problems with my 10g

[Nautilus29]

I have some major algea and other problems with my 10g tank. I have brown algea on the walls and then this grass looking algea on my decor. ITs all over the place and taking over. I have one live plant in the tank and 2watts per gallon. Which I know is kind of alot. should I take one of the light bulbs out?

Also the thing that scares me is this clear stuff growing on my walls that looks like water on a waterproof surface. and inside of it is these little specks of white things. IDK what the heck it is. DOes anyone have a clue. Maybe Ill get pictures later today.

Should I completely tear down the setup and start from scratch. Im in the process of removeing my old stones and adding new ones too. I have white stones in the tank now which drain the color of any fish I put in the tank.

tbanks for the help. Chrona I know you know alot of stuff about this can you help me?

[bettaboy691]

dont have any fish in and leave it a while.
i think i had the same clear stuff when i started my small tank. it goes away eventually.
i think its too much light, try adding more live plants.
for the brown algea, ottos, but you need good water quality so not a first fish.
if you restart the tank, it may come back, so leave it for a while. see what happens. i think my apple snail ate it, if you can add one of those.

[cocoa_pleco]

could the white stuff be that slime that build up in bad water conditions? Ive heard of people with that problem

[Chrona]

Brown algae is diatoms, caused by high silicates, usually from a relatively new tank. Not much you can do about it besides otos or manual removal (Or a silicate sponge in the filter)

You need to turn down the lights, 20 watts over 10g is borderline too much without DIY CO2. You'll run into brush algae or maybe clado later on with low CO2 levels and high light.

White stuff - Don't know. I get the same thing every once in a while, but someone in the tank always manages to clean it up

[kenyth]

I'd just scrape up the gunk, clean the hair algae off the ornaments, and change water 3x a week until it clears up. This will dilute the algae friendly nutrients present in the water. Make sure you don't have rock decor leaching minerals into the water and that sunlight isn't hitting the tank directly. Is that 20W incandescent or flourescent? 20W with an incandescent bulb isn't too much light, but 20W flourescent is.

I believe the green algaes are generally a sign of too much Nitrate in the water and/or too much light.

The brown stuff (Diatoms) is kind of unavoidable to some degree, but making sure you don't have decor containing silicate helps a lot to prevent excess growth.

[Lady Hobbs]

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

Here's a nice little write up about algaes and how to prevent them.

[Nautilus29]

I have been doing water changes 2 to 3 times a week. I think thats what made my problem worst. I did a water change and then the next day I had tones of algea all over the place. ANd then this weekend I did a water change and thats when the clear stuff apeared. I guess I will just clean everything up really good and see what happens. The only problem is that the algea is also on my live plant and I tried to scrap it off, but its rooted on pretty tight.

Thanks for all of the help.

[Nautilus29]

Actually not that I think about it my problem might be that I used to have an under gravel system in this tank. ITs been a few months but every water change there still is crap all over my tank. I just cant clear out the crap that the ugf left in the tank. Maybe It might be a good think for me to compleatly redo the tank. ALl I have in it is guppy fry anyway. ANd If i do it right I can have a short cycle since I have 2 other tanks that are fully cycled.

[Drumachine09]

dont have any fish in and leave it a while.
i think i had the same clear stuff when i started my small tank. it goes away eventually.
i think its too much light, try adding more live plants.
for the brown algea, ottos, but you need good water quality so not a first fish.
if you restart the tank, it may come back, so leave it for a while. see what happens. i think my apple snail ate it, if you can add one of those.


If he does that, his cycle will die. Thats a bad idea.

[kenyth]

What do you mean "used to have a UGF"? Did you pull out the plates? If you did, did you clean under them? You didn't just remove the stems, did you?You might be getting some anarobic bacterial activity if there is waste that isn't getting a water flow through it. Also, if you left the plates in, there is now a big unaerated space under the gravel that waste can accumulate and decompose

When you change water, you're vacuuming the gravel at the same time too, right?

[Nautilus29]

I removed everything. But crap flew all over the place and every water change I do I get a bunch of crap out from under the rocks. I clean it out really good too. I think I finally get it all and then next week theres still more. Im slowly changing my gravel so Im hoping that fixes that problem.

I cleaned out all of the algea really good today so im hoping that It doesnt come back. I also took out one of the lights. And finished removing the rest of my gravel. Hopefully this helps out everything.

Oh and the clear things with white spots are alive!! THey move around on the walls really slowly I killed 1 of them but left the other one out of curiosity.

[Drumachine09]

The only thing that i can think of that might be the white thing is either, ick (maybe?!?!) or hydra (maybe?!?!). But i dont know anything about diseases or pests, so.....yeah.... good luck though!

[kenyth]

I removed everything. But crap flew all over the place and every water change I do I get a bunch of crap out from under the rocks. I clean it out really good too. I think I finally get it all and then next week theres still more. Im slowly changing my gravel so Im hoping that fixes that problem.

I cleaned out all of the algea really good today so im hoping that It doesnt come back. I also took out one of the lights. And finished removing the rest of my gravel. Hopefully this helps out everything.

Oh and the clear things with white spots are alive!! THey move around on the walls really slowly I killed 1 of them but left the other one out of curiosity.

:confused:

Alive? Aaaaccckkk!!!! You'll need to send a picture. Planaria maybe?

[Nautilus29]

sorry I cant get a picture. Too clear and small.

[Incredulous_Ed]

:confused:

Alive? Aaaaccckkk!!!! You'll need to send a picture. Planaria maybe?
That's what I think.
When I need to control green algae I just throw a bunch of anacharis plants in there. They grow so fast they'll use the nutrients so the algae cant.