Kinda wierd

[Pleco380]

1. From the front, the water looks very clear. But from the side, it looks a bit green. Could be just me. Does this have to do with algae?

2. I tend to get a bit of algae on the glass and decorations. On the glass I scrape the stuff that is easy to see off. But I leave the decorations alone. Is that a good routine?

[Cliff]

Do you clean the glass on the sides of your tank as much as the front ? I know when I get lazy and only clean the front glass the sides tend to get a little filthy pretty fast. I could give you that visual effect.

If there is a little free floating algae in your tank, it would be easier to see it from the side than the front as your tank is longer than it is wide.

If your glass is clean, maybe try a large water change to see if it makes a difference. That way can confirm if what you are seeing is actually something in the water

[Pleco380]

Thanks. I clean it all the spots I see, no matter where on the glass they are. Front, back, sides. It isn't competely clean, just harder to see the algae/planaria. The RTS is constantly feeding off the glass but that doesn't help much. I do weekly 50% WC's but the tank is in a very sunny room. Is algae necessarily bad for water quality/ fish health etc?

[Cliff]

Most algae is actually healthy for a tank. As it will consume ammoina, it can help keep the tank healthy for the fish

Is there any way for you to block out some (or all) of the sun light that reaching your tank. I would think that is what is causeing the algae

[Pleco380]

I've closed the blinds but that is difficult to do because it's kind of a tropical room. There are tons of house plants and one of my betta tanks has live plant and doesn't have a light timer.

[Cliff]

I once had a 33 gallon tank in a room with a LOT of sunlight which resulted in a lot od green water. I replaced the back-ground on the tank with a longer pc that also covered both sides and the back. It really helped a lot.

Could something like that work for you ?

[Pleco380]

I've been meaning to get a background but never got around to it. Say a black background? The wall is a beige colour so it makes it brighter. But won't black attract sunlight? So maybe a blue one?

[Cliff]

The black might get a bit warmer than blue, but I would not worry about that. The background that I've typically bought at my LFS, are two sided. One side is black and the other blue.

If the black side is facing the tank, the blue would be facing the light

I would look for something like that during your X-mass shopping adventures

[Pleco380]

The front of the tank gets most of the sunlight. The back faces a wall. Thanks. I did see backgrouds like you mentioned so maybe I'll pick up on and have the black face the wall.