Brown Algae

[Alexojus]

Hello everyone,

First of all let me introduce my self: I live in the West-Midlands but I am actually Belgian! I started to keep fish by accident. I wanted to experience the evolution of tadpoles for my children, ended up with an empty fish tank and decided to have a try. I am about to buy my third tank! The first and smallest has got some Danios, no problem with them, very friendly and hungry!! My second tank is a 64 litres tropical one. I have got 2 swordtail Koi, 3 albinos catfish and 7 guppies (3 males and 4 females). My second batch of fry seem to be doing really fine, hence the reason I want to get a third tank. I want to separate the female guppies to the males ones! I can decide when I want to have fry! I have had that tank for over three months and still get brown algae very quickly! Although, I know they won't harm the fish, I need to clean the tank every 4 or 5 days to have a nice clear water as well as nice clean plants (all plastics+three stones, one piece of wood and a statue). Any ideas how I can reduce them! I have been told there are some products, but some can harm the fish! I can't add algae eaters or I'' have too many fish. I have got a Interpet Fishbox with two 15w bulbs. My ammonia, nitrate and nitrite readings are perfect! Any ideas! Thanks a lot for your help!!

 

[Skins]

Hello and welcome to the forum,
Can you post your water stats and how long are you keeping your lights on per day?

Keith S.

 

[Alexojus]

Hi Keith,
First thank you for your reply!
What do you mean by water stats? Is it the reading on the Nitrate, etc. I have only got the tests for Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. I don't have any readings for Ammonia and Nitrite (0ppm). Nitrate is towards 5.0ppm, second reading after 0 ppm. I am using the liquid Api tester I turn the lights on average 12 hours per day! Maybe too long. I tried to reduce it, but it didn't seem to make much difference. Which other test kit should I get to test the water? I don't think I overfeed my fish, I would say the other way. Although, I have increased slightly the feeding since the birth of my guppy fry a week ago. I have a mixture of sand and gravel. My temperature is at 25 degree Celsius. My filter is an Interpet Internal Power Filter PF2 that gets really dirty when I wash it after a few days! I hope I have answered properly to your question. Thanks

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Alexojus,

I believe your main problem is indeed the number of hours you are leaving the lights on per day. 30 watts over 17G is not to bad for brightness (although it is getting rather close to 2 w/g, so that is adding to it a bit. The main remedy will be to work those hours downward. If you need to split the hours up so that you can enjoy the tank in both the morning and evening, that can be done with a simple lamp timer but be careful that each period gets at least 4 hours. I think I'd drop it to 10 hours initially and then give it a month to see if that makes a difference.

Algae is triggered by light and ammonia, its as simple as that and only traces of ammonia (below what our liquid kits can measure) are needed. This leave light as the easier factor to work on. In your case though it could be that ammonia is a bit more of a factor since the filter is showing signs of greatly needing cleaning in a short number of days. Added to that there may be some leak-through in the filter - but your stats look quite good so I think hours of light is definately the approach to take.

When you feel like it, come over to the "your new freshwater tank" section (basically our beginner section) as you'll find more traffic there as opposed to this welcome section probably.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Alexojus]

Thanks waterdrop.
I will try to reduce the lights first to see how it goes! I might send a post to the set up section as you mention to see if someone as another idea! Again thank you for your advices!!
Florence