Help - Am I overgrown with algae or worse?

[Southwestern]

At this point, I am thinking of setting up a separate tank to put the fish in while I take on this huge cleanup.

Thanks for your help, Plague! I'll keep an eye here too in case there are other ideas.

 

[prober]

Plants need ferts and nitrates to survive. I think your nitrates are too low at 10 PPM and without any ferts on a regular basis they can't outcompete the algae.

I guess I am a little confused because if that is cyano I don't see how it got started since I always thought it was from lack of maintenance, but if you do 80% changes a week I would think you are over changing. Do you suck the gravel clean each time? It seems a little deep so maybe there is a bunch of mulm in there hiding under the gravel.

What kind of filter are you running?

 

[Southwestern]

I am running two Filstar XP3's (canisters).

I do not think I am vacuuming the gravel well enough at all. What I have is basically sand and it has been incredibly frustrating trying to vacuum it. I am thinking of changing it to pebbles so I can vacuum effectively. Sandy gravel was a mistake. Translation - there could definitely be stuff under the gravel.

 

[prober]

Yeah I would definately find a way to clean that as well as you can. I thought it was more gravel but if there is sand in with it it will be a problem being that deep.

You can suck it out and let the sand settle in your jugs and pour it back in if you want to or just dump it and just keep the gravel that does not get sucked up.

 

[Plague]

What type of substrate are you using? I thought it looked like eco complete.

 

[Southwestern]

What type of substrate are you using? I thought it looked like eco complete.

It's about 120lbs of black Seachem Flourite gravel. (I should say "gravel" - it's very fine).

 

[Plague]

When I asked about eco complete (basically the same thing you are using) I asked if I need to gravel vacuum the substrate. I was told no by many because the mulm became fertilizer for the plants. When I first got eco complete it was basically gravel with finer gravel almost sand like. Almost 8 months later it is a lot more like dirt. So I have never gravel vac'd my substrate and I don't have problems with algae or cyano.

Here is the original thread I started when I was a nooblet: http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232268

 

[Southwestern]

What you were told is almost exactly what I was told ... "swirl over it" ... If you are seeing success without heavy cleaning, I'll just let it go for now. The algae is the problem now.

I appreciate that info!

 

[Plague]

I feel prober is on the right track about the plants out competing the bacteria though. From the looks of the picture your plants aren't that healthy? Do you have many plants?

 

[Southwestern]

The plants are in miserable shape. Even the river grass that you would think would be easy. I'm not sure but I think the algae is growing ON the plants.