Hi guys....Just another question....Considering i have green algae on the rocks of my aquarium and just some small dots of algae on the glass..Do they actually provide anything to the fish
Food?? Oxygen??
actually..build up of "gunk" on the rocks is a good thing!
because its not just algae..its also a big part of the tanks "bio filter"..
the bio filter is all the beneficial bacteria that lives in the tanks filter media, but also on every surface in the tank..on all the gravel, on the glass, on rocks, on plants..etc..
when you clean the filter, you should only rinse out the filter media in the bucket of old tank water from the water change..never rinse it out in tap water, because the chlorine will kill the bacteria..
yes, technically the build up on the glass can be considered part of the tank's bio filter..
but its such a small amount, that cleaning the glass does not harm the overall balance of the tank..
but I wouldnt bother to ever clean rocks..all that nice green-brown biological buildup is beneficial to the balance of the tank..its not literal food for the fish, but it still helps them by neutralizing the ammonia they excrete..
also, when you clean the gravel, you should only use the gravel vaccum to remove the big solid chunks of waste (mostly fish excrement)..there is no need to ever physically remove the gravel from the tank and clean it..
My planted tank has been running for 15 years now..I have never once removed the gravel..I only vaccum it..the bio filter also lives on every particle of gravel in the substrate..
If you are using a Under Gravel Filter (UGF) then you have more serious cleaning issues..
but hopefully UGF's are slowly going extinct..please dont use one..they are no good.
the only exception to this "beneficial buildup" on tank surfaces is blue-green algae..which is a bad thing and needs to be removed (killed)..but you will know if you have that..it forms gunky green mats that grow all over everything..its obvious..
but if you just have a thin layer of stuff coating the rocks, that doesnt actually grow in long strands out into the water..then that is fine..and actually a good thing.
if you have *pretty* rocks you want to keep clean, so you can see the surface of the rocks, it wont *hurt* anything to keep them scrubbed off..but its not necessary either.
Scot