4 Best Type Of Algae (Green Spot, Hair, Brown & Blue Green )

What You Need to Know about Algae

You are most certainly going to see some level of algae constantly appearing in your guppy tank. This is normal and what you might not be aware of is that there are several different types of that can form in your tank, and how you deal with this is partially going to depend on the type of that you are dealing with.

Green Spot Algae

You may notice that there are some green dots that are forming among the components in your fish tank. These are often seen on the rocks and plants and another decor. This is usually found in tanks where they are subjected to high levels of light.

 

The one advantage is that that you are dealing with is that it doesn’t normally take over the entire tank, so you probably won’t have to consider using eaters to deal with it, plus eaters usually won’t bother with this type.

Hair Algae

If you have a lot of cutting plants in your tank or you have high ammonia levels then chances are you are going to end up dealing with hair. What you want to do here is cut the algae out as it appears and also makes sure that you remove any plants that are unhealthy. When you are cutting back the plants cut back the areas where you are noticing the hair is growing.

Brown algae

This is something that’s going to be more noted when your tank is new simply because the chemistry of your water has not stabilized. This type of favors subdued lighting but once the aquarium has become stabilized quite often this alga will disappear.

 

If it is a problem that you are concerned about you can add a couple of common eaters that are going to be compatible with your guppies to the tank.

If you have been adding plants to your tank such as a Java moss you’re going to find that the brown  favor this particular plant. What happens is that the Java moss will turn to a brown color instead of its beautiful green that it’s noted for.

 

You may even think that the plant has died because of the brown color but this is not usually the case.

Blue-Green Algae

Blue-green algae are one that we have talked about before and are one of the types that can be potentially harmful and is one that you really need to deal with. What really helps is to aerate and filter the tank to help deal with this.

No matter which form of algae you are dealing with try to stay away from using chemicals to deal with the problem. Your two choices are removing that through the cleaning or eaters to keep the problem under control.

 

The problem with the chemicals is that although they may destroy and they will also destroy the good at the same time could be very harmful to your guppies. If you have not added fish to your tank as yet and you see the problem presenting itself, then you could use the chemicals but you would have to wait till these have totally dissipated from the tank before adding any of your fish. This would be at the very least a one week wait.