Cloudy tank

[Auttie_Pie1]

A few weeks ago some Alge started growing on my tank, but it was the brown stuff not green. I read somewhere that alge is good and I should let it grow and maybe my pleco might eat it. Well it didn’t and the alge got way out of hand and my tank was smelly and cloudy. I made a general conclusion that it was because I was over feeding and leaving my light on for to long (I don’t have a timer). So I looked for advice on Reddit (), and everyone there said to completely drain my tank, deep clean everything but the filter and put the fish back in. So I did just that and my tank was looking great and my fish (I felt like) were thriving. I limited the feeding, added a timer to my light, But just a few days ago it happened again. Came home, tank was smelly and cloudy and fish were way to chill. This time I decided to put my fish on a very little diet. Every other day once a night. And completely cut of all light so the alge dies. But this time around there isn’t any actual alge like the last time, it’s just cloudy and smelly. I don’t know what to do because both my methods have not worked and I don’t even understand what’s causing it to begin with. My tank looks cloudy, my fish are way chill than normal and I don’t see any brown or green alge growing this time. Also a quick note, it’s 10 gal, planted tank with sand, that has 7 small fish in it. I do 25% weekly water changes. I’ve owned this tank for about 2 months and I’m brand new to the hobby.

 

[Jinx_]

Is your tank cycled properly? For how long did you cycle? Are you able to give us you ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels? What kind of fish are in the tank? What is the pH and hardness (in degrees)? How often do you clean your filter? Do you throw out old media? For how long do you keep your lights on? Do you dose any fertilisers for plants? Do you have any plants in the tank currently?

Do you keep the tank too close or exposed to direct sunlight? Algae LOVE this and will often thrive in high light levels for too long. Ime best to keep the lights on for 8-12 hours depending if algae outbreaks attack you, but my tank's mature enough for prolonged times.

How often and how much do you feed your fish? Any excess food will start rotting creating too much ammonia then nitrites. Fish being fed too much and too often will poo much more creating too much waste. For algae this is best food, it loves this.

I know these many questions can seem daunting at first, but trust me, this will help down to the point.

I would suggest you do now a 75% water change, scrape the algae off anything you see it on, thoroughly clean your substrate, cut back on feeding slightly as well as cutting on hours you leave the light on for. I really suggest getting one of these T-P Link Kasa smart plugs, they're cheap.. and well smart

 

[Colin_T]

Pictures of the algae so we can identify it?
A picture showing the entire aquarium can help us see how many live plants you have vs the light they get.