Algae growth

I am facing 2 problems and have run out of ideas.
1. What is that brown stuff growing on my live plants and ornaments? Is it bad (it won't be good for the plants)? How do I get rid of it?
2. I am pretty sure this is blue-green algae. I scoop out the affected sand and all is good for a couple of days, then I find if pops up somewhere else in the tank.

I have had the tank running for nearly 4 years with zero problems, but this year it is a real problem.

I have a 110l tank with an FX4 pump/filter and change 10l water weekly, and have to top up about 10l weekly for evaporation (the top of the tank is open).
The tank is about 8 feet (2.5m) from a north facing window.
The lighting is LEDs on a timer for about 6 hours a day (plus 2 hours blue light overnight).
2 small air stones at the back of the tank.
I also put in Algae clear weekly

Please help.

This algae is pretty easy to control

1st. Reduce your light intensity some more.

2nd. If you need to add 10 liter of water per week to top off the tank, you should at least be changing 4-5 times that quantity of water per week to prevent mineral buildup at the same time also prevent nutrients buildup that promotes algae.

At the moment you might need a more intensive and stronger water change routine until you deplete the water from the excess of nutrients.

If it was good for 4 years, there's no reasons you couldn't bring it back there.

MaloK said:

This algae is pretty easy to control

1st. Reduce your light intensity some more.

2nd. If you need to add 10 liter of water per week to top off the tank, you should at least be changing 4-5 times that quantity of water per week to prevent mineral buildup at the same time also prevent nutrients buildup that promotes algae.

At the moment you might need a more intensive and stronger water change routine until you deplete the water from the excess of nutrients.

If it was good for 4 years, there's no reasons you couldn't bring it back there.

Click to expand...

Hi MaloK,
Really helpful, thank you.

Just thinking about ow compared to 4 years ago, it was around 6 months ago I replaced the lighting and took out the cover flaps from the top, if I reinstall them to cut down the evaporation will that reduce the need to change 40-50l of water each week as that's half the water volume.

The black/ brown fluffy stuff on the plant leaves is black beard algae. It's a pain in the backside to get rid of. This love nutrients but once it's in a tank, it's really hard to get rid of. You have to get the right amount of light and nutrients for the plants to grow but not too much for the algae.

The green slime on the sand and black slime on the glass is blue green algae (Cyanobacter bacteria). It loves red light, nutrients, slow water movement and low oxygen levels. Make sure the light has a 6500K globe. Increase water movement around the bottom if there isn't much. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a few weeks to physically remove it and dilute the nutrients. If you still can't get rid of it, get some ultralife blue green slime stain remover like the stuff in the following link.

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Gary_W said:

Hi MaloK,
Really helpful, thank you.

Just thinking about ow compared to 4 years ago, it was around 6 months ago I replaced the lighting and took out the cover flaps from the top, if I reinstall them to cut down the evaporation will that reduce the need to change 40-50l of water each week as that's half the water volume.

Click to expand...

Reducing evaporation makes no difference to water changes and neither does topping up the tank between water changes.

You should do a 50-75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every week while you have fish in the tank. More often until you get the blue green algae under control and then once a week after that.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Gary_W said:

Hi MaloK,
Really helpful, thank you.

Just thinking about ow compared to 4 years ago, it was around 6 months ago I replaced the lighting and took out the cover flaps from the top, if I reinstall them to cut down the evaporation will that reduce the need to change 40-50l of water each week as that's half the water volume.

Click to expand...

Yes and no,

Colin is always in beast mode regarding water changes , 75% per day for a couple weeks is slightly overkill.

At the moment, I would go for 5 water changes of at least 50% or 9 of 25% in a short period like 15-18 days. So 50% every 3 days for 5 times or 25% every 2 days for 9. This will be enough to completely remove all surplus of nutrients in the water and bring it back to original chemistry not too fast.

Of course if any sign of stress in the fishes behaviors start to occur, cut back on the size and frequency.

Your tank is probably showing little signs of Old tank syndrome, difficult plant growth, algae tending to bloom...

If you have a Master Test Kit, compare your tank hardness results to your water source. What is your current PH ? If The PH in the tank is somewhat lower than your source... I would go with the 25% schedule not to make the water have a too violent chemistry swing.

If you have been changing 10% per week for a long time, even if the water is clear as crystal... You have some catching up to do, to re-balance your ecosystem.

Then I would maintain a 50% and more per weeks schedule that insures no unknown accumulation is possible.

Thanks for these replies.

Making sure the water flow gets to all parts of the tank has (so far) kept the blue-green algae away.
I have yet to check the tank water to local water but I'm pretty sure it's the same (very hard and 7.5Ph) and currently swapping out 25% of the water every 2 or 4 days, but will try increasing that to 50% as suggested.

The black-beard isn't getting worse, but obviously I need to do more to get rid of it.

FYI: Plant growth in the tank is quite prolific, a 2cm plant for the bank is now half way up the tank because I had to cut it back.

The Red Tail Shark's tail is still a good vibrant colour, but I don't know if this is indicative of anything.

In my experience I have gotten blue green algae when a tank is newly setup and when it gets older. If your tank has been setup for 4 years you might have accumulated nutrients deep in the substrate. Every time I do a deep clean on a tank, I find it amazing how much material is in the bottom layers of substrate, and I vacuum my tanks regularly. Because we have a contained system without the normal processes to deal with this nutrient accumulation it can build up. I haven't ever kept a fish tank setup for 4 years without a major change (always get bored with the setup), but I can say after 2 years there is a large amount of waste or nutrient in the lower reaches of substrate or under the plants or hardscape, it is difficult to keep those areas clean because you really cannot clean them without disturbing the tank greatly.

I would suggest checking how much waste material is in the substrate, I would also increase my water change routine as others have already suggested perhaps 50 liters weekly (hard to remove waste with only 10 liters of water). If there is a lot of brown muck in the bottom layers and you can get to it, you might be able to vacuum a lot of it out but otherwise you might want to consider a more drastic cleaning. In my opinion, and I am not an expert, heavy black beard algae and cyanobacteria together are in indication of high nutrient loading in the water, this is not necessarily detrimental to the fish, at least in the initial stages, but it won't be easy to control as time progresses.

I would be cautious using the Algae clear, it might be covering up symptoms of nutrient build up for a while now. I would also be cautious in stopping using it before you make changes to the tank setup, it might be what is holding things together. I notice that some of the algae control products neutralize the Nitrates, if you have a nitrate problem stopping its use might trigger more issues.

Good luck.