algae!

[aquapants]

Okay so we have a major algae bloom going on in our tank. I thought it wouldnt happen to us, but I was naive.
I have been giving the tank a thorough cleaning every week, but it seems to keep coming back stronger each time. I think it is killing our plants. If not, then we have an additional problem I am not aware of.
Are there any products that might be able to help us overcome this problem? If not, I saw on an old post that we should black out the tank for a few days; deprive it of light. Will this bother the fish?
Any advice would be appreciated.

[jwddboy]

Yep. I'd black out the tank... also make sure you don't even take off the blackout to feed. The fish will be totally fine as long as you don't leave it more than 7 days.

[jm1212]

because you have live plants, a blackout may not be the best idea.

what kind of light do you have, what wattage is it, and how long is it on for?

[aquapants]

Well, we made the mistake of recently moving the tank near a window so It is getting a lot of light, which I thought would be good for our plants (we dont have a very bright light in there), but obviously has helped the algae grow. We could remove the plants for a while. but I dont have an extra tank to put them in.

[msjinkzd]

what color algae? I would try closing the blinds on teh window and doing a 3 day total blackout. Your plants will not die. Plants are routinely shipped in dark boxes for a couple of days. It will starve teh algae of nutrients giving your plants a better chance to outcompete the algae. You could also try adding some very fast growing low light plants like hornwort or anacharis to help combat the algae. The indirect sunlight is probably the issue.

[aquapants]

We will do a blackout for a couple days and see how it goes. Do you think we should move the tank? The algae is brown.
On a positive note: our snails are very very happy. lots of stuff to nibble at!

[msjinkzd]

is the back of the tank facing the window? or the front. If its the back, just put on a black background, it will help. You could move the tank, or close the blinds during the day and see if it helps.

[Marinemom]

Did you resolve the algae issue? You mentioned that the algae is brown. How long has the tank been set up? Brown algae is actually called diatoms. It is caused from silicates in the aquarium glass that leech out into tank water over time and cause the brown algae to appear on the aquarium glass, decorations, plants, and basically anything else that the water touches inside the tank. Eventually it will stop and this brown gunk will clear up on its own even if you do nothing about it. One day your tank will be crystal clear. In the meantime you can clean it off of the glass and decor since it is easily removed with a scrubber (or even your fingers). If you use a scrubber, make sure to use one that is made just for aquariums and not one that say is used in the kitchen. The kitchen kind can have chemicals in it that may harm or even kill your fish. Just to let you know, this diatoms can also be caused from high phosphates in tap water. You may want to test your tap water to see if possibly your tap water is the source of the problem or could be contributing to it.

Just some thoughts. Hope this helps.

Marinemom

[aquapants]

thanks a lot to all the people who told me it was okay to blackout my tank and not feed my fish for a few days. I left them for 4, and today when I took the cover off I realized they had killed and eaten one of my fish. He was perfectly healthy before this.

[aquapants]

Oh and my plants all look like they are on their way out and the algae is still there, even more than before. ugh!

[chesterthehero]

time to do a hard restart. those algecides on the market are hard on tanks. how long has your tank been set up? are you vacuuming the gravel aggressively every time you do a water change? either way, dont be suprised if this happens again. it takes several weeks to cycle the tank properly and get everything balanced so that the algae doesnt go nuts again. several large water changes will help. dont vacuum all of your gravel in one shot. feed your fish less, not cut it off all together. the algae will eventually deplete the water of nutrients and it will die back.

[Marinemom]

Algae seems to have the upper hand here. I would do a series of water changes even if your water parimeters are normal. The purpose of these water changes is to remove as many excess nutrients as possible from the water that the algae is having a field day with and feeding off of. I would also look into using a product called Flourish Excel. It is a liquid source of carbon for your live plants but does double duty because it will help get rid of some but not all of the algae. If you use it as the directions tell you, you will see a marked improvement in a matter of a few weeks. Patience is key here. It will work along with the water changes. You may also consider floating some hornwort. It is a fast grower and it will suck up a lot of the excess nutrients thus out competing the algae for the nutrients which will also help you in getting rid of the annoying algae that seems to make anyone nuts.

Hope this helps and sorry for your troubles.

Marinemom