Going To Battle With Algae... What Do You Guys Think?

[Nyte]

Alright, so I've had my tank running for at least 8 years now.

About 1.5 years ago I started to slowly get into plants. All went well for 6 months until algae starting to kill everything!! UGH! I somewhat gave up, after trying desperatly for a few months to rid myself of algae. I tried ferts, co2, lots of water changes, etc. I have a few hardy plants left.

So now I sit here, REALLY wanting to get back my beautiful tank I once had. So what do you think the best plan of action is to save my algae infested tank? Also I'm willing to spend money to upgrade lighting and substrate if neccessary.

Here are the tank stats:

3 flourescent lights. 1 triton, 1 coralife full spectrum daylight, 1 crappy hardware store tube. (These are all houses in a really ugly home depot fixture, I would really like to improve the look of the makeshift hood but am not a DIY AT ALL and haven't noticed many hoods ready for sale that have more then two light slots. Suggestions for this? Would one power compact strip light be better??).
I just restarted my C02. It's one of those hagen $30.00 units.
29 US gallons.
Regular gravel as a substrate.
Fish: 6 neon's, 2 SAEs, 2 Cories, 3 platies.

I should mention that my water is VERY hard. I tested the tap water a looong time ago so I forget the exact readings. So hard in fact that when I'm watering the law... if any of the water from the sprikler gets on the windshield of my car, the calcium stains are so bad that I have to use CLR just to see out of it!! GAH!

Starting over completly is an option... i have other tanks i can house the fish in for a few days if neccessary.

What do you guys think is the best plan of action? I don't want any of my fishies to die in the process.

 

[WendyinWichita]

Your water sounds exactly like mine. I also have fought algea like mad, and I have tried all of the things you have. The thing that I have found to be the most beneficial is to put your lights on a siesta. Have them on for 5 hours, off for 3 then on again for 5 or 6 hours. You can get timers with multiple settings to plug into. (I got one yesterday at Home Depot for under $5.00). I did the water change thing and in only two days my tank was green again.

I am also trying to plant plants that are fast growers so they get the nutrients before the algea does.

Best of luck! Oh, be sure your tank doesn't get direct sunlight, that defeats the lights off time.

 

[Nyte]

Thanks for your reply, Wendy. I will go to home depot tomorrow and see what I can find.

I'm still not sure if I should replace the current lights with compact flourscents. But I'm getting a quote for someone to build me a proper canopy, with room for four lights. Maybe that would be cheaper.

Still not sure about starting over either... logic tells me it'll be easier to get rid of the algae by starting over with all the right susbstrate, lighting, etc rather then fighting it. But still not sure if it's worth it.

 

[kenneth_kpe]

starting over and getting everything in order is the best way to fight algae ! especially if you leave something out that is causing all the algae to grow