Algae problem cant get rid of the green water no matter what we do! Feel like giving up!

[newtothis2023]

The other obvious thing you can control is the light. How long are your lights on per day? These should be on a timer so its the same every day. The lighted period does not have to correspond with daytime, although in a bright room it would make sense to shield the tank from direct sunlight if you plan to use the lights at night. I would start by having your lights on for 6 hours per day. If the algae clears you can gradually increase the duration as long as you seen no more algae.

If you are able to reduce the light intensity do so. One of my tanks that came with lights included (and looks similar to yours) I run the lights at only 35% of their max brightness. Gouramis live in heavily vegetated rivers, so do not get a lot of bright light in the wild, and would appreciate a lot more plants, as others have said this will also help with the algae.

The other obvious thing you can control is the light. How long are your lights on per day? These should be on a timer so its the same every day. The lighted period does not have to correspond with daytime, although in a bright room it would make sense to shield the tank from direct sunlight if you plan to use the lights at night. I would start by having your lights on for 6 hours per day. If the algae clears you can gradually increase the duration as long as you seen no more algae.

If you are able to reduce the light intensity do so. One of my tanks that came with lights included (and looks similar to yours) I run the lights at only 35% of their max brightness. Gouramis live in heavily vegetated rivers, so do not get a lot of bright light in the wild, and would appreciate a lot more plants, as others have said this will also help with the algae.

Hi thanks for your message..how did you reduce the light intensity on your lights? I have no clue how to do this but would like to give it a go see if that helps aswell?

Thanks

 

[newtothis2023]

Hi we are relatively new to keeping fish my son was bought a 70 ltr tank, gravel, filter pump, light the whole shabang along with 2 x Guramis to start up with in October 2022. We used a water conditioner and bio boost at first and changed water weekly 7ltr per week. It got really bad to the point we could barely see the ornaments inside. So my husband now does twice a week 14ltr change each time with no bio boost. We got more fish 4 neons, 2 x snails and 1 catfish(to help with the algae). It was starting to look better but slowly but surely the water is getting greener and harder to see again! We tried turning the light off for a few days but this has not made much difference. Thinking of doing 50% water change tonight. Oh and forgot to mention we clean filter sponges once a week too. We do have a gravel cleaning pump which we use to but not sure how effective this one actually is.

So really want to know is what are we doing wrong and how can we get crystal clear water like everyone else seems too! We want to be able to enjoy the fish!

Any help will be much appreciated

Hi update

We got more plants (and now give them fertiliser), larger water changes, reduced the light to 6 hrs per day on a timer, reduce fish food and seems to be doing the trick!! Thanks for all your advise!
One thing we still need to try is testing the water ourselves..we are going to give this ago soon so will update again....

 

[newtothis2023]

Hi update

We got more plants (and now give them fertiliser), larger water changes, reduced the light to 6 hrs per day on a timer, reduce fish food and seems to be doing the trick!! Thanks for all your advise!
One thing we still need to try is testing the water ourselves..we are going to give this ago soon so will update again....

Oh and we put a deeper gravel substrate in for the plants but no soil substrate is this necessary or will our plants thrive as they are in gravel? It's not cheap keeping fish lol

 

[newtothis2023]

Hi update

We got more plants (and now give them fertiliser), larger water changes, reduced the light to 6 hrs per day on a timer, reduce fish food and seems to be doing the trick!! Thanks for all your advise!
One thing we still need to try is testing the water ourselves..we are going to give this ago soon so will update again....Oh and we put a deeper gravel substrate in for the plants but no soil substrate is this necessary or will our plants thrive as they are in gravel? It's not cheap keeping fish lol

 

[Byron]

Oh and we put a deeper gravel substrate in for the plants but no soil substrate is this necessary or will our plants thrive as they are in gravel? It's not cheap keeping fish lol

You do not need any sort of plant substrate, inert gravel or sand is frankly better because there is less to go wrong and harm fish. You may need plant substrate and/or liquid fertilizer. Are you using any now? The sword plants will definitely imrove with the substrate tab, I use Seachem's Flourish Tabs, one by each sword, replaced every 3-4 months. The other plants would benefit from liquid comprehensive maybe.

 

[Playsander]

The more fast growing plants the better. They will outcompete the algea. As for surface plants, the fastest growing is duck weed, but don't get this unless you ate prepared to be over run with it. Or just accept it as I have.

I also feel a small amount of algea acyualy improves the look of the tank. Just my opinion.

 

[newtothis2023]

Can you recommend any other fast growing plants or floaters I don't know the best ones to get I am not familiar with any as very new to this. Thanks

 

[newtothis2023]

You do not need any sort of plant substrate, inert gravel or sand is frankly better because there is less to go wrong and harm fish. You may need plant substrate and/or liquid fertilizer. Are you using any now? The sword plants will definitely imrove with the substrate tab, I use Seachem's Flourish Tabs, one by each sword, replaced every 3-4 months. The other plants would benefit from liquid comprehensive maybe.

That's good to know there are so many options it gets really confusing we were also wondering of we need tp buy one of those C02 kids that come win the cans of co2 that you put into water supply for the plants...is that necessary or will they be fine without? We do give the plants a liquid fertiliser that we just bought from pets at home. So you would suggest the fertiliser tabs for the sword plants? Thanks

 

[newtothis2023]

The more fast growing plants the better. They will outcompete the algea. As for surface plants, the fastest growing is duck weed, but don't get this unless you ate prepared to be over run with it. Or just accept it as I have.

