Algae Issue

[777james777]

Iv had my tank for about a year and a half. It’s a 160 litre tank.
Iv never had an algae problem before, maybe the tiniest bit here and there but recently it’s starting to grow.

I clean the tank roughly once every 12-14 days
One week a remove 75% of the water and then the next week I remove about 85% of the water (alternatively)

I wipe the algae of with kitchen roll when the water levels dropped but it grows back at around day 7 by day 10 is on the glass

It only really effect the front of the tank, the lights on for about 6-7 hours a day

Also side note, is there a way I can get the light to come on gently rather then just off and incase it stresses the fish

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I think that's kind of normal to see algae by day 10? It's just part and parcel of having a living ecosystem in my opinion. You could try giving the glass a wipe once a week to stay on top of it? I use a hygger magnet to do mine, so quick and easy and I don't even get my hands wet

 

[enricosonic]

Once algae gets going it really gains momentum, even when seemingly scraped off. Depending on your lights/hood/cover situation, reducing the amount of light, in addition to the duration, can help. I place plastic cards on the glass panel above the water (under the lights) to diffuse/reduce the full strength of them.

That Hygger magnet CaptainBarnicles mentioned is worth the extra cash. I had a crummy magnet cleaner from Aqueon and too often I'd overestimate it's magnetic pull and watch the inner part tumble to the bottom.

There's probably a higher tech solution to gradual on/off lighting, but I just turn on nearby lights then later the tank lights. After awhile I've come to believe my fish don't really care and are not shocked nor adversely affected by straight up light-to-dark, and vice versa.

 

[Colin_T]

Post a picture of the algae so we know what type it is. Have the tank light on too so we can see how bright it is. Take a picture showing the entire aquarium so we can see how many plants you have.

Algae grows anywhere there is water, light and nutrients. In an aquarium with lots of live plants, algae will have trouble growing because the plants use the light and nutrients. If you don't have many live plants, then algae will grow instead.

 

[Lcc86]

I started getting this problem recently, realised I was probably overfeeding my frogs a bit which kicked it off. I cut back on feeding, manually wiped off as much algae as I could and then kept the lights off for three or four days. It made a massive difference.

 

[MuddyWaters]

I get algae (or MORE algae) in 2 of my tanks in Jan/Feb because the position of the sun puts light on the tank during that time of year. Mostly I just deal with it because I somehow think the sun shining a bit in the tank has got to have some positive effect in addition to the negative algae (negative to my sense of what's pretty, anyway). Adjusting the light and the food and the time the light is on are the things that will work the best.

What you described, in my opinion, isn't that much, though, honestly. I guess it's all about what you find tolerable, though, isn't it?

On your question about the light ramping up and down like sunrise and sunset- if you have an LED light you can get a device that plugs into your power cord that will do this. I just bought one for a new tank I have. It has several useful settings and is relatively cheap. You have to have a power cord that has a plug in the middle, though like in the pic below: