Algae

[Bobbi934]

I'm having a real algae problem in my Cichlid tank. No live plants...fish only. Any ideas on how to get rid of it??? I've scraped the sides of the tank which has helped some . I have a Clown Pleco in the tank (young) but I guess there is just too much alge. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Darkangel]

You need to supply a lot more info for a good answer. Tank size, lighting amount and duration, tank near a window, tank inhabitants size and numbers, water change schedule,feeding, filtration, and any other info you have. The short of it though is you have too much algae food and light in the tank hence the overabundance of it.

[Bobbi934]

It is a 10 gal tank. running top and bottom filtration. It has 2 Aci"s
1 Parrot (or parakeet) and 2 Electric Blue Johanni's and the young Clown Pleco. It's not getting direct sunlight...in fact without the aquarium light it gets VERY little light at all. Light is on around 10 hours a day. I've never had an algae problem in my larger tanks and they get more natural & artificial light. Thanks.

[Darkangel]

Still not much info to go on. If I read this right you have 5 cichlids in this tank plus the pleco. If these cichlids are full grown or even 3/4's so then the tank is far overstocked. Couple this with a little too much food and not enough water changes and voila instant algae. If this is the case you need to lower the bioload, feed less and clean more. Do you use a gravel vaccum when you do water changes? Care to supply more info?

[wetmanNY]

Bobbi, rinse out your filter media in siphoned-off tank water every time you do a partial water change, until your algae are under control. Part of what's happening is that bacteria in the filter are breaking down ("mineralizing") organics to simple molecules the algae can use. Phosphates from flake feed for example. Keep exporting the organic sludge build-up before it can break down.

You are way overloaded in a 10-gallon too...