Can someone explain to me how Amano's tanks are algae free? - General Aquarium Plants Discussions

trckrunrmike · 09-29-2005, 04:54 PM

We've all had our fights with algae ranging from BGA to thread algae. I'm just wondering how Amano keeps his tanks so clean with the ammount of light he has and the fish load and ferts. I picked up a AquaJornal in HK this past summer. It's descriptions only tell me of Ottos and Amano shrimp in his tank as algae eaters. We know that Ottos don't eat thread algae and Amano shrimp only eat a few selected types of algae. I never see any Ottos or Amano shrimp in his tanks ever so he either has a huge army of these algae eaters or just takes them out of his tank before he takes pictures of them. So how could all these tanks be absolutely algae free? or is it that his tanks just don't get algae.

plantbrain · 09-29-2005, 05:00 PM

It's no mystery.

Work, lots of plants from day one, good maintenance.

I have tanks with no fish/shrimp/snails etc at all and no algae you can see.

Regards,
Tom Barr

AaronT · 09-29-2005, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trckrunrmike

We've all had our fights with algae ranging from BGA to thread algae. I'm just wondering how Amano keeps his tanks so clean with the ammount of light he has and the fish load and ferts. I picked up a AquaJornal in HK this past summer. It's descriptions only tell me of Ottos and Amano shrimp in his tank as algae eaters. We know that Ottos don't eat thread algae and Amano shrimp only eat a few selected types of algae. I never see any Ottos or Amano shrimp in his tanks ever so he either has a huge army of these algae eaters or just takes them out of his tank before he takes pictures of them. So how could all these tanks be absolutely algae free? or is it that his tanks just don't get algae.

If you're not seeing Amano shrimp or ottos in his tanks ever you're not looking hard enough because he uses a ton.

Amano also only uses those really intense lights for 4-5 hours a day and the rest is very low light.

But the real reasons are practice, maintenance, and more practice.

Laith · 09-29-2005, 10:17 PM

And I imagine a whole team of people who spend all day doing nothing but mainentance...

plantbrain · 09-30-2005, 05:16 PM

No, if you attend to your tank every 3 days or so, you can keep it looking spiffy.

Weekely will work once going and if you use less light, he used lots of light but only for 3 or so hours, they are low light tanks otherwise.

Reduces the pruning etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr

djlen · 10-01-2005, 06:30 AM

Not sure what his methods are, but I would bet a lot of his success in this area revolves around the word balance.
I have 5 tanks, and two of them 'run themselves' and have so for about 2 years now because I have found the exact balance of fish, plants and nutrients to balance the light over them. Maybe once every three months I have to scrape a bit of 'glass algae' off the sides of the tank, but that's it.
Amano has all the knowledge, materials and people at his disposal, to set up and run a tank from the beginning, that will pretty much 'run itself'.

Len

neilw · 10-01-2005, 03:33 PM

I think its a combination of different factors, firstly their substrate system is very good so the plants grow quickly, look at some of ADGs posts about the substrate. Secondly I've read some guides on setting up ADA tanks, the alage is allowed to appear and 'burn' itself out, then they add a lot of c japonica and ottos, you are taking about 30 - 40 for a 60cm tank, and also ottos, while manually removing some of the worse algae, I was pretty shocked when I saw this. I'm not sure how effective ottos are other than keeping the glass clean of brown algae. After this period then a lot of the shrimp are removed and kept in a separate tank, it all seems to be ok. They also dose with green brightly step 1 for the first couple of months I think. This is what I've managed to find out but ADG will give you a better idea obviously as they're doing these tanks in the flesh.