We Are New And Need A Little Advice

[swimbladder]

hello we are new to keeping tropical fish but love it, however one thing we dont love is the algae , weve identified it as Green Dust Algae).
 
and one mistake weve made is in getting white gravel,  omg it is now green, we have too much green dust algae, not sure why yet but any way we have a 160 litre tank with approximatley 30 little fish plus one humbug snail,
 
how do we get rid of it safely ??
 
thank you

 

[neutron20]

Maybe try less light if it us UV light or if the tank is near a window that is what is happening!
 
There are UV stabilizer lights to cut down on algae in teh water too. Here is a helpful article
 
http/www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=714

 

[EllieJellyEllie]

30 fish is alot for a 160 liter tank. And humbug snails are semi aquatic so he needs a landmass that he can get to.
 
You might want to do a blackout for three or four days by turning all lights off and covering the whole tank. Only uncover it to feed the fish.
 
Is the tank near a window? If it is you may want to move it. How much light does it get each day?

 

[DerpPH]

Hm. Id suggest you get rid of the humbug snail and buy nerites. and rehome/uprgade

 

[levahe]

A photo would be helpful to help with the problem and more details like what type of lights you have and how long they are on for? Is the tank positioned in direct sunlight?
How long have you had the tank, do you do water changes and gravel vacs?

Depends which fish you have whether or not 30 is too much for a 160l tank

 

[sbenbow]

I'm going mad with our algae as well - all over our gravel.
 
We now just turn our lights on in the morning (07:00 - 09:00) and the afternoon (15:00 - 19:00) - mainly for the benefit of our kids so they can see the fish better.  The tank is near a window and gets a fair bit of natural light.  I'm thinking of a darker background to stop some of the ambient light coming through.
 
BUT - what is the best method to clean the gravel?  I'm guessing a gravel tube / siphon /vacuum thingy just sucks up water and muck - but how do you get rid of the green coating on gravel?  Do we need to take out the gravel and boil it up (eg hot water and agitation of the stones bumping against each other?)  Is there some chemical process that would help clean the gravel (after taking it out of the tank of course!)?
 
The other thing we are doing is getting some RCS - hopefully they will keep it cleaner in the future.

 

[daizeUK]

Turn the gravel over so the algae is buried - it won't survive without light.

 

[tunagirll]

Really it won't recover from the greening, so it would most likely need to come out and be thoroughly cleaned. A blackout is probably your best bet to kill what is currently there. Do you have a test kit? Have you checked to see what your water conditions are currently? It's possible that there is plenty of delicious algae chow in the water courtesy of your fish

 

[sbenbow]

Hi Tunagirl - It's a reasonably new tank, but has finished cycling, and the Ammonia and Nitrite are nil, with some "normal" nitrate levels in there (according to the fish shop who test the water for me - I forgot to ask the exact ppm last time!).
 
Can't wait to get some RCS and see if they make a difference in keeping the algae low - we have an amazing bit of rock in the tank that if the RCS climb onto would be an amazing site - I can't work out how to attach a pic otherwise i'd do so (anyone with a guide, please let me know!)