# Is algae bad?



## finnfinnfriend (Feb 3, 2012)

I left the aquarium light off for a few days and sure enough, there some algae on one of my decorations :roll: ....It's only a tiny bit though and I dont really want to stir things up because I'm trying to cycle....so is it harmful?


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

If it was bad all my fish would be dead as I have algae and fuzzies in all of my tanks.

Only 'algae' that is bad is blue-green algae which is actually a cyanobacteria. 

Algae is generally unsightly, annoying and harmless.


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## Micho (Aug 22, 2011)

In a planted tank, algae is actually a sign of a healthy tank, but I'm assuming your tank isn't planted? 

Algae will appear due to a lot of factors most common ones are: excessive amounts of sunlight or light in general, excess in nutrients (overdosed on ferts), or high levels of ammonia/nitrAtes. 

Since you're cycling there's probably because of the excess ammonia you're working with, that's why algae is growing. A little bit of algae is not necessarily bad, just not aesthetically pleasing. . You can always just wipe it off, manually removing algae is always the best way.


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## ao (Feb 29, 2012)

too many will affect your cycle, if if its just a tiny amount it will be fine


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## finnfinnfriend (Feb 3, 2012)

okay cool thanks. The ammonia shouldn't be harming my fish too much either because I have been adding Prime to the water if my test shows a little ammonia. That way it wont hurt Finn, but the bacteria still have something to eat.


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## Micho (Aug 22, 2011)

You shouldn't be just relying on Prime to control ammonia, yes Prime detoxifies ammonia and changes it to ammonium, but it should be used in emergencies (as in when you can't do a water change to tone down the ammonia levels because you got hit by a bus or something like that). 

You should be doing water changes to ensure that ammonia levels are down, not just using Prime.


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## finnfinnfriend (Feb 3, 2012)

Micho said:


> You shouldn't be just relying on Prime to control ammonia, yes Prime detoxifies ammonia and changes it to ammonium, but it should be used in emergencies (as in when you can't do a water change to tone down the ammonia levels because you got hit by a bus or something like that).
> 
> You should be doing water changes to ensure that ammonia levels are down, not just using Prime.


I know.


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