green algae in a new african cichlid tank

[stylEmon]

Holy thread revival batman! I was wondering if, since nitrates feed algae, would green algae help keep nitrates in the safe zone? If algae is feeding off nitrates, then that should diminish the nitrate count, no?

 

[londonloco]

Try reducing the amount of time your lights are on - looks like you are bettween 12 and 14 hours. I dont have any live plants in my african tank and usually limit light to about 5 hours a day- i still get some build up over time and i just clean the rocks ever third water change or so.

My rocks are flat and when they turn green i just flip them all over and the undersides are nice and clean - that way i dont have to wash every time. I have a before and after cleaning of my african tank in the tank section and you can see the build up that i get in a months time.

+1, your lights are on way too long. I have my non planted tank lights on 5 hours a day. I also flip my rocks when I get some green algae on them.

 

[oo7genie]

The rocks in my mbuna tank are covered in furry green algae, and my cichlids love it! I purposely leave the lights on for a full 12 hours a day to keep it growing for them to graze on. As was mentioned before, they are algae grazers by nature. Only reason to get rid of the algae is for aesthetics, as your cichlids actually prefer to have it around. The only drawback to purposely growing algae, is having to scrape the glass every few days.

As for causes, in my case it's certainly the extended light time, and possibly also elevated nitrates. I don't know how high nitrates have to be to promote algae growth, but the tank is usually up around 50-60 by the time I do my weekly 50% WC. I actually plan on starting to do them twice weekly just to keep the nitrates down, and if the algae slows, I'll extend the lighting time even longer to try and bring it back.

*EDIT* Ugh... ancient thread.

Hey StylEmon, if you have a question, rather than bumping an ancient thread and getting more responses to the original 4 yr old question than to your own, just go ahead and start your own thread. You'll get much more helpful responses. As you can see, there's already been 2 replies where people have spent their time answering a dead thread question, and none offering you any help, because no one sees your question unless they read the entire thread.