# fighting algae with sugar?



## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

anyone with a saltwater tank has probably heard of it for lowering nitrate and phosphate levels, or at least its alternative, the vodka method. i have come to believe that it might work with freshwater tanks as well. and this is where i delve into story time...

a couple of years ago i bought a mineral dietary supplement called coloidal minerals. it advertised having pretty much every trace mineral your body could ever need, so i figured i would test it out to see if it made me feel more healthy. after taking it for a month or so, i noticed no difference and since the taste was awful, i stopped taking it. being stuck with plenty of this nasty stuff i decided to put it to good use and tried adding it to a small tank of mine that had a lot of java fern and java moss, plus a nasty algae problem. i figured the trace minerals might help the plants grow and suck up nitrates faster, competing with the algae. after dosing a teaspoon every other day, the algae all but vanished. thinking i had figured out the algae solution, i went out and bought several mineral supplements in many different forms. after dosing other tanks with these and not getting the same results, i went back to the colloidal mineral supplement. thats when i noticed that it had one ingredient the other mineral additives did not: sugar. i had been adding just under a gram of sugar to my ten gallon tank. i then remembered reading about the vodka method for saltwater tanks and that some people were using sugar as an alternative to vodka, so it made sense that it could have been the sugar that was fighting the algae, by removing nitrates and phosphates. i started adding .5 grams of sugar per ten gallons of water to my main planted community tank. the first time i added it, the water became slightly cloudy, but cleared up in about 8 hours. i kept this dose up for about two weeks, every other day, noticing less and less clouding each time. the results were incredible. the algae all died off of surfaces that i didnt even want the algae to die from. my fish are all more colorful than ever and now i dont have to scrub the tank once a week. the only downside im seeing is the drop in plant growth, except for my slow growers, which seem to have sprung to life. i tested this method on a couple tanks while following the nitrate and phosphate levels and sure enough, they start dropping off with the first dose. it seems it works the same way in a freshwater tank as it does in saltwater. what i still havent figured out yet is the effect it has on my fish. if i remove the nitrates and phosphates with water changes the fish get duller in color, if i use the sugar method, they get brighter. i havent determined a lethal dose for fish yet, as i dont have any fish im willing to kill off, but i imagine testing it on a fishless tank and monitoring O2 levels would give a good idea of how much is too much. anyway, has anyone else heard of doing this for freshwater tanks? my fish all seem healthier since i started trying it, so it defenitely has me interested.


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## theguppyman (Jan 10, 2010)

Never heard of this before, you really have made a worth while discovery thanks for sharing I'm sure some of our more adventurous members will be willing to experiment and get to the bottom of this.


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

i sure hope people are willing to try it. i have tried almost every algae treatment under the sun, and this seems to beat them all. i still believe that balancing nutrient levels is the better way to go, but at the same time, i know how frustrating it can be sometimes. im thinking this might be most beneficial to those who keep mostly slow-growing plants, since they dont need much nitrate or phosphate to thrive, and since they seem to be the most prone to algae ruining the appearance of thier plants.(anyone who has ever had an anubias covered in nasty dark green algae knows what i mean...) 

i have actualy been testing this for a year now, but the army being what it is, i am not going to be able to continue testing it for a while. thats one of the reasons i decided to post about it now, so somebody else can try it while i am unable to continue testing the method. something i should mention, i have also tested alchohal, with similar results. the main difference i noticed is that it takes longer to work, and the cloudiness in the water takes longer to clear, but it doesnt get quite as cloudy. i was using 2ml of everclear 151 in 60 gallons, and it takes about two days for the water to clear. i havent played with the dosage much, so i guess ill leave that up to someone else. anyway, i really hope others try this out, as i am really interested in how it might work for other people.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Forget treatmenets, IMO. Solve algae problems with nitrate and light reduction. If you have a planted tank, add gobbs of stem plants in addition.


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## Auban (Aug 8, 2010)

just some more thoughts on this...

i know there are plenty of people who would say that this is just a quick fix for a nutrient balance problem. these same people would also probably say that nitrates should be removed with weekly water changes. although i agree that water changes are a good thing, i view them as a quick fix if the tank would quickly fail without one. i view anything that must be done over and over again to maintain a balance as a quick fix. that said, what i am really interested in is what effect prolonged use of sugar has on the health of the fish. after a year of trying it, my fish are very colorful and very active. in one of my tanks, i regularly over stock and over feed, and i have never done a water change. i rarely lose a fish, and the only ones i do lose are huge and old. i have been adding sugar to it about once a week for the last year.


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