Green Fungus

[Fantail_John]

My 8 year old nephew ask does anyone know why he is getting green fungus on the sides of his tank? I can't work it out, is tank is only 10g with 6 Ember Tetra, filter and heater, his tank is not near sunlight and keeps the lights on for 8 hours a day, he does weekly water changes. so for now I have told him to do water changes daily and just a pad to take as much off you can on each water change and cut the lights down to 5 hours a day. Have I give him the right info? anyone knows a better way please let me know and I will pass it on to him Thank you

 

[KittyKat]

Has he got any plants in there? If not, that's the problem.. it can either be fixed with addition of a lot of plants or increased water changes with good quality water. If he goes for the plants, 8 hours of light should be fine.

 

[Fantail_John]

Has he got any plants in there? If not, that's the problem.. it can either be fixed with addition of a lot of plants or increased water changes with good quality water. If he goes for the plants, 8 hours of light should be fine.

Thank you He as no real plants, but I will tell him to start on the easy ones like i'm doing soon moss's and ferns You learn something new every day Even I did not know having real pants will cut out the green fungus

 

[KittyKat]

It's not a fungus, it is an algae. The best way to get rid of it is to scrape *all* of it off, followed by a large water change (95%+, if he normally does small water changes, get him to work up to larger ones over a period of a few weeks) with temperature matched and dechlorinated water. Then the important bit is to heavily plant right away. Various plants from this list will work: http/www.tropica.com/plants/difficulty/easy.aspx , I recommend that he stays away from Anubias (because it is slow growing) and swords (because many grow too large). About 7-10 pots or equivalent will do it, depending on the bottom area. If he does not plant heavily right away, the algae will almost certainly come back very quickly. Stem plants would probably be most effective in this case and he should not expect every single species he gets to survive.

 

[Fantail_John]

It's not a fungus, it is an algae. The best way to get rid of it is to scrape *all* of it off, followed by a large water change (95%+, if he normally does small water changes, get him to work up to larger ones over a period of a few weeks) with temperature matched and dechlorinated water. Then the important bit is to heavily plant right away. Various plants from this list will work: http/www.tropica.com/plants/difficulty/easy.aspx , I recommend that he stays away from Anubias (because it is slow growing) and swords (because many grow too large). About 7-10 pots or equivalent will do it, depending on the bottom area. If he does not plant heavily right away, the algae will almost certainly come back very quickly. Stem plants would probably be most effective in this case and he should not expect every single species he gets to survive.

Thank you for the info It was my fault sorry calling it fungus most of been looking at my toe when I said it lol But I have let me know and given him the list of plants to start to use all the info is kindly welcomed

 

[marieukxx]

Depends on the strenght of the light I think. 8 hours a day is a lot if he has a strong light. If I leave my 60L light on more than 5 oor 6 hours I get green algae very quickly as it has quite a powerful bright light. My other tank has a lower watt light and can be on all day and night and I never get algae.

 

[KittyKat]

Algae is more often caused my excess *something* in the water, than the actual light. If you are getting algae with a bright light, one of the easiest ways to overcome it is to add more plants, especially those which can out-compete the algae. 8 hours of light in a planted tank is not a lot, and only few plants grow well with under 6 hours of light.