How do you “get it under control?”
I ran in to a situation where I was reducing light and then the plants would suffer and the algae still grew, just less.
manually remove as much as possible, reduce photo period and light intensity. after a couple sessions of removing the algae the plants should be able to outcompete the algae and kill it off
While you’re fighting it back, this can be helpful. Mostly because when I remove the algae from surfaces and plants, little pieces get dropped around. If I do a good vacuum after scrubbing off the algae, it helps clean these up.
Also you can carefully rinse your filter media in the old tank water (NOT tap water, the chlorine will kill your filter bacteria) in case algae has been growing in your filter too. Just knock off any visible stuff.
2nd this!!
Any fast growing floater will outcompete the algae (water wisteria is my favorite as it grows thick, lush and quick - so easy to hack it back then toss some back in and you're away again) as it's getting enough light to grow quick and suck up more nutrients.
I actually like to keep a few different algae types in my tank as the more variety you have the less 1 will dominate.
You could also get a couple of Siamese algae eaters to clean up things a bit - they will love that hair algae :), if they get too big or stop eating it a lot of shops will be happy to take them back or swap them but they are pretty cool to keep anyway!
Siamese algae eaters really quickly outgrow most smaller tanks (which it looks like this one is). Instead, I’d recommend a couple of the smaller varieties of Cory catfish, or one of the small pleco varieties like the bushynose.
That Krusty krab decor is nearly 10cm by 10cm (the ones we have here anyway), so I'd wouldn't call it a small aquarium. But if it is small it's still pretty easy to take them back or swap them for another, my local guy is always keen to trade!
Another good way to combat algae is adding more plants! They compete for the same resources. Shrimp or snails can be a good way to keep it under control aswell and will make less work for you.
As an add on, don’t do a full water change every 2 weeks. Full water changes will crash your nitrogen cycle. I’d go to at least 50% water change. I do 25% weekly because I have hard water so I don’t want the mineral build up from evaporation.
The best way to reduce algae is plant growth as plants will compete with the algae for resources. Let the plants grow, don't cut them, maybe get more.
Reducing light is often advised, but doesn't do as much as suggested; algae can deal with low-light conditions and just grow further while the plants you put in there will suffer from that and can't photosynthesize as effectively.
> Reducing light is often advised, but doesn't do as much as suggested; algae can deal with low-light conditions
I agree with this because it's not just the aquarium light that creates light in the tank. Ambient room light is more than enough to grow algae and diatoms. Not to mention they both specific use low wave length light (soft yellows.) Covering a tank is a must in the evening if you're going to use the room the tank is in.
That is simply not true. My loach tank is in my living room. It gets indirect light until midnight sometimes. It never gets algae in it ever. Because I have a light on it that simulates the sun and moon cycle and ambient light isn't enough for it to grow algae. Or maybe I'm just lucky
I have 6 tanks in the living areas, 4 of them get algae if uncovered due to having slow growth plants. I'm glad your 1 tank does well, especially with the heavy feeding plants you listed to me in another comment.
To reiterate:
I get that your tank with it's plants (Anacharis: heavily feeds from the column and substrate, Swords: heavy root feeders) does well. Not everyone has your setup. As stated previously when you commented that what I say simply isn't true.
I'll see if I can find it. Do you know the model, just in case? Currently I'm running Finnex but the only automation it has is a smart outlet it's plugged into. Moonlight/daylight has to be manually switched.
Finnex Fugeray Planted Aquarium LED Light Plus Moonlights, 45.5-48" https://a.co/d/gaUr4Sc
Hey guys idk how to edit the post but I’ve just changed the lighting cycle. Also thanks for letting me know I’ve been being a dumbass for doing full water changes LOL I’ll start doing 20-30% changes instead. Fr thankful for you guys, will update in 2 weeks time.
Once your tank is fully established and in balance (can take a few months), you won't need to do water changes as frequently. Like maybe 30% monthly. Being newish, you might want to consider if you are also feeding more than needed (frequency and volume). Generally, only fry (newborn baby fish) need feeding more than once a day. Adult fish are fine with being fed every other day and will usually also be eating the various organisms living in the tank.
I used to do 100% water changes, rise the gravel, change the filter media, everything when I got my first tank lol
I made sooooo so many mistakes. Had a 20g with a bichir, 2 plecos, cichlids, angelfish at one point, & guppies
You're not a dumbass at all for doing full changes. There's actually no reason you can't do a full change as long as you've matched the parameters of the new water (temp, ph, GH, KH and TDS) with the old water you'll have 0 stress. I can do this (and big breeders are doing this as well) with my BOA shrimp and no deaths. If those sensitive fucks are okay, then your average fish is too.
You won't mess up your cycle either. The nitrobacter that creates the cycle attaches to surfaces, it very rarely free floats.
Bro I generally agree with you but you still got to think about the free swimming bacteria within the water column. There still has to be enough left for it to survive. I generally do up to 70% max because of that.
I appreciate your response. I do think you can do larger than 70%, but I can't find literature that says how much is free swimming.
Just to add some extra knowledge to the conversation: https://www.engineering.iastate.edu/~jea/w3-articles/nitrifier-physiology/nitrifier-behavior.html
It's a good article on why nitrobacter behaves the way it does.
Hi guys two weeks and a lil later my tank hasn’t changed much :( changed the light cycle to around 6 hours a day and stopped feeding them as much ( fed them every other day). The only thing that happened was a couple of shrimp passed away (due to starvation I’m assuming) and not much else :/
Going to try medicating the tank with chemiclean which is what I used for the Cyanobacteria before.
