algae blues!

[mkdodd]

Hi all....

Got a real algae prob in my tank....its the stringy green stuff that the guy at my lfs tells me only grows in water thats of really good quality! well i`m as pleased as punch about that but the best advice he could come up with was switching my lights off for a couple of hours a day because "algae hates that"....well not my algae cos its thriving!!!

I know its not end of the world stuff but it is unsightly...anybody got any little tricks they have tried that has worked for them?

 

[pnyklr3]

Do you have any live plants in your tank? If not, I would suggest not turning on the lights for a few days. I had the same type of algae (I think so anyway, it was growing on my plastic plants and such) and this took care of it all. I think I kept the light off for about 2-3 days. If your tank gets a lot of light from a nearby window, you could also cover it with a towel to keep most of the light out.

 

[sylvia]

Also, test your water and see if you have high nitrAtes - increasing the number of water changes to lower this would help. Also test for phosphates though I don't know how you'd go about lowering those other than adding lots and lots of fast-growing plants (that would also help with nitrAtes)