Urgent: Overgrown algae betta tank

[kateh]

Hi there, I have a 5 gallon tank, with a beta fish, and 4 ember tetras. It has recently become overgrown with algae, and I tried to trim it back, only for it to return to the same state the next day. I will attach pictures below, but I am not sure how to combat this, and clean it up. Some tips on how to prevent this would also be great thank you! Side note, I’m not sure if this weighs in, but I have the led growth lights, and the cheap light it came with, on from 8am to 9 pm, and the filter is constantly on, at a low setting, as to not disturb the beta!

 

[DwarfCichlidLvr]

That's hair algae, usually caused by too much light, not enough ferts or too many ferts. Remove as much as possible. And try turning off the light for 24 hours.

Do you dose ferts? What are the parameters of the tank? Actual numbers please. How long do you leave the light in for?

 

[StripySnailGirl04]

Whilst this is happening, ember tetras need to be kept in groups of a minimum of 6,maybe even 10, and need to be in a tank atleast 10 gallons.
I'm not sure but some snails and shrimp eat algae so maybe also hair algae.
Start with having the lights off for less time and see if that helps a bit.
What is your water hardness and parameters?

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Your lighting duration is too long.
Reduce it to 7-8 hours per day.

How frequent did you change your water and how much water did you change?
You should change water once a week with at least 60-70% of water change.

 

[kateh]

Ok! Thank you all for the help. I can for sure reduce the amount of light it is getting, will that just get rid of the algae, or do I need to do a water change or get in there and scrub it down. As for water parameters, I’m not sure what they are, as I am new to the aquarium game. As for the water hardness, it is roughly 6.9. As for water changes, I rarely do so, so I can start doing so each week. Would you recommend invesfiing in a snail?

 

[Rocky998]

Ok! Thank you all for the help. I can for sure reduce the amount of light it is getting, will that just get rid of the algae, or do I need to do a water change or get in there and scrub it down. As for water parameters, I’m not sure what they are, as I am new to the aquarium game. As for the water hardness, it is roughly 6.9. As for water changes, I rarely do so, so I can start doing so each week. Would you recommend invesfiing in a snail?

How is your hardness measured? Is that 6.9dgh or 6.9ppm?... You could do a nerite snail but I would sincerely recommend getting a larger tank of 10 gallons or more... 5 gallons is way too small for those fish.

 

[kateh]

Sorry, I probably sound like a dummy, but, when you asked ab the hardness, of the water, I was talking ab the pH, so not sure if that’s what you meant

 

[Rocky998]

Sorry, I probably sound like a dummy, but, when you asked ab the hardness, of the water, I was talking ab the pH, so not sure if that’s what you meant

Ah ok... I kinda thought so. The GH (general hardness) is the amount of dissolved minerals in water... In mist cases hard water causes alkaline water which has a PH of above 7 but soft water can be 7 or below. Dont feel bad or stupid, we all learned this at some point... There are two options to find the GH, one is to search your water reports online and find your city and usually they have the hardness of the water listed. The second way is to just buy the API GH/KH test kit and test it yourself...

 

[Essjay]

We have come to realise that hardness (or GH) is important to fish, so there are two ways to approach stocking fish. The first is to choose fish which originate in water with the same hardness as our tap water. The alternative is to change our tap water to the hardness needed by the fish we want to keep. This last one means never using plain tap water again; every water change must be done with altered water.
Choosing fish to match our tap water is much easier

 

[Slaphppy7]

Good advice above.

I would add that you need to be testing your water for ammonia, nitrIte, and nitrAte...one of the most important aspects of the hobby is being able to monitor our water parameters

Get one of these ASAP: https://apifishcare.com/product/freshwater-master-test-kit

 

[hansgruber7]

Pull out that moss along with the algae. Cut back the lighting to about 8 hours a day. Make sure you are doing a large water change every week. Buy an API test kit and start testing the water for Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate especially. Either upgrade to a 10G, rehome the tetras, or preferably both. A nerite snail always helps. Dwarf shrimp are worth a shot, though the betta may eat them. That should solve your problem. Good luck!