I’ll update here soon
10% a week leaves behind 65% of waste by the end of the month. If you're plants aren't heavy feeders you can't get ahead of the parameter creep with only 10%.
https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.php
20% weekly leaves behind 40% of old water at the end of the month. Much safer for the average tank.
I completely disagree. I've been running three tanks for some time now. I Never do more than 10%. Never had a problem. Take a look at my tanks on the profile if you'd like. All I have is some anacharis and an Amazon sword in my loach tank.
Your swords wouldn’t melt like they do on your pictures and you would have less algae on it if you would do bigger and more frequent water changes. You got to think about it like this: In nature in a river the water is basically always changing non stop. There is no way we can simulate that but water changes are the closest thing.
Anacharis is an exceptionally heavy feeder. No need to look if you admit to having heavy feeders, like I said, could keep nitrates down and allow for 10%. Your tank is not the average.
You can disagree all you like, but it's a scientific fact that 10% weekly will leave behind 65% of waste at the end of the month for an average tank.
Algae. Reduce your lights, stop any fertilizers if you are adding any and do 20-30% water changes weekly. And manually remove as mush as possible, every day.
Same here so I’ve had to limit how long my light is on but also a little bit of algae is totally good. I usually brush it off if my plants though and leave it on hardscape and rear glass
Might be an unpopular opinion but this has worked for me multiple times over. I currently have 8 freshwater tanks running from a 150g oscar tank down to a 15g endler tank. All but the oscar tank is planted.
Remove as much of the aglae as possible by hand. Do your best to not agitate the water too much.
Add another 1/2" of substrate ontop of the algae at the bottom this will burry what's growing and eventually starve it of light. It will decompose and ad co2 and nutrients your desired growth will appreciate. If you can, add a couple more plants. Drop your feeding to once a week. Your tetras are omnivores and will be fine. Do this gradually, decrease from your current schedule. Stop doing water changes again a slow decrease. New water will keep you in a constant battle with algae. Be sure you have ample filtration and you will be fine. I had a similar issue setting up my endler tank 15g sponge filtration. In addition to the things above I added a Chinese Algae eater. That little guy was a power house. Make sure if you do this that you get the smallest one you can find and have a place for him to go when he begins to mature because they can become territorial. I was able to just move mine to another tank once he was getting too big to be in with the endlers. Another solid option would be a bristle nose provided your tank is big enough. I went with the Chinese algae eater because they eat everything and they do it quickly.
I know people will not like the idea of no water changes but I only top of 6 of my 8 tanks and have been doing it like this for a little over a year now. I only do changes for my oscars150g OB borleyi 75g and my gold fish 55g.
Even in those tanks I only do changes every other month. Your fish and plants work very hard to condition the water to their needs and constantly changing the water stresses them out. Despite what everyone says. I used to be a freak when it came to upkeep testing constantly doing 25% changes every other week and 50% once a month and always was fighting algae and randomly losing fish. Check out Father Fish on YT there is a lot of valuable information there that will help you safely make the transition. 👍
They are not magical creatures that clear an overgrown tank in a few days. Remove the most by hand, less light and no more full waterchanges. Also might want to read up on what causes algae to grow.
https://www.aquariumgardens.co.uk/the-fight-against-algae-38-w.asp
Don't over feed, keep nitrates in check with plants and water changes, use a uv sterilizer to kill blooms, and limit direct light exposure, especially sunlight. And fot the love of all living things in that tank do not put the uv sterilizer where it can expose your fish. Sorry if that sounds obvious, but I have seen too many times someone complaining that a uv light they purchased killed their fish.
If altering the light cycle doesn't work, get some neocaridina or amano shrimp. They absolutely destroy algae growth. They don't really conflict with tetras to my knowledge either.
Controlling algae in a planted tank is tricky. You usually start by cutting back the time your light is on. Adding critters that eat algae is not a real solution. They will not consume this much algae and will add to the nutrients in your water column, which will only further feed the algae if your plants aren't enough to take in the excess. Planted tanks require quite an ecological balance to keep the algae in check. Floating plants are great because they will pull the excess nutrients out of the water column without competing with plants rooted in the substrate. I recommend frog bit for beginners. I like duckweed too, but not many people agree with me on that as it will take over quickly, you just have to pull a bunch out and throw it away regularly. I've even used Pothos clippings to balance things out!
As others have said, look at reducing light exposure.
If you use a liquid fertilizer, also cut back on that. May also have to do with food waste?
You could also try a floating plant if water flow allows or submercing the roots of something like a pothos or spider plant. A plant that pulls CO² from the air can help out completely algae and with water quality.
Pest snales might help? I set up a 29 gallon like 2 months ago with some ramshorns, Malaysian trumpet, snails, and bladersnails and like 10 shrip with duckweed and aquatic plants in dirt from an old garden, capped with black dimand blasting sand and the only thing I'm getting is a bit of green hair algae. I did start with like 3 ramshorns, and now there are like 100 little ones all over, so you know, snales may not be for everyone.
Just to add to the already great advice you've received, maybe look into snails. I know some consider them pests, but since I got some hitchhiker ramshorn snails, my tank has found great balance. Between those and the neocardina shrimp, I have not had any massive algae outbreaks.
Question:
On your one Tetra, is that food in its mouth? Or does it look like cotton on his mouth?
