Diatoms!!! (cross-posted)

some of my Malaysian Trumpet Snails do OK eating the brown stuff on the
glass, but they leave trails of clear and areas untouched




"Rick" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:44:21 -0000, "SkyCatcher"
wrote:

Hi,

I am troubled by difficult to remove diatoms (algae) in my lake Malawi
setup. This is made worse by the fact that it is a big tank 6ft long
5ft
deep and acrylic!


If by Malawi you mean you have Mbuna then they will eat the algae for
you. They need to get hungry so cut the food for a few days.

If that doesn't work get some bristlenose catfish.


Steve
--
EasyNN-plus. The easy way to build neural networks.
http://www.easynn.com


nothing eats brown diatom that I am aware of and as far as Mbuna's go I
never see mine going up and down the glass eating algae although they will
pick at rocks and such that are covered in it. Everyone recommends people
get plecos of some type or another and of course they help but from my
experience they will do little to eliminate algae completely from glass.

Rick

Magna Float 1000 will do 1 1/2" acrylic You can get them at your LFS or try
www.BigAlsOnline.com.

JOhn

"Gordon James" wrote in message
...
get two srong magnets anywhere
place the "wet one" in a ziplock baggie

choose the scrub cloth of your choice for the wet side
Choose a soft cloth for the dry side.

this lets you do it with as big a scrob cloth as you like, and any surface
I like the natural bath sponges
my big tank is only 50 gallon, but the little magnet things are too lame
for
me to want to waste time with then



"SkyCatcher" wrote in message
...
Rick,

Magnets appeal! But I haven't found any in the UK that will work through
1"
acrylic. Can you recommend any UK or US magnets that will work with 1"
acrylic and do a good job?

Sky.

"Rick" wrote in message
...

"SkyCatcher" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I am troubled by difficult to remove diatoms (algae) in my lake Malawi
setup. This is made worse by the fact that it is a big tank 6ft long
5ft
deep and acrylic!

Anyone any suggestions/tips on shifting these without scratching the
acrylic? I'm currently using a Kent pro scraper/mop but the scraper is
occasionally scratching the acrylic and the mop wont budge the
diatoms!

tia,

Sky

if it is the stuff that is easily removed you could either try one of
the
algae magnets but be careful you do not pick up any grit at all or it
will
scratch the tank terribly or perhaps a rubber squeegee.

Rick