Green Algae

[Sara0229]

I'm getting a lot of green slimy algae in my tank. I just took out what I could and washed a lot of it off but I know it will be back as there are still reminants on my filter, wood, and substrate. What can I do to keep this stuff at bay? I have some live plants in my tank, val, sag, java fern and it's growing on them too. Any ideas?

[borgey]

maybe too much light? you want your plants to be able to beat the algae to the nutrients so it starves out.

[Sara0229]

I had thought of this but according to "light charts" for plants I'm still under watt. Maybe I'll try and swap them out anyways. Thanks!

[duke]

hey Sara , i agree with borgey , cut back on the light hours to 11 to 10 hours on ....and cover any windows if near by also a big water change dose help , but do so after all that scrubing.

you're doing every thing right sara , clean up what you can .... but to toltal wipe it out , you cannot once it is astablished . Just keep up with clean ups , and cut back on hours of daylight. Their are products avaliable to help , but i have never used any ...... hope this helps .....

[Pufferpunk]

I've got the same thing in my discus tank. It's cyanobacteria. My friend got rid of it with erythromycin.

[RTR]

Algae is a symptom of available light and nutrients. If the tank is planted and the higher plants do not out-compete the algae you may have too much or too little light, the wrong spectrum, insufficient or excess nutrients, insufficient or the wrong plants, etc. Any imbalance can cause algae. Algae are opportunistic - if higher plants are not using the light and nutrients, some alga will. There are more forms of algae than you can imagine.

[Sara0229]

I'm going to swap out my lights today and see if that helps. Thanks again everyone!

[Mac Myers]

One easy thing that you can do with a brackish tank that has algae problems is to get some Nerite Snails (Neritina natalensis). Some can be quite pretty but you can use cheap ones that are a buck a piece or so as well. Frequently/Typically found in the freshwater section at your LFS. They are actually saltwater snails.... the "freshwater" variety have just been acclimated. After a few hours of drip acclimation, they do very well in brackish tanks. 5 will RID a 10 gallon tank in about 2-3 days regardless of lighting conditions etc.
I used to have lots of problems with my Brackish Shrimp Tanks as I HAVE to grow algae for the inhabitants but it's tough to get the mix right. The Nerites eat any type of growth at all. Green, Brown, Black, whatever.

[Sara0229]

I think my puffers would just eat them.

[Mac Myers]

Yeah... I didn't think of that. They are pretty big but depending on the animal they be crispy critters.
Still trying to get into a Puffer frame of mind I guess! It's fun to learn that my years of aquarium keeping knowledge are pretty much useless with puffers!

[julianchan]

I have suffered from this issue in the past with planted tanks, what RTR says is exactly true.

8 hours of light a day, grow some fast growing plants like moss. If that does not do much, you can try a diy co2 setup. Algae blooms fast when my co2 runs out, and the co2 encourages the other plants in the tank to grow faster taking up the nutrients that the algae needs. But I run between 3-4 wpg, but have run co2 in a 2wpg tank before.

Water changes help too, as well as not over feeding. Hope this helps

*edited because I recommended some plants that were fw, not bw

[Sara0229]

I swapped out one of my lights, still working on the other. I had done a large water change and scrub right before posting my initial question. I can already see it coming back on the glass! UGH! More scrubbing for now I guess :p And I'm going to cut back on the tubifex worms that the bumblebee gobies eat.

I had some java moss in the tank before and it didn't do well, started to die off. It's in my son's fw community tank now. Maybe I'll try and put some back in. Is that the type of moss you're talking about, julianchan? And I don't know about the co2 thing just sound expensive/complicated for me.

Mac Myers, yeah I know what you mean about getting in the "puff" state of mind, lol.

[julianchan]

I'll be honest, I have not tried co2 in a bw tank. It can be cheap, and it can be expensive, depending on what you get. If you get a regulator, co2, diffuser and such, it can cost about 150-200. If you go diy, it is as cheap as a diffuser $12, 2 coke bottles, (1 2 liter bottle, and 1 1 liter bottle), water, sugar, yeast and some air tubing. This is a fairly decent guide to making it. http://www.qsl.net/w2wdx/aquaria/diyco2.html#3

Any kind of fast growing moss or plants that do well in bw conditions should work. Your LFS should be able to advise better than I can for bw...

[Sara0229]

Any kind of fast growing moss or plants that do well in bw conditions should work. Your LFS should be able to advise better than I can for bw...

lol I wish! I think I know more than them some times and that doesn't say much! lol!

[julianchan]

I know the feeling....I hope you find a solution...best I can say is reduce your lighting...that really should help...8 hours a day really should be enough.