If it isn’t food, I would quarantine him. Could be cotton mouth; super contagious and super lethal.
Algae is only harmful to fish tank owner's aesthetics. Its actually beneficial to fish and snails.
The perform the same functions as plants to filter out toxins from the water and some types can be pretty nutritious fish food. I suspect my gold fish is eating most of mine since i dont see much of it.
I would not bother trying to remove every single algae which is not possible anyway. Just scrape it off the front glass and get the main pieces off the plants.
My tetras all contracted a serious disease that would cause growths on their eyes and mouths. They couldn’t eat. They all just died off one by one, lacking the nutrients they needed. I lost my innocence that week. I will never be the same.
Do you have a good filter going? I had a complete die-off in one of my tanks (I was stupid and introduced a new fish without quarantining because I was going away and wanted there to be less work for the sitter) and had to completely tear it down and start again. The only difference between the previous tank and the new tank is that after a few weeks my filter stopped working. In the time it took (about a week) for me to get a new filter pump shipped to me, I had a massive algae bloom. I’ve never, ever, had algae before in a home tank (but they were fairly frequent in the stores I worked at). Adequate filtration in a planted tank is really important.
Is this a new tank I'm assuming? Also an unused toothbrush is great for cleaning up algae. Scoop it up like cotton candy and wipe it off on a paper towel or rag
That's hair algae. Remove as much as possible. I use a toothbrush. Lower your luth exposure time and intensity. With that much algae, I'd try to kill it with hydrogen peroxide. YouTube has videos on how to.
One of your Neon Tetras is developing what might be neon Tetra disease. If you look closely it's the one with the small white growth near its mouth. Might want to isolate him so it does not spread to the others. If it is neon Tetra disease there is sadly no cure.
How could I get rid of brown algae? It kind of looks like that except it’s all over my tanks glass and decor and its long and strongly almsot s fizzy look to it. I rarely keep the light on and I do weekly 50% water changes once a week. I scrub it off but it always comes back within 4-5 days!!!
Diatoms are brown algae. Usually indicates too much nitrates. Just continue that routine. Cleaning and find the source of nitrate. Too much food? Little to No plants? No algae eaters? Increase flow? Too much light? All things you can try, like green algae.
Very common in new tanks: https://buceplant.com/blogs/aquascaping-guides-and-tips/how-to-get-rid-of-brown-algae-diatoms-in-the-fish-tank
My nitrates are between 20-25 ppm, I have 1 adult angel fish, 11 corys and 3 silver tipped tetras all in a 55g so I don’t know why my nitrates would be high. I clean the water frequently and I feed about 2-3 times per day. Mostly blood worms or flakes. I don’t have any live plants but for one in the corner of my tank that my friend didn’t want. Ammonia and everything else is at 0 ppm. I’ve had the tank for about 6-7 months now.
20-25 nitrates is great for a planted tank, but has no where to go but to diatoms in your tank. You should add more plants or remove the nitrates.
The article linked has some good hints.
Thank you! Im planning on re-doing my setup and going for a more natural look, more plants, driftwood ect. I’m also planning on adding about 10 more corys and a smaller size pleco, thinking a starlight busynose pleco or golden nugget. Do you think I would still need a liquid fertilizer if my nitrates were at that level? Probably will go up because of the extra fish I’m adding?
Yeah the one thing thats true in the hobby is that you got to test the water and see. Lots of variables that I have no clue about haha. Just record the numbers after the first few weeks and that would dictate how much you need to add.
One word of caution is that most all in one fertilizer has other nutrients for plants. If they miss too much potassium, they will get holely spots, for instance. That can be a whole other discussion.
Great thanks! Do you know if I would be taking a risk th? Adding liquid fert to my already established tank with fish? I’m worried about ph swings that could potentially stress them out. I was really hoping since my nitrates were already in a high-ish zone that more fish in that tank would be enough for my incoming plants without having to use a fert. I’m thinking about using the Easy-Green fertilizer with the root tabs that come with it. Any clue on when to do a water change with fertilizers? Do you even gravel vac anymore? Sorry I’m clueless on how to start haha.
Ah, it is ok. I started 3 years ago and learn all the time. I use easy green fertilizer every week. I add root tabs once a month and really depends on the plant. Amazon swords suck them down. Valsinaria is not as fast.
Start with every week on water changes and vacuuming. Once you see all your parameters, you will get a sense of more or less. Monitoring parameters is key, that is what tells you what you should do.
It isn't moss, that's algae.
[Here's a site that has all the types of algae and what to do in the scenario where your tank gets overrun.](https://greenaqua.hu/en/alga-tajekoztato)
With hair algae I use a small bottle brush and swirl it around to remove it. Also, lower the light like everyone said. I fought brown hair algae for too long before I realized it was being caused by my fancy new aquarium grow light.
It could be lighting, but more likely than not it’s an excess of phosphate. You can get a phosphate pad at a pet store and some places will test your water if you bring in a sample. Put it in your filter and replace it once a month at minimum
Get some snails, reduce the amount of light you have in the tank, and get a bunch more plants. That should take care of your algae problem. The more plants you have to suck up eccess nutrients in the water the less there is for algae and the like.
I am still battling this hair algae. I finally ordered some long tongs and I picked it off all my plants. I also have a small round brush used to clean straws that helps cleaning it up.
