Alage Growth In 1st Month..

[jvoigt]

so i set up my 20 gallon and its through the cycle and been running steady for about a month.. im starting to see my decoration and gravel bottom being attacked by alage.. it looks like its growing at a fast rate and is going to make a mess of my tank.. what can i do to slow it down if not stop it?

 

[Biulu]

so i set up my 20 gallon and its through the cycle and been running steady for about a month.. im starting to see my decoration and gravel bottom being attacked by alage.. it looks like its growing at a fast rate and is going to make a mess of my tank.. what can i do to slow it down if not stop it?

Maybe you can give some more information on your tank, like type of algae, type of fish, feeding pattern (how much, how often for how many fish), and light conditions.

 

[jvoigt]

im not sure on what type of alage it is.. never have done study on alage types...

the fish i have is 1 plec, and a small green spotted puffer. i feed him a small pinch of mysis shrimp every morning. the sg is 1.003. my nitrite is 20. ph 8.0, temp is 79 degrees ( which i think may be the cause of the alage ) and i do a water change about once ever 4 days.

 

[K.J.]

Is it brown? If so, it's normal in a new tank and should go away or can be easily scraped off.

 

[jvoigt]

yeh i would say its brown.. so should i just let it build up and it should go away?

 

[celaeno]

im not sure on what type of alage it is.. never have done study on alage types...

the fish i have is 1 plec, and a small green spotted puffer. i feed him a small pinch of mysis shrimp every morning. the sg is 1.003. my nitrite is 20. ph 8.0, temp is 79 degrees ( which i think may be the cause of the alage ) and i do a water change about once ever 4 days.

what's sg? do you mean your nitrAte is 20? i don't think temperature has much effect on algae growth.

yeh i would say its brown.. so should i just let it build up and it should go away?

brown algae is aka diatom algae and supposedly grows in areas where there is not enough light. it won't go away by itself unless you change the light, which if too bright, will give you a different type of algae i think.

other ways to get rid of brown algae are to scrub it off or get some ottos.

 

[jvoigt]

sg is specific gravity.. saltwater terms.. its a brackish tank.. anyway its a 17 watt whight light

 

[Tessla]

If you don't have any plants in there, an easy solution would be to decrease the hours of light your tank gets. I personally leave algae on nearly every surface except for the front glass and plant leaves when I get any as it doesn't hurt anything; it actually removes nitrates from your water.

However, if that's a green spotted puffer and not some other puffer that looks similar to the green spotted puffer, you'll be wanting to increase sailinity (gradually of course) by quite a bit. When fully grown they need full salt water and pretty much any increase will be bad for your plec, they need fresh water. Also, if that's a common or sailfin plec, it will need a much much larger tank. I'd suggest rehoming the plec and keeping the puffer by himself so that you can tend to his needs. Pretty sure the minimum for a single adult green spotted puffer is 30 gallons, so you'll probably want to upgrade his tank eventually but the 20 gallon should be fine for a while.

 

[jvoigt]

i do plan on all that in the future.. right now my fish are very small but will be moved to a bigger tank when the time arrives..

i have one java fern in the corner but its doing horrible.. its turing brown and shrivling up.. i was told they can handle brackish water?

 

[Tessla]

Supposedly java fern can handle very low end brackish, but I wouldn't bother with it in a GSP tank as you'll be wanting to slowly raise the salinity every week, your current salinity is low even for a little guy. The Puffer Forum has a nice article on them (good information on puffers on that site.) Hopefully you've got another place to move the plec to?