Algae

[Confish]

hey i have white gravel in my tank and its started to go "dirty" however after i do a vac it still is so i looked closely and the gravel has black algae growing on each piece of gravel so looks like i have white gravel with random brownish bits in too i was wondering how to get rid of this also there is no other plants in the tank. and i was wondering about getting some moss balls would these take all the food killing off the algae ? cheers

 

[lljdma06]

hey i have white gravel in my tank and its started to go "dirty" however after i do a vac it still is so i looked closely and the gravel has black algae growing on each piece of gravel so looks like i have white gravel with random brownish bits in too i was wondering how to get rid of this also there is no other plants in the tank. and i was wondering about getting some moss balls would these take all the food killing off the algae ? cheers

A couple of questions for you.

1. How old is the tank?
2. What is the lighting?
3. How long do you have the lights on for?
4. How often do you feed your fish and change the water?

 

[Confish]

hey i have white gravel in my tank and its started to go "dirty" however after i do a vac it still is so i looked closely and the gravel has black algae growing on each piece of gravel so looks like i have white gravel with random brownish bits in too i was wondering how to get rid of this also there is no other plants in the tank. and i was wondering about getting some moss balls would these take all the food killing off the algae ? cheers

A couple of questions for you.

1. How old is the tank?
2. What is the lighting?
3. How long do you have the lights on for?
4. How often do you feed your fish and change the water?

1. well over a year
2. its the juwel rio standard lighting t5 highlite ?
3.1 in the afternoon till 10 / 12 at night
4.feed fish twice a day and 30% weekly water change

some more information you might need to know i have no plants and its got drift wood and cichlids cheers for the help

 

[lljdma06]

1. well over a year
2. its the juwel rio standard lighting t5 highlite ?
3.1 in the afternoon till 10 / 12 at night
4.feed fish twice a day and 30% weekly water change

some more information you might need to know i have no plants and its got drift wood and cichlids cheers for the help

More than likely it is an ammonia issue because of the 2x daily feedings. Not enough ammonia to kill or even harm the fish, but just enough to trigger algae. The weekly waterchanges could also make the CO2 levels in the tank fluctuate. Seeing that there are no plants to even utilize any of the nutrients, the algae will make itself at home.

The tank lights are also on too long. Try reducing it to about 6 hours for now.

For now, try feeding once a day, ignore the hungry fish, they will be fine on one feeding. I know, I've kept cichlids too, they are a bunch of little whiny babies when they don't get their way. And also try the reducing the photoperiod to 6 hours. You will not be able to address the fluctuating or low CO2 levels as you don't have any plants, so let's see where the first two recomendations get you.

 

[Confish]

cheers for the fast reply and ye ill give that ago lol but they just wanting feeding so much lol and ye ill turn the lights off later today when it get to the 6 hours would moss balls help? as most plants i get get torn apart? also is there any way of cleaning the gravel? as it looks really messy at the moment cheers ill try and get a photo up later

 

[Confish]

bump?

 

[ian]

moss balls are very slow growing so i wouldn't say they would help to be honest. I don't really no much about plants in cichlids tanks.

 

[lljdma06]

What are the cichlid species?

 

[Confish]

convict jewel and maybe jd and a nic also would the moss balls help? also a way of cleaning the algae off the gravel cheers