Algae help!

[cmhassinger]

So for a few months now I have been battling some algae some black and some green. It’s been on the walls and all over the drift wood and plants. It’s killing my plants and now I am worried it’s hurting my fish. I try to scrub it off and it doesn’t really remove easily from plants without hurting the plant and when I scrub it it just goes everywhere. My water is clear and I usually do weekly water changes. I have some fish and 2 shrimp so I’m not sure what safe to use. I have seen so many mixed reviews on algae treatments so I’m scared of killing my fish.

anyone have advice!

 

[JuiceBox52]

Dont use a chemical to remove algae. How long is your light on for? Algae is caused by a combination of light and nutrients. Try doing larger water changes and reduce your lighting by 2 hours (if it's on for 12 hours go down to 10)

Maybe add some floating plants to absorb the nutrients

 

[Retired Viking]

Algae comes from an imbalance between your light and nutrients in the water. How long do you leave on your lights? How often do you feed your fish? How often and by how much do you do water changes?

 

[cmhassinger]

I don’t think I leave the lights on to long maybe 12 hours max but I’ll definitely have to watch it and turn them off earlier. I feed the fish one time daily and probably change the water 65%, I thought weekly but my husband says I do it every 2 weeks ‍ I guess I should do it more often.

 

[Retired Viking]

Try and do weekly water changes of around 50%, reduce the amount of food you feed your fish and reduce lighting to 8 hours a day and see if that helps. Snails will eat some types of algae so you may want to try that too. I have nerite snails.

 

[Reddd.head]

Yeah, I’d get some snails and reduce the lighting

 

[cmhassinger]

Ok I’ll try that thank you! Should I start over with my plants? I can’t seem to get them completely clean.

 

[Retired Viking]

Clean what you can without damaging the plants and let the snails do the rest.

 

[seangee]

I don’t think I leave the lights on to long maybe 12 hours max but I’ll definitely have to watch it and turn them off earlier. I feed the fish one time daily and probably change the water 65%,

My light are on between 6 & 8 hours - its different in each of my tanks. Best to have them on a timer as the fish are better with a regular cycle (just like people ).

 

[Retired Viking]

Like @seangee I have my lights on a timer, for my sunken forest tank my lights come on at 10am and off at 9pm then a lamp in the room stays on until 10pm to give my fish a sunset effect. So they get both a sunrise and sunset. I have T-8 plant lights in my sunken forest tank so it is not as bright as regular tank lights.

 

[cmhassinger]

Ok thank you everyone!

 

[aqua.land]

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but sometimes you can maybe get a magnet that is on both sides of the tank,
(So when you move the magnet outside the magnet inside moves against the glass, cleaning off the algae).
This might help, however maybe it may not, or maybe you have already tried this.

 

[Byron]

I second what other members have posted. This is solely an issue of the balance of light and nutrients. Light involves intensiity and spectrum, then duration.

Reduce the lighting to 8 hours, you might go down to 7 later, but try 8. And use a timer so this is a consistent 8-hoour period each 24 hours, this is more important than many realize for fish and plants.

Water changes must be once a week, and change 50-70%. Given the algae problem, I would do closer to 70% once each week. Clean into the substrate in open areas (organics are nutrients for plants and algae), keep the filter well rinsed/cleaned.

Are you using any plant additives? Algae can bee problematic from too much fertilizer, and from not enough, as well as light.

 

[cmhassinger]

I have reduce the lighting to 8 hrs and noticed its not growing like it was! So that’s great. I don’t have a timer so I guess I have to find a good one. I do still have some on my plants but I’m thinking of just replacing them since I haven’t had them that long anyways. Plus I got a nerite snail so I hope that all helps. Thanks everyone