Algea!

[SteveVenezia]

Hi,

I've had a 10 gallon tropical tank for almost 3 months now. It's fully cycled with 5 danios, 2 shrimp and a peppered catfish. However algae keeps growing at an alarming rate, the glass fully clouds up after a week of cleaning it.

I've had real plants in it for about 3 weeks now, ones that apparently thrive on nitrate, and I've tried changing the water more frequently (once a week for 3 weeks now), but there's still loads of algae everywhere. I've also tried cutting back on the feeding (very little once a day) but that doesn't affect it either.

Am I doing something wrong, or will the tank eventually balance itself out? Or is this growth normal for a tank this size?

 

[voo]

How long do you leave the light on for each day? And how many watts is the light?

You should be doing water changes each week anyway, especially on a small tank. You could also try different plants. Those that are fast growing stem plants help reduce algae

 

[SteveVenezia]

Hmm my light has been left on a bit long, maybe 10-12 hours every day. I'll try keeping it on for 8 or less.

The plants I have are very fast growing.. i have to cut them every week!

 

[jarmado]

Hmm my light has been left on a bit long, maybe 10-12 hours every day. I'll try keeping it on for 8 or less.

The plants I have are very fast growing.. i have to cut them every week!

i have my tank lights 'on' for 5 hours in the morning and 5 hours at night but no issue with algae.

 

[Nook29]

I have my tank light on much longer than that, and no algae issues.

 

[Kevstir]

when i first got my tank i had a bit of bother with algae as i was leaving the light on for around 13 hours a day, now i only have it on from 5pm till 12pm and it seems to have cleared up loads , i also did 20% water changes( 6 ltrs) a day for 2 weeks to dilute the nutrients that the algae feed on, i did also add a couple of golden algae eaters once it had cleared up a bit , they have helped a lot as well but there evil things plus my 8g tank is to small for them ( lfs told me they stay small but they dont ), if i can give them away I'll get some otto sp's instead ..

Kev