How Come I Have So Mcuh Alge

[Kelley24]

I have a small tank that has 2 baby angel fish in it. The tank is out of sunlight so i cant be that. there is no plants in there at the moment as when i put plants in there 'brown alge' started growing. There is a rock in the middlw that was from a aquarium shop, but was cleaned before putting it in the tank. The water has been treated and was left for 2 weeks before adding the angels and never had a alge problem before adding fish. It has an internal filter and the water has been tested today. All readings where at the right levels, PH was a little high for Angels, but i cant see that causing a major alge problem.

It dont seem to be the same sort of alge on my other tanks. The alge on th eother tanks is 'solid' if that makes, i have to use the scraper to get rid of it, but the alge in the angels tank is really 'soft' and sloppy. Its like a blanket that covers the tank that i can pick up with my hand. And then also brown and green alge covers the glass.

Any advice? I totally cleaned the tank out 2 weeks ago, got rid of all the alge, cleaned the sand on the bottom and topped water up with treated tap water. Then did a water changed a week later and there was still no alge. But it was gradually appeared over the past 2 days. Its really annoying because it make the tank look dirty and it isnt.

Help! lol

 

[Chri$]

Is the tank planted?

What wpg are you running at?

 

[my fat fish]

there is no plants in there at the moment

now lets review ur question chris lol

 

[Kelley24]

What wpg are you running at?

Whats wpg? is that the rate the filter is working at? its filtering 60 litres per hour. My tank is about 30 litres.

 

[n3ont3tra]

wpg is watts per gallon

 

[Kelley24]

Right, erm, how do i find out that then? Is this likely to be te problem?

 

[voo]

What's the wattage of your lights, and what's the tank size, in gallons? Divide watts by gallons = watts per gallon. If it's too high, then it might be a cause of algae.

 

[Kelley24]

Ok, have checked everything. My tank has 7.4 gallons and wattage for lights is 11w. Thats means that the wattage per gallon is 1.5 watts. Is this too much? I had no idea about this. it dont even look like the sort of alge that suckers would eat, it looks odd.

 

[Shaker]

How many hours a day do you have your light on ? If kept on too long algae will be a prblem, aim for 8-10 hrs per day and if possible have a 2hr break with the lights off.

 

[my fat fish]

get zebra snails mate there a big help with algae and dont seem to breed much

 

[Kelley24]

we might be having the lights on for too long then. My partner turns them on at about 8am and then they go off about 11-12pm. So looks like i will have to clean them out, again, and then visit the fish shop tomorrow about the snails.

 

[Callum]

i keep my lights on 2 hours a day in my tank with no plants and there is no algae so reducing time will reduce algal growth. Also is that your only tank or do you have more?

 

[Kelley24]

I have 2 other tanks that i have never ever had a problem with. I have one set up for goldfish (2 goldfish in a 45l tank and set up with filter and lights etc) and other is a tropical tank which is a community tank. Both other tanks have live plants it that have grown well. But i havent had a major problem with algae in them, yes i have a bit that i have to clean off the rocks or glass etc but it looks like a totally different type of algae. I do same water changes, all get treated with same water treatment etc they even all have the lights turned on/off at the same time of day.

 

[Spinal]

Overfeeding might be a problem...

 

[Shaker]

Kelley, Fish need tome to relax and chill, having the lights on for an excesive amount of time will make this impossible for them, also, most tropical fish come from near the equator hence their natural routine is around 8-10 hrs of light per day.

Your tanks with plants won't have as much algae growth because the plants are using up the same nutrients that the algae needs to survive on, hence no algae problem.