Algae....

[Teri]

Partly because I'm lazy, and partly because I hate trying to catch little floaty bits of algae aftr they've been scraped off, I don't like using algae scrapers. Are there any other ways that I can try and get rid of it? I've got several moss balls because I read somewhere that they're meant tohelp, but don't seem to be working.

 

[bobross]

if you have algae all over the tank, how long are the lights on? is the tank near a window close to sunlight?



BobRoss

 

[-germ-]

More water changes to keep nitrates down, more plants to compete with the nutrition required by algae.
Also look at what type of light you've got, this is probably incorrect but i heard algae responds best to the red and blue spectrums.
Before you reduce your lighting period as you will be advised, keep in mind the fact that plants need light, hindering their development through a shorter lighting period may leave more nutrition for algae to thrive on. Just a guess....
Avoid sunlight this WILL benefit algae over plants and don't buy an algae eater they'll never clean your tank entirely.

 

[Underwurlde]

I assume you have plants? What are they & how many?

If you get your plants to grow & there is a lot of them, goodbye algae... In otherwords, you need the correct BALANCE of good lighting, (and possibly good stable CO2 based on levels of lighting i.e. growth rates you want) and good ferts. You need to get this balance right or the algae gets a foothold.

Hence, one cannot categorically say that 'too much lighting = algae', 'too much nutrients = algae' etc, this is simply not true. Plants need these to grow: however algae is better at taking adbantages of these imbalances because (relatively speaking) they need less nutrients & Co2 and more lighting than do plants. Also they adapt quicker to environmental changes in the tank....

Andy