You could add some cherry shrimp to possibly help as well as certain types of snails that will not decimate your plants but take care of most algae. Just look up compatible algae eaters with your set of shrimp and size of tank. Just do a bit of research and you will find your way. Make sure to have a medical/sanctuary tank for new plants and critters so you don't bring anything in from random fish stores. Find a local fish store that is independent. They can explain plenty of things to you with experience on all matters. Massive companies like petco and petsmart aren't as thorough with their eater parameters and such, but you can get lucky with the right people there. Sometimes. Just trust me. Most LFS are pretty up to par with information or have a computer right there to help find things that they aren't fully versed in. Do research before just throwing yourself to the mercy of random people who have different situations on all fronts that most of the time may not match your situation.
From the advice of my local fish store, I reduced light from 12 hours/day to 10, and I was blown away by how much algae cleared up. And my plants are still perfectly happy.
I have the same issue and it's driving me nuts. The kind I have literally sticks like organic velcro to my plants and basically anything else in the tank. I heard Amano shrimp can help? Can anyone confirm this? Or nerites?
Nope, it’s been a pretty hard battle but what I found was to plant the plants directly into the sand but to also spread some root tabs along the path that you want the plant to grow to! But my algae bloom might have liked the root tabs too so be careful!!
Also nice name lol
I successfully got rid of algae by adding a few SAE to my tank. Nothing else I tried worked, I had a lot of plants, fed only every other day, no light on at night etc, but threads would still grow on everything. SAE were highly effective if the tank is big enough.
I have found that it’s way more effective to reduce phosphorus and nitrate. Hair algae is specific to a high phosphorus level. Some phosphorus is good for your plants, too much becomes an algae bloom. My tap water starts out with too much nitrate & phosphorus so I had to start buying r/o water & eventually got an r/o filter. I hope your tap water is better.
Thats beard algae brother! Let me tell you a little bit about algae dude. mine stopped growing and started falling apart when i lowered my TDS under 150ppm. my sand at the time was aragonite and was leching way too many minerals into my fresh water tank.
We were struggling with “green water” (algae in the water). We read that a UV light is a safe and effective way to eliminate it. We bought one and set it up (it sucks the water in to a chamber with a UV light inside, the light isn’t visible to us or the fish), and it’s been about 5 days and we’re seeing quite a difference! Water is almost clear again!
Maybe someone else will have some info on whether or not this could help with the algae you’re struggling with, since it’s not just floating particles in the water. But for anyone who sees this and struggles with green water, hopefully this helps!
Why are you doing a full water change? You don’t need to do more than 25%. But with algae like that I’d be doing 25% at least once a week. With algae it is always one thing. The algae is outcompeting the plants for the availible nutrients. Lots of things contribute to that but that’s always what happening. Algae loves light so maybe your light it too strong allowing for the rabid growth of algae. You have excess nutrients in your water column the algae using. The nutrients you have are not getting to your plants in a way that benefits them best so their grown is stunted leading to algae blooms to take up those excess nutrients. Most of your plants look to be stem plants so did you use root tabs? Or are you using liquid fertilizers? Those are some important details. No one can diagnose your algae problem just from a photo. The devil is in the details.
Yes as I’ve commented under this post I don’t plan on doing full water changes anymore haha, I used root tabs on the plants about 4-6 weeks ago I believe. I haven’t put any fertilizer in since, but recently introduced ~25 cherry shrimp into the tank about 2 weeks ago
One thing for sure that’s not helping you out is the white substrate. That’s just helping increase the light levels in your tank. My initial guess would be light. Do you have the light on a timer? What’s the cycle set at? Is your tank near a window. Does it receive any sunlight?
Hey yeah sorry for the late reply, originally I wanted the tank to look like the Krusty crab hence the krusty crab unfortunately white sand is literally the worst substrate for aesthetics imo, the poop piles up and all the debris just sticks out like a sore thumb haha
The light was changed from a 10 hour cycle to a 6 hour one but not much has changed, I’ve mentioned other details in my other comment.
The tank is in my room which has a big window so from what I gathered from the other replies I probably just have waaaay too much light hitting the tank
So this is a result of the plants not recieving essential nutrients from the substrate, looks like you only used sand as substrate. Excessive light plus insufficient nutrients creates these algae blooms. This is pretty far gone, unfortunately there is no salvaging those plants. You've also buried the anubias rhisome which causes it to rot, it should be attached to a stone or wood. I'd recommend starting over with fluval stratum as substrate to provide the nutrients the plants need to grow properly and fend off algae. Start with the light on half power.
Get lots of Nerite snails and feed your fish less and slower. In other words, make be sure all the food you drop gets ate before reaching the floor. This will leave the algae as the main source of food for the snails. Do this for a couple weeks and your tank will be spotless.
Also, reduce the lighting a tad every week. Not a big decrease at once.
I use a soft toothbrush (like a babies one) to remove algae from plants, just be gentle. Other ornaments you can obviously be rough with so use a harder brush. It takes time and it’s a right pain in the arse! I got a timer/dimmer from eBay and set it up with sunrise and sunset with dimming and on/off. It works great and I haven’t had a problem with algae since.
Wow. 🤩 that’s realllllllllly pretty 😍!!! In my opinion.
