Slimey Algae? Help! Yuck!

[RaechalLee]

 
 
 
 
 
A couple weeks ago I noticed an algae break out in my tank. I tested the water and nothing wrong with it. Some of the algae is really bright green and kind of thick and moves with the current flow. Then there is some darker green/blue algae that is sheeting across my red ludwigia. This happened before and I thought maybe it was blue/green algae? So I stripped the whole tank down (6 gallons) and cleaned everything, scrubbed all the algae off and let it sit out for a little while. No signs of algae left I put everything back in the tank and filled it up. Now I am starting to see the algae come back.
 
I tested my water today and it said
 
 
Ammonia- 0
Nitrate-  5.0
Nitrite-  0.0
ph- 7.3
 
 
Any ideas? I read that the slime algae that blankets like that is bad and algae eaters won't eat it but I don't get why it is in my tank in the first place. I haven't changed anything and my tank has been set up for over a year now.
 
 
Can anyone help?
 
 
Also, the green algae is not in my main tank (75 gallon), no algae at all.

 

[Ninjouzata]

What sort of lighting is on the tank? How long do you leave them on?

 

[KirkyArcher]

Usually something as simple as the lighting period is probably too long, that and overfeeding and infrequent water changes.

 

[RaechalLee]

I haven't left the light on for any longer than I normally do. I am not sure of the exact lighting but it is just a couple tiny LED lights built into the hood so nothing too crazy. I've never had a problem before. I did have five shrimp in the tank but they have died and that is when this started happening. Maybe it is just over feeding since there aren't any shrimp to eat the leftovers?
 
I always do water changes, at least twice a month and the tank has a filter on it and live plants.
 
I also have been reducing the light to see if that will stop the algae but I haven't really seen any difference.

 

[Ninjouzata]

How long do you normally leave the light on?
 
What % water changes do you do?
 
Did you remove the dead shrimp?

 

[kiwi210]

Usually green algae comes from too much light. The live plant is suppose to help the algae problem but if you're leaving your light on longer than 10 hours for the plants, it will definitely produce algae. Try to only keep your light on 8-10hours and trim off the dead pieces of plant. 

 

[RaechalLee]

I usually leave the light on from when I wake up around 8 am and turn it off at around 10 or 11 p.m. but sometimes it stays on longer. I've never had an algae problem so I thought leaving it on that long would be fine. I am going to try to cut back the light and see what happens. Thanks!

 

[kiwi210]

Good luck! You have a very nice tank!  Green algae can be easy to fix, just be grateful you don't have green water algae! That is a PAIN!