my daughter has an acrylic fish tank with two goldfish...every week i do a partial water change..but how do i get rid of the algae off the sides of the tank without having to remove the fish? is there anything i can buy?

juliex

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Acrylic will scratch,so its hard to get off. Just rub with your fingers.
With glass,I use a scouring pad,or stanley blade

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Algae is a tough one, and its always best to find out the source for algae, rather than curing the symptom itself. you will never ever get a tank 100% algae free, but in a good, working aquarium, you shouldnt need to clean algae all that often.

the 2 causs of algae are excess light, and excess nutrients in the water

The easiest of these to solve would be light. is the tank in question lit? if so, for how longare the lights on per day? Lights in aquariums only really need be on 6-8 hours a day. the fish do not need the light to live, and it exists only to allow you to see the fish, therefore the light is redundant at time when you are not in the room with the fish. people often find that by only having the tank lit on evenings when your in the room, that algae slows its growth.
As well as this, if the tank is in direct sunlight, or close to a well lit window, then the natural light could fuel algae regardless of how long the tank is lit for. so it could be that simply moving it to a darker, shadier corner could help. The only other problem wth light is that the bulbs degrade over time. if the tank is lit, then check how old the bulbs are. over time, there is a slow shift in the wavelegth of light the bulbs produce. the bulbs are originally made to promote plant growth, but after about 6 months, they shift to one that favours algae over plants. therefore, changing the bulbs will often help.

Right, i think that just about covers light. the only other problem would be nutrients in the water. There could be 2 main caues of this. overstocking (which is a common problem with goldfish), and overfeeding.
overstocking is where you have too many fish for the size of tank. this means that the fish produce too much waste for the filters to remove, and this excess waste is what feeds the algae. for goldfish, the recomended stocking levels would be 1 standard goldfish (shubunkin, comet etc....) per 90L of water, or 1 fany goldfish (oranda, moor, lionhead etc...) per 50L of water. anything over this, and the tank would be classed as overstocked, which can lead to huge health problems in the fish, vastly reduced lifespans, as well as algae and general aesthetic problems. th obvious solution is to either upgrade to a sufficient sized tank (so, for 2 goldfish, depending on the type of goldie, you'd be looking at a minimum of 100L), or reduce your stock to suit the tank size.
Then there is overfeeding. Goldfish only need feeding once per day. the general rule is that you should give them enough food to keep them eating at the surface for about a minute. any more than this, and the food will fall to the substrate, and break down, causing the excess nutrient for the algae. type of food also affects this. granular or tablet fod break down a lot less than flake foods, and therefore are far better to feed to your fish.

in any case, whatever you do, you should never have to remove the fish from the water when cleaning the tank. this will case them a lot of stress.

hope this helps ^^
Fishy

thanks for your replies...i will try moving the tank a little and keeping the light off a little more..it is in her bedroom...i will also change the food at present as they are fed flakes

thanks

juleix

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Get yourself a few moss balls they compete with algae and prevent it growing.

Moss balls with have little to no effect on algae growth, as they are extremely slow growing. Any plant species used to combat algae need to grow fast enough to strip excess nutrients from the water. The algae will starve to death as a result.

Just buy an algae scraper from a pet store. Also, don't place your tank in direct sunlight to reduce algae growth.

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Carissa Montez
Writes about Goldfish Care