What The Green Stuff In My Tank?

[herrrerrera]

My tank has been established for 6years, it housed 1 oscar and 2 blue gill for 6 years, 3 months ago, i moved them out to my pond, and started a new community of fish. 3 african cilcids and 2 bumble bee puffer fish. tank is an 80gallon.

and about 3weeks after adding the new fish, the tank has been growing dark green film that seemed to start on the fake plants i have, and has spread to the substrate and fake rock i have. the plants also have stings of green stuff the size of hair that stick from plant to plant. i did an ammonia, and nitrite test, both are 0.

here is a pic..

 

[reeeedfish]

That would be algae. There are many different types. hair algae, the stringy one is rather anoying and the green algae, the flat one is too. alage is caused by over feeding, over crowding, too much ammonia, and too much light. The best way to get rid of it is to cut down on the amount of light, and feed less. Then, scrub and sction it off the bottom.

I just realized that your ammonia is 0. what test are you using? You should cut down on light hours and do a lot of water changes.

 

[Mikaila31]

Looks like blue-green algae to me. Do you vacuum the substrate regularly?

 

[Oscar Betta]

Yep, that's algae. You can use a sponge to get it off. Also, take the advice reeeedfish gave you on how to prevent it.

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Dark green film makes me think cyano (or bga). It's usally caused by ammonia or extremely low nitrates. I would guess ammonia in your case as your tank isn't planted.

Algae Guide

On a side note, dwarf puffers are in no way suitable to live with african cichlids.

 

[herrrerrera]

my puffers chase the cichlidsa around..

i do 5 gallon water changes every sunday, and 25% about every 4-6 weeks..
believe me this new community of fish produce WAAYYY less fish waste then my previous fish.
i have 5 tiny fish in a huge 80 gallon. im not used to having the ammonia stay so low all the time. the ONLY thing that has changed is i added a heater than i never had before, temp before was 70-72 degrees. its now a 76-78 degrees, could the warm water cause this? the tank also has alot of tiny bubbles at the top.

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Ammonia should always be 0...

Sometimes there are traces of ammonia in the tank that are not picked up by the test kit. Dirty filter media I believe can be a cause.

Your tank should be around the current temp, that probably isn't the cause.

 

[three-fingers]

"Low" ammonia isnt good. The test kit should always read "zero ammonia" or you have an issue as far as fish health goes.

Regardless, if you have no plants (preferably fast growing ones) in the tank, you will get algae. It's just an ecological niche which will eventually be exploited.

Algae eaters only eat some types of algae, so are only a short term solution.

All you can do is reduce the growth of the algae, significantly doing so requires extra effort though. Reducing photoperiod and light intensity helps, as does reducing certain nutrients, particularly reducing phosphate seems to help (I like Phosgaurd).

But IMO by far the best option is to fill the tank with plants, read up on suitable easy plants in the planted section.

 

[drobbyb]

Definately BGA (blue green algae) It's not algae at all, it's cyanobacteria.

Cyanobacteria

 

[herrrerrera]

i always seem to have about 0.1 to 0.25 of ammonia, thats even testing a day after a 25%-30% Water change. i think i need bigger/stronger filter? i have two 110gph filters. i cant add another one it would make the tank look clustered.. is there a filter around the same size as the one i have but has alot stronger pump perhaps?

 

[three-fingers]

Cyanobacteria can be treated like algae, it requires the same things to live (phosphate removers do combat cyano).

Using antibiotics to get rid of it is a waste of time, unless you particularly like dosing chemicals into your aquarium. Once it's all gone, if the niche still exists, a different type of algae or even just more cyano will grow back.

Don't like the advice given in the link provided at all..

i always seem to have about 0.1 to 0.25 of ammonia, thats even testing a day after a 25%-30% Water change. i think i need bigger/stronger filter? i have two 110gph filters. i cant add another one it would make the tank look clustered.. is there a filter around the same size as the one i have but has alot stronger pump perhaps?

You may just be going through a mini-cycle, but it's hard for us to tell without knowing a complete recent history of the tank.

Does sound like you need a better filter though, if your keeping Africans and puffers with just internals, add an external filter on top of those. These are messy fish...

 

[Mr._Fishy]

What kind of filters do you have (make/model)? And what kind of "african cichlids" do you have?

 

[herrrerrera]

What kind of filters do you have (make/model)? And what kind of "african cichlids" do you have?

its on the tip of my tounge. here is a pic.