What do i have? And how to get rid of?

[ippielb]

I am having a problem in my smaller tank right now. I clean the tank every week scraping off algae, but i miss spots, and it just multiply's from there, my tank looks like it's "snowing" kind of, i don't know how to get rid of all the hair fur like strands on the glass, and then brown spots of algae. I put have two filters running on the tank right now, more then enough, and when i put the new filter in, the morning i woke up and there was brownish green layer settled on top of the intake where it doesn't suck in. I took a picture of the algae on the glass, and the brown spots, i couldn't get a picture of the filter intake it just wouldn't come out right. In the first picture you can see where i scraped off the week before, and how much it grows... This is really bothering me, and it hasn't been like this just happened around a month ago, tanks been running up for like 3 months now. In the picture all the spots on the drift wood are little pellets of food uneaten.

[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]
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And yes in the reflection that is a kit kat chocolate bar :hmm3grin2orange:

[MCHRKiller]

Hard to tell from the pics, looks to be diatoms or maybe some green algae. You should be able to get it off with an aquarium algae brush. If it comes off easily it is diatoms, if it takes a bit more effort to get off its green. Both are a natural part of a healthy aquarium.

[ippielb]

The only concern is look in the first picture you can see where the glass looks white-ish cloudy. Could this be from a PH adjuster that i used? I have used a PH reducer in a powder form, could this have caused it? I can get the algae off, i've used a razor blade to remove that, the white is difficult to get off. I'm still concerned about how there's floaties everywhere in my water, i'll try and get better pictures tomorrow about the things i'm worried about.

Thanks for the fast reply.

[ippielb]

I cleaned the tank again yesterday, and did a 20% water change right after i cleaned, and again 3 hours after because there was a lot of stuff floating around. Now today the glass looks white-ish? What is it?

My tap water is this.

PH - 9
Ammonia - 2.4
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
GH - 40
KH - I put 20 drops in the thing and it was just turning bluer i don't understand is KH only for salt water? Anyways it's at least 200.
Phosphate - 0.5-1.0
Iron Non Chelated - 0
Iron Chelated - 0.25
GH - 40

[rich311k]

That much ammonia and the lights on is algae heaven. I would cut your lighting way back until the tank is finished cycling.

[ippielb]

Tank has been cycled for 2 months, that's the water coming out of the tap.

[rich311k]

How long are the lights on? hiw much light is there?

[ippielb]

The lights are on for less then 10 hours a day. And it is an old lamp it is 17" long tube, and it says 15 watt on it, that's all i know.

[Cliff]

You could try changing the bulb and cutting the time the light is on. As bulbs get older, the light quality changes a bit to have more of a blue coloring in it. Algae really like a bit of blue coloring in the light

[ippielb]

This one has no blue light to it, it more so looks like a normal light bulb then blue. But good to know, i should change the bulbs on my other aquarium, it looks blue.

[Lady Hobbs]

You have ammonia levels of over 2 right from the tap and a pH of 9? My guess is that if you're using a powder to lower the pH, that white stuff is probably that but it's not doing anything if your pH is still 9. Sounds as you have a lot of minerals in your water. If so, pH lowering agents won't work.
Are you using well water? Gez, Canada is supposed to have good water.

[Lady Hobbs]

PS........you can not reduce your pH unless you use buffering agents as well and it should only be lowered .4 points in any 24 hour period. You can't simply dump reducers in the tank and lower the pH from 9-7.5 as the shock will kill your fish and the pH will simply return to normal again. Try to get fish that can cope with your high pH as is already being discussed in another of your threads here.

But if you plan on african cichlids, I would switch out that gravel to a sand myself. Cichlids like to dig, pick up sand and toss it about. They can't do that with rock.

Here's a bit more about pH. [Only Registered Users Can See Links.]

I'd just leave it alone or you'll be messing with it constantly.

[Lab_Rat]

With very hard water, you can have a whitish film of mineral deposits on the glass. My tanks get this and I ignore it for a while, then I'll scrape it off with a razor blade when it annoys me. I try to scrape it off while doing a wc so the deposit is removed from the tank. The film is most obvious when doing a water change and the glass dries out when exposed to air. It's annoying, but that's how hard water is. When I clean the glass tops I use vinegar, but I'm not about to tear down my tanks monthly to vinegar off the deposit on the glass so I deal with it.

[ippielb]

I tried to use that powder when the tank was starting up, before there was any fish in it, but i gave up on it, i didn't want to have to do that every time. Yes this is well water, and my water is like this because i'm from southern sask, and that's where all the pot ash is, yeah, not much i can do about it. I have the ph buffer and it hasn't been used in a month and a half. I only change around 20% water at a time, so the water wont dry in the middle of the tank, but it's still whiteish there. I have also been taking a razor blade and scraping it off, as you can tell from the first picture you can see where the razor scraped. In my water it almost looks like dust is floating around, what is that?