I have just cleaned the front wall of my aquarium from the algae (long, stringy, cotton-like green strands that danced with the current and made the glass half-opaque) and even though I did a mediocre job (because I have not an adequate tool for doing this) I am still stunned and enchanted by having the clear sight inside, I feel like cataracts patient after surgical treatment :D
I would like to claim that I was inspired to clean the front glass wall because of the spring cleaning campaign, but I cannot :D the algae density had been unbearable for at least a week or two, so it was planned all along.
Nothing, the scrapped-off algae mostly just get released to freely float in the water as really small particles, the majority of them ends up sucked into the filter and small amounts get eaten by fish and shrimps. However, sometimes the algae grow not only on walls, but also on the water surface - then I just grab the filthy-looking slimy mass and throw it out.
It looks mesmerizing while underwater (like green cotton, in my imagination it's like apple-flavor sugar candy cotton), but they look disgusting once taken out of water and those growing on water surface tend to foam and trap bubbles in their biomass (like a giant, green saliva spit, or phlegm coughed up by pneumonia patient).
On some occasion I don't immediately throw them to garbage and they end drying up - in this state they look like compressed flakes of some bio-food from those green groceries, almost appetizing.
Fish are mostly opportunistic feeders and most of them will eat algae from walls; I guess you mean these specific fish with suggestive names like Siamese algae eater or others like Hypostomus plecostomus (suck-mouth fish) that glue themselves by mouth to the walls. But no fish could ever clean it as good as you can do it yourself. Also, small shrimps are eating algae from the walls, but I already have shrimps.
And this algae-eating fish thing is fishy anyway because one of the most commonly known algae-eating fish is that H. plecostomus, a lot of people say that it is good for this purpose, but the reality is that it is one of the worst: it doesn't clean well, it is lazy especially after it grows a bit, and it is a giant that could grow up to 60 cm in length.
@JourneymanGeek Many of them are related to catfish, yes :D
@Elmy I have idea that we could add a community-wikia answer to your post that will be intended to contain links to all the previously-unanswered questions that have been answered in the context of "spring cleaning campaign"; and broadcast a message encouraging people to edit this post anytime they have answered a previously-unanswered question. It would create a sort of "hall of fame" and encourage people to participate; what do you think about this?
@lila don’t like it. Too much effort, especially with the upkeep. If I can be bothered to answer an old question (and let’s be honest, if it was a good, challenging question within my expertise I would probably have answered it already), I get my “reward” through the upvotes and not via another post that I have to remember to update on top of posting an answer. Or I’d forget, or...
And the “filter for unanswered questions” is crappy at best.
@lila I think that's a good idea! If that seems like too much work, then we could alter it so you simply write how many posts you've answered on Elmy's post. It would be an honest system, but I doubt anyone would say they've done more spring cleaning than they have. This way you wouldn't need links.
Or perhaps it is optional to link to your answer and update the meta post so if you didn't want to, someone else could. I certainly would be happy to!
Oh thank you for your responses and thanks @Nai54 for enthusiasm and support; yes, the work may look like much but I am willing to do it, I always like simple mind-numbing repetitive work like this, I am just interested whether you think it could be beneficial or encouraging; I also approve of the idea with just numbers instead of full list of links in case the full list turns out to be too much to do.
And also, I do not think that unanswered question filter is "****** at best", it works for me, you can write "answers:0" in search bar and include additional parameters as [fish] or other tags in search bar, then sort by activity or votes.
