Algae

[emallia]

My newly setup aquarium (3weeks) 's water is turning green and i mean traffic light green, but the algea growth inside is brownish, there isn't much. I am using a triton neon and it's on for 8 hrs a day.... any idea what the hell is going on with those little ******* algae microbes?

Thanks!

[TwoTankAmin]

A bit more info is needed to be able to help:

Size of tank?
Occupants in tank?
Filtration?
Feeding regimin?

[Sum-X]

Might be an algae spike, but ya we need more info to help.

[emallia]

The tank is a 63 Ltr, running a eheim ecco 2231 100ltr per hour canister filter, planted with 2 mollies, 1 catfish, 2 swordtails and 3 panda's. The light is a triton from interpet and on for 8-10hrs a day.

Thanks for any help guys, oh and also i have highish nitrites so i'm doing reg water changes to keep the fish alive! Whan this is over i'd like to add a couple more fish!

[ewok]

do you get sunlight directly on it too?

start doing water changes daily, 20% or more to remove some of the nutrients and wrap the tank is a blanket with the light off for 3 or 4 days. that should slow down or stop the growth until we can figure out what caused it.

63ltr i think is around 29 gallons...

triton.. must be flourescent?

did some reading............

for a freshwater setup, unfortunately you have the wrong light. a standard flourescent tube is more than adequate unless you want plants.

""""Triton is the first aquarium light made just for the aquatic field-- for the purpose of promoting optimum plant growth in freshwater aquaria and the same tube for hard and soft coral growth as well as Caulerpas in marine aquaria. The "actinic blue" is included in the same tube!

Triton has the highest light output of any fluorescent tube used in aquarium lighting-- TWICE AS BRIGHT! This can reduce the number of tubes required to achieve optimum results. Significantly longer effective life than other tubes (over 7500 hours) with a minimum fall-off in light output over this time. """"

guessing the problem is too much light, even from the bulb you have and high nutrients for the algae to feed on due to the cycle. if all you have is fish, decrease the light period and/or buy a regular bulb for longterm algae control. if the bulb is twice as bright, theoretically 4 hours a day with it on is the same as 8 hours with a standard tube. like i said at the beginning, wrap the tank and keep the lights off until the algae goes away. increase the water changes to remove some nutrients and add some aquarium salt to combat the effect of nitrite poisoning on the fish.

good luck

[emallia]

Thing is that the tank is quite heavily planted! I thought that brown algae is a sign of no enough light, yet the water is green indicating too much light... i'm confused!

[ewok]

if it's heavily planted then you need the triton tube. hmmmm........

another thread where brown algae is discussed:
http://aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=17451

i guess the way to look at this are you have 2 seperate issues. the brown algae has multiple causes, and light isn't one of them in this case probably. excess silicates might be or diatoms, or low oxygen maybe? *shrug* eventually it will be out-competed(?) by a green algae more than likely in a few more weeks. it is very common in a new tank scenario tho....

the "green water" algae is a wholly different problem related to too much light and too many nutrients.

i would suggest considering a nitrates test and a phosphates test for the future, but too many nutrients *can* include things such as ammonia and other by-products of the cycle process. i have read that the plants actually find these nutrients easier to absorb than the accepted fertilizers like nitrate.

i still stand by the increase water change frequency and amounts tho, to remove the nutrients and blanket the tank with no lights to kill the green water. you might also want to post a similar question in the plants forum as those guys know plants and their situations ALOT better than i do. generally i was always led to believe that you should cycle the tank before you added plants for the best and/or easiest results.

hopefully someone with more plant experience will be along to correct me if i'm wrong in any of this. :)

edit: sorry for missing the plant note, i skimmed the posts too quick. (and whoops, wrong button!) :)

[ewok]

i must be tired this morning.........

another small side note. one of the quickest and easiest ways to "fix" green water is a diatom filter. www.diatomfilter.com you will still need to look into lowering the nutrients available that cause it, but this will filter it out in a couple of hours.

right now the tank is really unstable because it isn't cycled and this definately makes things harder overall. eventually it will stabilize and these problems should become a memory. :)

the brown algae (or green) can be dealt with after your tank cycles by adding oto's.....

[Platinum]

Sounds like a general diatoms infestation to me, usually the bi product of tanks which have not matured into a well cycled tank.

These brownish diatoms come back in a flash and are kinda pesky.....one very cheap alternative will be to get some small plecos, they wipe them out overnight almost instantly, tried that and worked fine...and till today....after 2 years, the pleco is healthy and fine and still going strong on some good suction skills. :D

ewok: the information u provided was very precise and elaborated imo. :) and ur solution of more regular water changes was what i did gradually until the diatoms infestation went away.....took some time before the tank cycled and resumed it's normal regime. :)

Cheero

[rich]

the brown would be diatoms which is easily defeated with a few otos. the green would be tougher as its in the actual water column instead of sitting on a surface. id say you have some sort of algae bloom. problems could be to much light, overfeeding, or an imbalance of plant ferts. do you dose anything for your tank as it is "heavily planted"?

that seems to be the difficulty inherant in planted tanks. if you dont get your light, co2, and ferts just right you have an algae problem. right now ive passed the diatom, and greens and have graduated to brush and thread algae issues.

just get some tests for plant nutrients and you can see where the plants are lacking or leaving an excess of them.

[emallia]

I'll test the water, apart from putting fertilizer as recommended by the manufacturer, there are no other chemicals being added! I'll get a couple of plecs and do reg water changes and hopefully it will die out!

Thanks alot guys, helped alot!