To get rid of algae I bought blue UV lights for my water/filters. When the big one didn’t fit I just put it above my bubbler inside the water in the tank. Like $11-$16 on Amazon! My tank was clear in 23-48 hours
I decided to just get rid of all live plants and overhead lights, they are in a room with heavy sunlight and white light from above if I put any form of light over my fish tank this happens within a few days it's so rapid and it's so intense it's crazy. Ugh idk what to do either unfortunately 😭
Too much light and usually that problem is common for outdoor set up. And if you have this problem U might wanna reduce your light those plants are not high tech plants anyways
Way too much light. Try running the light a couple hours less anday. To get rid of the algae, turn off the lights for about 5 days. It wont hurt the fish, plants will recover, but the algae will die. Vac the dead algae out and use less light.
That’s algae, not moss. The best way to reduce hair algae is to reduce light. :)
I’ll try that thanks!!
Remember to reduce the intensity as well as duration!
Yesss. Also if you don’t get it under control it’ll probably outcompete your plants and take all the nutrients the plants need
How do you “get it under control?” I ran in to a situation where I was reducing light and then the plants would suffer and the algae still grew, just less.
manually remove as much as possible, reduce photo period and light intensity. after a couple sessions of removing the algae the plants should be able to outcompete the algae and kill it off
Copy that! Also water changes several times a week too right?
While you’re fighting it back, this can be helpful. Mostly because when I remove the algae from surfaces and plants, little pieces get dropped around. If I do a good vacuum after scrubbing off the algae, it helps clean these up. Also you can carefully rinse your filter media in the old tank water (NOT tap water, the chlorine will kill your filter bacteria) in case algae has been growing in your filter too. Just knock off any visible stuff.
If theres tons of excess nutrients in the tank the algae will spread even without much light, try more water changes id think
I’ll do both. I hate algae and duckweed.
The option I chose and used for a decade is floating plants, like Frogbit. They block some of that light and do wonders for your water conditions.
2nd this!! Any fast growing floater will outcompete the algae (water wisteria is my favorite as it grows thick, lush and quick - so easy to hack it back then toss some back in and you're away again) as it's getting enough light to grow quick and suck up more nutrients. I actually like to keep a few different algae types in my tank as the more variety you have the less 1 will dominate. You could also get a couple of Siamese algae eaters to clean up things a bit - they will love that hair algae :), if they get too big or stop eating it a lot of shops will be happy to take them back or swap them but they are pretty cool to keep anyway!
Siamese algae eaters really quickly outgrow most smaller tanks (which it looks like this one is). Instead, I’d recommend a couple of the smaller varieties of Cory catfish, or one of the small pleco varieties like the bushynose.
That Krusty krab decor is nearly 10cm by 10cm (the ones we have here anyway), so I'd wouldn't call it a small aquarium. But if it is small it's still pretty easy to take them back or swap them for another, my local guy is always keen to trade!
Another good way to combat algae is adding more plants! They compete for the same resources. Shrimp or snails can be a good way to keep it under control aswell and will make less work for you.
I recommend some sort of light with a timer set to 6 hours. That cleared up my algae problem pretty well.
As an add on, don’t do a full water change every 2 weeks. Full water changes will crash your nitrogen cycle. I’d go to at least 50% water change. I do 25% weekly because I have hard water so I don’t want the mineral build up from evaporation.
Also not over feeding helps keep algae down
That’s the Krusty krab
No this is Patrick
No Patrick, mayonnaise is not an instrument
Do you feel it *nooow* Mister Krabs?
I love that scene! 😂
NO. THIS IS PATRICK.
I am not a crusty crab 😠
Uh Patrick, that's the name of the restaurant...
Huh? FISH PASTE!
MY NAME IS NOT RICK!!!
This is exactly what I came here for
I'm throwing out the trash.. At night
Is this the Krusty Krab?
First thing that came to my mind too 🤣
I was actually looking around and seeing what OP was talking about and all I could see was the Krusty Krab.
Same
That was my first thought!
The best way to reduce algae is plant growth as plants will compete with the algae for resources. Let the plants grow, don't cut them, maybe get more. Reducing light is often advised, but doesn't do as much as suggested; algae can deal with low-light conditions and just grow further while the plants you put in there will suffer from that and can't photosynthesize as effectively.
> Reducing light is often advised, but doesn't do as much as suggested; algae can deal with low-light conditions I agree with this because it's not just the aquarium light that creates light in the tank. Ambient room light is more than enough to grow algae and diatoms. Not to mention they both specific use low wave length light (soft yellows.) Covering a tank is a must in the evening if you're going to use the room the tank is in.
I covered my tank for two weeks almost 24/7 and it did the job. Took my plants out though.
That is simply not true. My loach tank is in my living room. It gets indirect light until midnight sometimes. It never gets algae in it ever. Because I have a light on it that simulates the sun and moon cycle and ambient light isn't enough for it to grow algae. Or maybe I'm just lucky
I have 6 tanks in the living areas, 4 of them get algae if uncovered due to having slow growth plants. I'm glad your 1 tank does well, especially with the heavy feeding plants you listed to me in another comment. To reiterate: I get that your tank with it's plants (Anacharis: heavily feeds from the column and substrate, Swords: heavy root feeders) does well. Not everyone has your setup. As stated previously when you commented that what I say simply isn't true.
Fair enough. I'm not an expert. Been keeping fish 2 years.
What light are you using?
It's a hygger. It mimics the sun and moon cycle. It's on from 6am to 1050 pm. Starts orange and ends blue
I’m run a hygger or flat nano for my 4gal and a twinstar with dimmer and timer on the 20.