I also feel a small amount of algea acyualy improves the look of the tank. Just my opinion.

Can you recommend any other fast growing plants or floaters I don't know the best ones to get I am not familiar with any as very new to this. Thanks

 

[Byron]

That's good to know there are so many options it gets really confusing we were also wondering of we need tp buy one of those C02 kids that come win the cans of co2 that you put into water supply for the plants...is that necessary or will they be fine without? We do give the plants a liquid fertiliser that we just bought from pets at home. So you would suggest the fertiliser tabs for the sword plants? Thanks

You do not need CO2. Plants need 17 nutrients and light. The intensity and spectrum matter, and the nutrients have to be available or you will just have problem algae. Carbon is an important nutrient, but there is a lot of natural CO2 occurring in an aquarium with fish that are fed, primarily in the breakdown of organic matter in the substrate. If you were to use diffused CO2, you then need to increase the light intensity to balance, plus all the other nutrients. These things impact fish. You are better off with a natural or low-tech method planted tank. The fish will be healthier for it.

As for fertilizers, you want a comprehensive supplement. The 17 nutrients have to be balanced for the plants to avoid other problems. You are in the UK so look for TNC Lite. This has what you need, does not have what you do not need, and the nutrients are in balance.

Can you recommend any other fast growing plants or floaters I don't know the best ones to get I am not familiar with any as very new to this. Thanks

Floating plants grow faster and I would try to get one or more of the "substantial" species. Water Sprite is my favourite, two others are Water Lettuce and Tropical Frogbit. Some stem plants do well floating, Pennywort is quite lovely.

 

[Aqua67]

When I had green water so thick in my goldfish tank that I couldn’t see the fish, I put in some beneficial bacteria (like API Quick Start) before I went to bed, turned off the aquarium light, and in the morning it was clear as could be.

 

[seangee]

Floating plants grow faster and I would try to get one or more of the "substantial" species. Water Sprite is my favourite, two others are Water Lettuce and Tropical Frogbit. Some stem plants do well floating, Pennywort is quite lovely.

I like Amazon frogbit - although it grows fast you simply scoop out the surplus, and its big enough that if you no longer want it you simply take it out (unlike duckweed which is nigh impossible to eradicate). For example see here. (You can trim the roots if you choose)

Be careful what you buy in the UK. Amazon (what @Byron call tropical) frogbit is hard to come buy in the UK at present. Much of what you see on sites like Amazon is actually European frogbit, grown outdoors and likely to die in a tropical tank. What you are looking for is limnobium laevigatum - and NOT hydrocharis morsus-ranae.

Hint: It really is worth paying a bit extra for tissue cultured plants, that is the only way to guarantee that no duckweed hitch hikes its way in - and it only takes one leaf!!!

 

[BrianK]

a UV sterilizer would take care of that.

 

[Byron]

@seangee is correct and I have two stories on the Frogbit I had that illustrate the issue. I acquired two very sickly near-dead plants from a good fish store, labelled as Amazon Frogbit. Took them home, and they quickly began to recover and sent out their surface runners with numerous little plants, quite lovely. It even bloomed, which pleased me, as my lighting has never been more than moderate (for the sake of the fish) and flowering of most lower plants has been rare. At the time I was in charge of the species profiles on another forum based in the USA, and I added a profile of this plant, including the photos. I naturally called it Amazon Frogbit, Limnobium laevigatum. Some few weeks later the site owner emailed me about this profile. He had received an email from someone in the US Department of Agriculture, and he asked me to respond since he knew nothing about the plant. The official pointed out that the flowers indicated this plant to be Hydrocharis morsus-ranae which as seangee rightly mentioned is a temperate species [I'll have more on this below]. "Frogbit" in general is classed as a noxious weed in several US states, and the official asked us to remove the profile and discourage anyone in the US from keeping it, or we could face charges. I changed the profile to ensure it was the tropical species, and removed the photos. US Agriculture was satisfied.

Many plants in this hobby can only be determined as to species by the flowers. This is true for many of the Cryptocoryne, the Vallisneria, and some of the Echinodorus species of sword plants. I will add the photos of my plants in bloom, but first here is the text I added to the profile to get us out of trouble with the American Agriculture folks. It is a good explanation of just how invasive the temperate species are, hence the concern from US Agriculture.

There are other plants very similar in appearance that may be confused with Limnobium laevigatum. L. spongia is a native North American Frogbit, and Hydrocharis morsus-ranae is a European/Asian plant sometimes referred to as Common or European Frogbit. This latter is a very invasive plant that was intentionally introduced into North America via Ottawa, Canada in 1932. It has since spread quickly and by 2003 was known to occur throughout much of southeastern Ontario, southern Quebec, northern New York and Vermont and eastern Michigan. "Frogbit" is classified in several states including California and Washington as a noxious weed. It is likely that some aquarium plants are in fact not L. laevigatum but one of the other two.​

 

[Playsander]

Floating plants grow faster and I would try to get one or more of the "substantial" species. Water Sprite is my favourite, two others are Water Lettuce and Tropical Frogbit. Some stem plants do well floating, Pennywort is quite lovely.

Pennywort is beautiful and very fast growing as is Hornwort. I have introduced Hornwort into my tank and it grows like mad and looks amazing.