help...algae woes

[Zerileous]

i mentioned this in a different thread, but now I figure the problem is worth its own posting since its not getting better and I dont know what to do.

When i got home from my vacation, there was a surplus of algae growing on surfaces such as substrate and decoration in my 10g. I dropped from 20w of light to 10w of light. Then I decided that to kill the algae I should do a blackout. I throw a towel over the tank, and check on it 20 or so hours later. To my dismay, the water is GREEN. I do a water change which helps a little bit but not much. What can I do?

My suspicions are that since the towel was pinkish/red, it created an environment with low levels of very red light which fostered the algae bloom. Either that or its just dead algae or mutated algae.

I guess the point is that I am lost as to what to do...pls help.

Right now the lights are off but there is nothing completely blocking light from the tank.

[Rue]

...algae sucks...

I'd do lots of scrubbing and rinsing of filters...and if you think it would help in your case (it does work with the pea soup algae) try the particulate additive (I call it The Clumper :28: )...

[Zerileous]

i have never heard of that before...what is it called and how easy is it to get?

anyhow, it seems that most of the algae is no longer on the surfaces and instead in the water. With each water change it gets better, but daily water changes are a PITA.

[Bill M.]

Hmm... that does sound like "pea soup" aglea... Basically a free floating algea.. Filters help to remove most of it. Do you have life plants in your tank?? Any fish???

[tropfish]

I came home from vacation last year to find my water so green you couldn't even see through it! I have this stuff called Algea Destroyer Advanced. It doesnth arm plants or fish and works within a matter of hours. Its amazing you should try it

[Zerileous]

current livestock: 5 guppies, 3 large snails
no plants but it will be a planted tank soon so I would rather not use any herbicide:
A) because I want to avoid any traces when i plant
B) i want to learn how to handle the situation without
C) i like to use as natural of an aproach as possible

i might have to check in to the algea destroyer advanced though. I would prefer something that just caused the algae to clump in order to facilitate filtration. So far the filters are catching some but most seems too small for the foam.

[tropfish]

yea the algea destroyeris made specifically for tanks with fish and plants (but really what other kind of tank is there lol) I used it and then the next day added a java fern and it didn't affect it in any way.

[gm72]

Zerileous, good to hear you are against using herbicides. Most of us here will agree that fixing the root of the problem is a far more effective method in dealing with these types of issues.

Keep cleaning your filter, check your water parameters, keep your lights off. Something is wrong in there to have such a problem.

[Zerileous]

i think the probem is too much lighting. i already have my lights for when i plant on the tank. Its only two screw in 10w CFs, but i still suspect that is the root of the problem. Anyhow, I have done three 3 galon water changes since discovering the problem and now it is in much better shape. Hopefully the filters will take care of the rest.

unfortunately, i have to go away for another week and a half, so i have my fingers crossed on this one.

[gm72]

Great work. Chemicals only provide a quick fix. It takes more work to "fix" problems such as this. To me and many others, using chemicals to fix things like an algae bloom is akin to using duct tape for the loss of a limb. Doesn't exactly fix the core problem.

[tropfish]

totally agree. I used it as a temporary fix until i could get everything under control.

[Faith_at_Large]

I thought I was getting rid of my algae and now I have another full fledged algae bloom - my water is completely green, my walls, substrate, decorations and heating and filtration devices are all covered in this green algal goop. My Platys are loving it, but it looks horrible. I have tried turning off the lights, adding a background to remove the rear natural light source, stuffing Green-X in my filter, and scraping it off with every type of scrubber and scraper they make. I wrap foam pads around my filter intake to protect my smaller fish and this catches a lot of algae, but now I am replacing it every week and sometimes more often because it fills up so much - and I can't seem to get the algae out of these pads so I cannot just wash and re-use them.

I am going to clean my tank again, I cleaned it three days ago but it looks like it needs some extra attention. I am thinking of adding some Otos to my tank - they may or may not help, but I like them anyways and they cannot hurt.

[Chrona]

Blackout + water changes is a proven method for dealing with most forms of algae. In your case, I believe the green water you saw after a 24 hour blackout was the dying algae that was on the surfaces of the tank before. Since you don't have any live plants anyways, just leave the towel on for another 72 hours of blackout, while doing as many water changes as you have time for (ideally once a day, 50%)

The issue is that you have too much light given the lack of plants. In a normal, balanced planted tank, plants will outcompete most forms of algae, so higher light is acceptable, but an unplanted tank needs only enough lighting to view the fish. Granted 20 watts of screw in CF lighting is still not all that high because the spiral bulbs have a lot of restrike.

What kind of green algae is this btw? Can you take a picture? Different types of algae have different treatments.

[dev]

The problem is simply that you have resources in your tank going to waste.

By resources I mean light, nutritions and trace elements.

You can remove either one to stop the algea growth, or get some plants to fight them for you. This is basically the same for any type of algae (with the exception of BGA, which is a form of bacteria anyway).

Changing water and feeding less is usually a good place to start.

Does your tank get any direct sunlight?

[Zerileous]

thats what i would have guessed, so im guessing that this will be a non-issue as soon as i can get home and plant the tank.