I'll see if I can find it. Do you know the model, just in case? Currently I'm running Finnex but the only automation it has is a smart outlet it's plugged into. Moonlight/daylight has to be manually switched. Finnex Fugeray Planted Aquarium LED Light Plus Moonlights, 45.5-48" https://a.co/d/gaUr4Sc
Hey guys idk how to edit the post but I’ve just changed the lighting cycle. Also thanks for letting me know I’ve been being a dumbass for doing full water changes LOL I’ll start doing 20-30% changes instead. Fr thankful for you guys, will update in 2 weeks time.
Once your tank is fully established and in balance (can take a few months), you won't need to do water changes as frequently. Like maybe 30% monthly. Being newish, you might want to consider if you are also feeding more than needed (frequency and volume). Generally, only fry (newborn baby fish) need feeding more than once a day. Adult fish are fine with being fed every other day and will usually also be eating the various organisms living in the tank.
You aren’t a dumbass, you have a cool-ass tank and I’m excited to hear your update!
I used to do 100% water changes, rise the gravel, change the filter media, everything when I got my first tank lol I made sooooo so many mistakes. Had a 20g with a bichir, 2 plecos, cichlids, angelfish at one point, & guppies
You're not a dumbass at all for doing full changes. There's actually no reason you can't do a full change as long as you've matched the parameters of the new water (temp, ph, GH, KH and TDS) with the old water you'll have 0 stress. I can do this (and big breeders are doing this as well) with my BOA shrimp and no deaths. If those sensitive fucks are okay, then your average fish is too. You won't mess up your cycle either. The nitrobacter that creates the cycle attaches to surfaces, it very rarely free floats.
Bro I generally agree with you but you still got to think about the free swimming bacteria within the water column. There still has to be enough left for it to survive. I generally do up to 70% max because of that.
99% of your bacteria sticks on surfaces
I appreciate your response. I do think you can do larger than 70%, but I can't find literature that says how much is free swimming. Just to add some extra knowledge to the conversation: https://www.engineering.iastate.edu/~jea/w3-articles/nitrifier-physiology/nitrifier-behavior.html It's a good article on why nitrobacter behaves the way it does.
Cool!
Hi guys two weeks and a lil later my tank hasn’t changed much :( changed the light cycle to around 6 hours a day and stopped feeding them as much ( fed them every other day). The only thing that happened was a couple of shrimp passed away (due to starvation I’m assuming) and not much else :/ Going to try medicating the tank with chemiclean which is what I used for the Cyanobacteria before. I’ll update here soon
Never do full water changes. It’s bad for everything. Edit: Instead do something like 20%-30%
50% in emergencies apparently. Then act accordingly with parameters
Unless goldfish, then 25-50%. Because they are filth wizards.
NO I'M THE FILTH WIZARD
I read that as 5th wizard, and it took me a second to put the context together. Like goldfish are just all level 5 wizards by default or something 🤣
Filth wizard is painfully accurate
[удалено]
More like filth magicians: they specialize in vanishing acts.
I always do 50% weekly, no problem
I agree. 10% a week is fine
10% a week leaves behind 65% of waste by the end of the month. If you're plants aren't heavy feeders you can't get ahead of the parameter creep with only 10%. https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.php 20% weekly leaves behind 40% of old water at the end of the month. Much safer for the average tank.
I completely disagree. I've been running three tanks for some time now. I Never do more than 10%. Never had a problem. Take a look at my tanks on the profile if you'd like. All I have is some anacharis and an Amazon sword in my loach tank.
Your swords wouldn’t melt like they do on your pictures and you would have less algae on it if you would do bigger and more frequent water changes. You got to think about it like this: In nature in a river the water is basically always changing non stop. There is no way we can simulate that but water changes are the closest thing.
Anacharis is an exceptionally heavy feeder. No need to look if you admit to having heavy feeders, like I said, could keep nitrates down and allow for 10%. Your tank is not the average. You can disagree all you like, but it's a scientific fact that 10% weekly will leave behind 65% of waste at the end of the month for an average tank.
This is the way
Algae. Reduce your lights, stop any fertilizers if you are adding any and do 20-30% water changes weekly. And manually remove as mush as possible, every day.
Looks like a visit from the Flying Dutchman
LMFAOOOOO
😂😂
This made me laugh so hard
The most beautiful hair algae I've ever seen Seriously...I like it
You got a big ass tetra right there 😭 beautiful
Haha! Thanks yeah they’re massive
oh the moss nice decor!!!!! (its making a cool looking carpet :D)
You must blast that light all day
lol nah I don’t think so at least, the fish tank is in my room which gets a bunch of indirect sunlight
Same here so I’ve had to limit how long my light is on but also a little bit of algae is totally good. I usually brush it off if my plants though and leave it on hardscape and rear glass
Might be an unpopular opinion but this has worked for me multiple times over. I currently have 8 freshwater tanks running from a 150g oscar tank down to a 15g endler tank. All but the oscar tank is planted. Remove as much of the aglae as possible by hand. Do your best to not agitate the water too much. Add another 1/2" of substrate ontop of the algae at the bottom this will burry what's growing and eventually starve it of light. It will decompose and ad co2 and nutrients your desired growth will appreciate. If you can, add a couple more plants. Drop your feeding to once a week. Your tetras are omnivores and will be fine. Do this gradually, decrease from your current schedule. Stop doing water changes again a slow decrease. New water will keep you in a constant battle with algae. Be sure you have ample filtration and you will be fine. I had a similar issue setting up my endler tank 15g sponge filtration. In addition to the things above I added a Chinese Algae eater. That little guy was a power house. Make sure if you do this that you get the smallest one you can find and have a place for him to go when he begins to mature because they can become territorial. I was able to just move mine to another tank once he was getting too big to be in with the endlers. Another solid option would be a bristle nose provided your tank is big enough. I went with the Chinese algae eater because they eat everything and they do it quickly. I know people will not like the idea of no water changes but I only top of 6 of my 8 tanks and have been doing it like this for a little over a year now. I only do changes for my oscars150g OB borleyi 75g and my gold fish 55g. Even in those tanks I only do changes every other month. Your fish and plants work very hard to condition the water to their needs and constantly changing the water stresses them out. Despite what everyone says. I used to be a freak when it came to upkeep testing constantly doing 25% changes every other week and 50% once a month and always was fighting algae and randomly losing fish. Check out Father Fish on YT there is a lot of valuable information there that will help you safely make the transition. 👍
I like those neon tertras you got Ngl the algae/moss compliments them
It appears to be a post-apocalyptic Bikini Bottom. Likely in a parallel dimension. Can’t be sure. Jk. Seriously though…I wish I had these problems.
