunlight all day for 2 days straight. but i did not witness any GDA or other algae in both glass. we have to remember that sunlight is many many times powerful and intense than our tank lights. this suggest strong light isn't the cause of GDA, it comes from somewhere else. i have also confirmed in my recent thread that having 0ppm of PO4 and GDA still flourish. MCI was wrong on This finding, including Ca/Mg ratio. the only thing i can confirm is adding extra Mg is beneficial to prevent GDA. am not saying MCI doesn't work, but i can only confirm things i can test. i would also like to repeat these test to be 100% sure because test kit could be wrong, plus i did not get any GSA, which for sure can confirm this. i will give another chance to MCI.


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## JL15219 (Nov 10, 2008)

plantbrain said:


> You can breed them.:icon_wink The client's tank was clean again even at the high high light values.
> 
> Seems that other plecos might do the job well also if you have enough of them.
> Sturisoma, horde of otto's perhaps, Gold nuggets, but for the bang for the $, the Bushy nose seem pretty good.


I re read the post.


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## oliverpool (Jul 4, 2011)

Is starlight bristlenose pleco also similar to the bushy nose pleco you are referring to?

I have two since the start of my 20g tank and its 3 months now. They do not seem to touch the dust algae on my glass. Then again the dust algae just started coming up in the past 3-4 weeks. Maybe they do not know its food? &#55357;&#56833;


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

No, just the plain old common bushy nose plecos, smaller, 1-2" say 5-6 per 20 Gallon of tank. Never seen such good surface cleaning.

They cannot clean fine needle plants etc, but fairly narrow leaves seem pretty easily cleaner, rough wood etc.

Amano shrimp will clean the rest of various surfaces.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

happi said:


> *Tom*
> 
> does it matter if bushy nose pleco will eat GDA or ignore it depending on their age???
> i cleaned my entire glass with Excel and sprayed some on rocks, it seems to clean the GDA off really well, there is some GDA on the rocks and plants, i haven't seen Bushy nose working much on plants or rocks, they seems to be ignoring them, always working on glass. they seems more active when lights are off.
> ...



Yes, much like those lazy SAE's ignore the BBA and eat all your discus' food or fish food, then sit and bully everyone once the food is fed.

Well, not quite as bad, but.........

Gold nuggets are less prone to this as are Sturisoma. Otto's, well, they have issues. Maybe some of the Otto subfamily might hold promise. I've had a few.

Yes, BNP do most of the work at night. They like the glass and smooth surfaces. If the GDA is after the plants and rocks a lot, something else is up.
You have it pretty bad.

The glass issues are typically the hardest issues for most folks with GDA, if it's hitting the rocks and plants also....

I agree with you, stronger light is not the issue, you can slow the GDA by reducing light lower.......some go down to 30 umols etc, but this is not good for plants either, they grow slow or look bad then for many stem species.

Sunlight has a lot of UV and it's much much more intense, say 20X what the strongest aquarium lighting for plants might be, if you took a plant and exposed them to that much light, it'll fry many plant species also.

I'd hoped that the low PO4 would do something to GDA, but that is consistent with the hobbyists not being able to limit algae with PO4 limitation, thus goes back to my old hypothesis with Paul Sears and PMDD: you limit the plant growth with low PO4, thereby applying Liebig's law: PO4 is now a stronger limiting factor than CO2.

Mg is commonly limiting in low GH/KH tap waters, so larding a bit more into the CMS+B trace mix is helpful and might explain some positive benefits to dosing the Traces daily since it has Mg in there(not much). Mg limitation is very plant responsive, within a day or less you'll see noted improvements.

I've gone to about 20-25 ppm and then up to 50 ppm or so with Mg.
I think anywhere between say 2-20 ppm is fine.


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## rwong2k (Dec 24, 2004)

i'm currently running a high light, high co2 tank and the only algae I have is the GDA on my glass, but after adding a few BN plecos from my discus tank, all the GDA is gone, so works pretty nicely


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## stealthypotatoes (Feb 2, 2013)

What kind of moss is on the driftwood in the bottom right corner?


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## happi (Dec 18, 2009)

rwong2k said:


> i'm currently running a high light, high co2 tank and the only algae I have is the GDA on my glass, but after adding a few BN plecos from my discus tank, all the GDA is gone, so works pretty nicely



next thing to try is to remove the BN and see if GDA comes back


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

happi said:


> next thing to try is to remove the BN and see if GDA comes back


+1.

I removed a few(5 of about 15) from the 70 Gallon Buce tank, but I'm adding CO2 now. 

I have another tank with new ADA AS that got algae bad, and the 5 have fixed the glass algae in about 3 days from you cannot see through it, to nice and clean and clear. But..this was a very thick coat of diatoms(Melosira to be specific), a brown furry filamentous species that will also form spots on the glass and is fairly hard to wipe off actually.

Gets on the gravel and rocks, you've seen it in streams and lakes likely.


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## devilduck (May 9, 2012)

I have a high tech 30cm cube (7 gallon) tank that has been plagued with GDA for months. I'd clean the glass every week during my water changes. I've tried tweeking the ferts, co2, light duration, and h2o2/excel dosing endlessly to no avail. The algae would start to redeposit on the glass in 24-48 hours. I was about to suck it up and get a UV unit to stick in the tank as a last ditch effort.

I was a bit skeptical after reading this thread months ago. I didn't think I could keep a bn in a nano tank this small. During my visit to my LFS I saw they had gotten batch of juvenile BN pleco's in from a local breeder. They we a little over an inch. I took a chance and bought one thinking if it didn't work out in the 7g I had a 29g tank as backup. 

To my surprise this single BN cleaned the all the GDA off the glass in a day. So far it's a week later and my glass is still clear on all sides! This is even after I reduced my co2 levels to acclimate the pleco.

I will never doubt Tom Barr again.


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