Help Let algae colonize the glass

[Valerio]

Hi to all!
I clean only my front glass weekly. I just let algae (GSA and a bit of GDA) and biofilm grow on the other sides. I am a bit lazy and moreover I wanted to leave some free food for snails and now for my Otos. They were so skinny when I bought them, now they are pretty fat, they look like tadpoles! But the thing is I am getting BBA too on the rear and side glass recently.
About plants, GSA and BBA are only growing on old leaves, mainly of the slow growers. I keep removing those leaves, I remove organics from substrate etc and I am working on my CO2/ferts/lights things. But, excluding aesthetic reason, letting algae grow on the glass makes them "stronger"? I am afraid that it might make me harder to grow plants with little or no algae on their leaves if I have a colony on the glass.

 

[ElleDee]

Hmm, generally I think as long as glass algae doesn't get really thick you should be fine. I generally only scrape the front glass (because I am lazy and have lots of biofilm grazers), and while the amount of algae on the other panes varies over time, it isn't that serious and doesn't seem to affect anything else.

But as lax as I am about this stuff, I would probably draw the line at BBA , or if the algae build up didn't seem self limiting. That seems like a sign of a more serious balance issue and I would be more aggressive about cleaning house, even if that just meant scraping everything clean once and then monitoring the regrowth.

 

[JacksonL]

The problem with letting it grow thick, is it does become a base for BBA or other pest algaes to colonise. It also is a pain to clean if you leave it too long.
I have a routine of cleaning half of my hidden back wall each week, leaving half for the grazers, then cleaning the other half the next week. It allows a good amount of biofilm to grow, but only two weeks worth which prevents the thick coating of algae.

 

[Valerio]

Thank you very much! Yes the GSA have created some wide and quite thick spots on the rear glass, and BBA seem to prefer these area to grow. I have already started to remove the BBA that has appeared on the glass, so no mercy for them.
Next WC I will remove those "carpets" of GSA, then I will do as JacksonL suggested. It should leave enough food for the grazers plus I avoid to spend half an hour or more cleaning the glass every week. Even if I don't do a perfect job like for the front glass, it will be a big improvement.