Algae Issue's, Need Some Advice.

[Fluval-1200]

Ok I have a south facing tank, lights use to run 12 hours per day have now knocked it down to 10 per day.

I have lots of brown algae type spots all over my glass, ive wiped them off afew times but they keep appearing. Also have green stringy algae growing over my gravel and some sort of green algae plant growing fro my plants.


How do I remove the brown algae completely as its not very nice looking.


P.s, I do weekly water changes of 25-30% and all my levels are spot on.

 

[Ps3Steveo]

The brown will be diatoms, caused by ammonia in newly set up tanks, I'd knock down your lighting to a fair bit less if you want rid as ammonia+light=algae. Stringy stuff slimy?

 

[Chad]

A few questions.

1. How old is the tank?
2. How big is the tank?
3. What livestock is in there?
4. What and how often do you feed?

The algae sounds like (can't tell without a photo) a type that likes nitrates and ammonia though I've found it particularly fond of the nitrates. If you have elevated nitrate levels this can help promote it. It's likely you wouldn't show the nitrates in your testing since the algae is actually consuming it.

 

[Fluval-1200]

Its a 323L tank
1x sailfin pleco
4x albino tiger barbs
5x tiger barbs
2x smiling acaras
Tank is about 3 months old.

I feed once a day either flake food or an algae wafer.
Im just about to do a water test so I can give some accurate levels for you all, ive just looked at the tank and I have lots of white bubbles floating around and white dots stuck to the glass.

Ph 7.6
Amonnia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5


Im using the api test tube style kit.

 

[Fluval-1200]

The brown will be diatoms, caused by ammonia in newly set up tanks, I'd knock down your lighting to a fair bit less if you want rid as ammonia+light=algae. Stringy stuff slimy?

Its just brown patches atm

 

[Chad]

At three months old the tank is going into a phase I call "the uglies". Diatoms, cyanobacteria, and hair algae are pretty common at this point. Regular water changes which include sucking out as much of the muck and cyanobacteria as you can get tend to be enough to keep it in check while the tank finishes this phase and levels out.

 

[Fluval-1200]

Thanks for the help, ive been wanting to give it more regular gravel vacuums but keep being told not to lol.

just a thought I have plants in there to which ive been using fertiliser to help them grow, would that be feeding the algae. Should I stop fertilising or just carry on as normal ( I put 1 capful of it in per week)

 

[Ps3Steveo]

Don't stop fertilizing, your plants will suffer and die back creating more nutrients for the algae to feed from, just keep up the maintenance and vacuuming can stir up a lot of debris which can cause ammonia to spike but if you have plenty of plants I wouldn't bother unless its terribly dirty.

 

[Chad]

I agree with Steve, the plants need it. I don't know what plants you have or their needs. It might be possible that 1 capful is too much, though that doesn't seem like a lot to me.

 

[Fluval-1200]

Lots of camboba + 2 other little plants

 

[Chad]

Sounds about right then. Cabomba is pretty fast growing and so uses up quite a bit.

 

[SO19Firearms]

I take it the tank is planted?
If it is I'm guessing there's no CO2 with too much light.
5ppm Nitrate we can take to mean 0 too, so not enough plant food.

I'd probably look at taking the natural light away and drop the tank lighting to 6 or 8 hrs.


If it's not planted you can ignore all that.

 

[Fluval-1200]

I take it the tank is planted?
If it is I'm guessing there's no CO2 with too much light.
5ppm Nitrate we can take to mean 0 too, so not enough plant food.

I'd probably look at taking the natural light away and drop the tank lighting to 6 or 8 hrs.


If it's not planted you can ignore all that

Tank is planted
Not running any c02
Cant take the natural light away as the tank is infront of the window so gets about 12 hours or less or natural light per day lol.