Algae in 55 gallon

[KINGMED]

This has been addressed alot, I got a few questions. The first thing is I have pool filter sand as the substrate and my tanks lights are on anywhere from 6-10 hours a day, not by a window. I do have patches of greenish algae on my glass and had to scrub some off yesterday due to my 6 yr. old daughter nicely and not meaning to way over feeding my fishies. Well the sand has a hard greenish film over the top that sucks off when I put the hose to it, and the algae is growing at the level of the sand. I have two small SAE's which don't seem to be helping much at present time. I was wondering should I cut off the light for a day or so and then start up with the lights again for a few hours at the most for a while?, the other thing would be to take all the sand out and replace with gravel but that wouldn't take care of the algae problem. Could over feeding or maybe not cleaning the filter material on my AC110 help cause the problem with algae, if it's a cleaning problem maybe I could start doing 20 per cent twice a week, and if feeding I was thinking of only feeding them every other day for a few weeks 1 time a day just enough to keep them a little hunger. Sorry if this is beating the old horse which I'm sure has died long ago with other with the same issue, ??? would it hurt to change the feeding to every other day for a few weeks? THANKS.

[Chrisinator]

First, keep your light consistant. Try to have about 6 hours a day. Mine are on from 3pm - 10pm, so that I can see the tanks when I get back to school. Get a timer. Shouldn't cost more than $10-15 bucks and it's a great buy.

I would also cut down on feeding. I used to feed mine everyother day. It's fine, nothing's gonna happen. I like feeding my fish. I feed them everyday but I keep an eye on how much I feed. If I feed to much, then I won't feed the next day. And I usually skip feeding at least one a week.

If you want your daughter to feed your fish, seperate out the amount of food you want your fish eating so you won't be feeding too much.

[smaug]

I had that hard green algae on my substrate a few months ago till I cut way back on my lights.It went away when I went from 200 watts down to 80.It could be you have too much light.

[KINGMED]

Well what happened yesterday was my daughter decided to help feed my fish which she knows not to, I don't know how many algae waffers she put into the tank but there was tons of it + she added alot of freezed dried tubifex worms. Well I was just jumping for joy when I found out, NOT...... I did a major 50% water change and another 25% water change today, to say the least my favorite fish the marble anglefish was so full that I though he was going to burst any second, the other fish were pretty well feed also, I'm sure they loved my daughter at least for just a few minutes until they started wishing that they hadn't eaten. Today everyone was still looking full and they will not get a drop of food until Tuesday morning which will be a 3 day fast, which I think will do them good. Also my lights are only 80 watts at the most probably??? I think I caused it by leaving lights on to much and feeding to much, l have to realize that fish will always be hunger and eat even when they are stuffed, I'm going to feed very very sparingly from now on and will probably cut down to either every other day or the most 1 time a day very little just to get them a little to eat.

[smaug]

I think you are right,I didnt know how many watts light you had so I just threw that out there.