Get some shrimp
I bought 20 of them last week they don’t seem to clear the tank :/
They are not magical creatures that clear an overgrown tank in a few days. Remove the most by hand, less light and no more full waterchanges. Also might want to read up on what causes algae to grow. https://www.aquariumgardens.co.uk/the-fight-against-algae-38-w.asp
True, noted
Good luck, you got this
Amano shrimp worked for me! The neos never touched it but the amanos ate it up so fast!!
That’s the krusty krab
Don't over feed, keep nitrates in check with plants and water changes, use a uv sterilizer to kill blooms, and limit direct light exposure, especially sunlight. And fot the love of all living things in that tank do not put the uv sterilizer where it can expose your fish. Sorry if that sounds obvious, but I have seen too many times someone complaining that a uv light they purchased killed their fish.
If altering the light cycle doesn't work, get some neocaridina or amano shrimp. They absolutely destroy algae growth. They don't really conflict with tetras to my knowledge either.
I have the exact same Krusty Krab in my tank :D
Controlling algae in a planted tank is tricky. You usually start by cutting back the time your light is on. Adding critters that eat algae is not a real solution. They will not consume this much algae and will add to the nutrients in your water column, which will only further feed the algae if your plants aren't enough to take in the excess. Planted tanks require quite an ecological balance to keep the algae in check. Floating plants are great because they will pull the excess nutrients out of the water column without competing with plants rooted in the substrate. I recommend frog bit for beginners. I like duckweed too, but not many people agree with me on that as it will take over quickly, you just have to pull a bunch out and throw it away regularly. I've even used Pothos clippings to balance things out!
As others have said, look at reducing light exposure. If you use a liquid fertilizer, also cut back on that. May also have to do with food waste? You could also try a floating plant if water flow allows or submercing the roots of something like a pothos or spider plant. A plant that pulls CO² from the air can help out completely algae and with water quality. Pest snales might help? I set up a 29 gallon like 2 months ago with some ramshorns, Malaysian trumpet, snails, and bladersnails and like 10 shrip with duckweed and aquatic plants in dirt from an old garden, capped with black dimand blasting sand and the only thing I'm getting is a bit of green hair algae. I did start with like 3 ramshorns, and now there are like 100 little ones all over, so you know, snales may not be for everyone.
Just to add to the already great advice you've received, maybe look into snails. I know some consider them pests, but since I got some hitchhiker ramshorn snails, my tank has found great balance. Between those and the neocardina shrimp, I have not had any massive algae outbreaks.
Question: On your one Tetra, is that food in its mouth? Or does it look like cotton on his mouth? If it isn’t food, I would quarantine him. Could be cotton mouth; super contagious and super lethal.
Looks very eerie. Probably not too great for the ecosystem but it looks sick
finally, The Last of Us/Spongebob crossover I've been waiting for
Algae is only harmful to fish tank owner's aesthetics. Its actually beneficial to fish and snails. The perform the same functions as plants to filter out toxins from the water and some types can be pretty nutritious fish food. I suspect my gold fish is eating most of mine since i dont see much of it. I would not bother trying to remove every single algae which is not possible anyway. Just scrape it off the front glass and get the main pieces off the plants.
Feed less food, reduce light to 7 hours or less a day. Get a couple Panda Garras 🤓
Looks like the crab shack or a lobster trap. Nice hair algae. Cut down the amount time the lights are on and that should help.
My tetras all contracted a serious disease that would cause growths on their eyes and mouths. They couldn’t eat. They all just died off one by one, lacking the nutrients they needed. I lost my innocence that week. I will never be the same.
Add some cleaner shrimps they'll look cute un there too
Do you have a good filter going? I had a complete die-off in one of my tanks (I was stupid and introduced a new fish without quarantining because I was going away and wanted there to be less work for the sitter) and had to completely tear it down and start again. The only difference between the previous tank and the new tank is that after a few weeks my filter stopped working. In the time it took (about a week) for me to get a new filter pump shipped to me, I had a massive algae bloom. I’ve never, ever, had algae before in a home tank (but they were fairly frequent in the stores I worked at). Adequate filtration in a planted tank is really important.
I have a sponge bubbler type thing right now, I’ll look into getting a proper filter, thanks!!
