Algae Help !

R

rdracer66

Large Fish
#1
Oct 22, 2002
192
0
0
Longmont Colorado
www.imagestation.com
#1
Hi All I have a tank that is getting out of control with Algae
it's a 10 gallon and all i have in it is 5 TigerBarb's and some sore of mini mini plecko, when i got him last week I had algae on the glass well he's managed to clean it v ery well however the water is cloudy and u can see on the gravel and a couple of the rocks i have in it that there's Green Algae everywhere
I did  10% water change as i do every sunday (once a week) I also tested the water and all levels are good !
so not sure whats causing this !
Any Ideas ???
 

equinom

equinom

Large Fish
#5
Oct 22, 2002
386
0
0
The Blue Planet
#5
I believe that I have read here (MyFishTank.) that if you don't have live plants, you don't need to leave the light on.  To reduce the problems with algae, only turn the lights on when you are watching/feeding/working on the tank.
Of course, when performing maintenance, the power should be off -   I would be willing to bet that limiting the lighting would help.  (It's also cheaper!)  

Another thought is that since you don't have live plants, what about trying one of those algae deystoyers?  I believe it can be added to the water when preparing it for the next scheduled change... I think you might want to read up on those before trying them - I think I saw mixed reviews on those products...    
 

R

ronrca

Guest
#7
#7

Good idea to have a schedule and have about having the lights on only when you are home. For example in the mornings for a couple of hours and then again in the evening.

Of course, probably the best thing to do if you can afford it is get a uv filter. That will take care of algae problems. Maybe not totally get rid of it but minimize it.
 

Matt Nace

Matt Nace

Superstar Fish
#8
Oct 22, 2002
1,470
1
38
Pennsylvania
#8
Algae is a natural part of the aquarium. You are not going to beat it. Green algae is good algae.

Limit the lights? now you have brown algae(diatoms), which is ugly.

The green algae is pretty on rocks IMO. If you don't like it, clean the rock when you do a water change with diluted bleach. It will kill the algae.

You could also get an otto, which may stay on the fake plants and the rocks. But I doubt you want another fish in that 10 g.

The pleco may even goto the rock if it gets hungry enough. As long as it doesn't turn into hair algae or thread, I would think it would look nice. But bleach will put the rock back to normal in no time.

I love using bleach!

Make sure you don't over feed, and vaccum that gravel good.

Cloudy water sounds like you are cycling. How long is the tank been up?

A regular schedule for lighting is the best way for the fish. Mine come on from 12:00pm to 12:00am. If I didn't have plants, I would probebly go from 3pm to 11pm, Or 8 hours.

I personally do not use chemicals to control algae, but that is me.
 

R

rdracer66

Large Fish
#9
Oct 22, 2002
192
0
0
Longmont Colorado
www.imagestation.com
#9
The tank has been up for about 2 months and i dont care about the gravel having green on it, i just want the water to be clean again, I bought a bubble stick last nite to make sure the water is getting agitated enough which it should have been with the penguin and the walmart cheapo in there
but i wanted to be on the safe side, I did a water change yesterday nite because it was due for a water change anyways, but it's still cloudy !
Rd
 

C

Cichlid-Dude

Small Fish
#10
Oct 22, 2002
11
0
0
#10
rdracer66,

Is the Algae bright green, or more or a darker blue-green?

If you have blue-green algae, turning the lights off will only make the Algae problem worse.

To eliminate blue-green algae, read the excellent article on this website.

http://www.myfishtank.net/articles/bga.php

Good Luck
 

A

aznpanther98

Large Fish
#12
Oct 22, 2002
341
0
16
Silver Spring, MD
#12
i have  10 gal planted thats been up for about two months now and at first had cloudy water i just did 10% change every other day well after about a few weeks of doing that i just did a 50% change with aged water thats about 5 gal so after that few days later the water started clearing up maybe just the bacteria and plants starting to beat the algae for nutrients but now it's clear with algae on the glass and some on rocks and plants but my pleco and otos are taking care of that i also added some gravel from an established tank so that kinda helped cycle the tank, also whats ur nitrites and ammonia level?
 

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