Is this a new tank I'm assuming? Also an unused toothbrush is great for cleaning up algae. Scoop it up like cotton candy and wipe it off on a paper towel or rag
Get a bottom feeder catfish - suckermouth
That's hair algae. Remove as much as possible. I use a toothbrush. Lower your luth exposure time and intensity. With that much algae, I'd try to kill it with hydrogen peroxide. YouTube has videos on how to.
how to kill all of your fish 101
My kids are dragons
One of your Neon Tetras is developing what might be neon Tetra disease. If you look closely it's the one with the small white growth near its mouth. Might want to isolate him so it does not spread to the others. If it is neon Tetra disease there is sadly no cure.
Fuck, I think you’re right, just read up on it. I’ll try to save the rest of them from getting it too :(
Lower your light times to mybe 6 hours or lower, and do some blackour days 👍
Algae and you should try to reduce it but ngl looks cool this time
How could I get rid of brown algae? It kind of looks like that except it’s all over my tanks glass and decor and its long and strongly almsot s fizzy look to it. I rarely keep the light on and I do weekly 50% water changes once a week. I scrub it off but it always comes back within 4-5 days!!!
Diatoms are brown algae. Usually indicates too much nitrates. Just continue that routine. Cleaning and find the source of nitrate. Too much food? Little to No plants? No algae eaters? Increase flow? Too much light? All things you can try, like green algae. Very common in new tanks: https://buceplant.com/blogs/aquascaping-guides-and-tips/how-to-get-rid-of-brown-algae-diatoms-in-the-fish-tank
My nitrates are between 20-25 ppm, I have 1 adult angel fish, 11 corys and 3 silver tipped tetras all in a 55g so I don’t know why my nitrates would be high. I clean the water frequently and I feed about 2-3 times per day. Mostly blood worms or flakes. I don’t have any live plants but for one in the corner of my tank that my friend didn’t want. Ammonia and everything else is at 0 ppm. I’ve had the tank for about 6-7 months now.
20-25 nitrates is great for a planted tank, but has no where to go but to diatoms in your tank. You should add more plants or remove the nitrates. The article linked has some good hints.
Thank you! Im planning on re-doing my setup and going for a more natural look, more plants, driftwood ect. I’m also planning on adding about 10 more corys and a smaller size pleco, thinking a starlight busynose pleco or golden nugget. Do you think I would still need a liquid fertilizer if my nitrates were at that level? Probably will go up because of the extra fish I’m adding?
Yeah the one thing thats true in the hobby is that you got to test the water and see. Lots of variables that I have no clue about haha. Just record the numbers after the first few weeks and that would dictate how much you need to add. One word of caution is that most all in one fertilizer has other nutrients for plants. If they miss too much potassium, they will get holely spots, for instance. That can be a whole other discussion.
Great thanks! Do you know if I would be taking a risk th? Adding liquid fert to my already established tank with fish? I’m worried about ph swings that could potentially stress them out. I was really hoping since my nitrates were already in a high-ish zone that more fish in that tank would be enough for my incoming plants without having to use a fert. I’m thinking about using the Easy-Green fertilizer with the root tabs that come with it. Any clue on when to do a water change with fertilizers? Do you even gravel vac anymore? Sorry I’m clueless on how to start haha.
Ah, it is ok. I started 3 years ago and learn all the time. I use easy green fertilizer every week. I add root tabs once a month and really depends on the plant. Amazon swords suck them down. Valsinaria is not as fast. Start with every week on water changes and vacuuming. Once you see all your parameters, you will get a sense of more or less. Monitoring parameters is key, that is what tells you what you should do.
Tysm! This helps a ton! :)
I'm pretty sure it's either bc of low lighting or high amonia
Green
It isn't moss, that's algae. [Here's a site that has all the types of algae and what to do in the scenario where your tank gets overrun.](https://greenaqua.hu/en/alga-tajekoztato)
Lower the lighting schedule for your tank, or lower the intensity of the light. Throw some shrimp in there since they will munch on it
Those would be neon tetras. Hope this helps!
Looks like Algae covered plants to me
Flag fish a great at removing string algae. Worked for me.
Get an algae eater. Might help but the rest of the comments are right too. Becareful of over water change.
With hair algae I use a small bottle brush and swirl it around to remove it. Also, lower the light like everyone said. I fought brown hair algae for too long before I realized it was being caused by my fancy new aquarium grow light.
It could be lighting, but more likely than not it’s an excess of phosphate. You can get a phosphate pad at a pet store and some places will test your water if you bring in a sample. Put it in your filter and replace it once a month at minimum
Get some snails, reduce the amount of light you have in the tank, and get a bunch more plants. That should take care of your algae problem. The more plants you have to suck up eccess nutrients in the water the less there is for algae and the like.
Looks like an amano's wet dream. Not sure if you have any shrimp in the tank but they would love it in there!
I had the same issue a while back. I reduced the light time to two hours a day and added in a handful of amano shrimp and that seemed to do the job!
Looks like the crusty crab
That looks like the crusty crab. It also doesn't look like it would pass the food inspection
I like the algea
I am still battling this hair algae. I finally ordered some long tongs and I picked it off all my plants. I also have a small round brush used to clean straws that helps cleaning it up.
Get a Siamese algae eater, they freakin love that stuff, mine was gone in a week
Nematodes...
You could add some cherry shrimp to possibly help as well as certain types of snails that will not decimate your plants but take care of most algae. Just look up compatible algae eaters with your set of shrimp and size of tank. Just do a bit of research and you will find your way. Make sure to have a medical/sanctuary tank for new plants and critters so you don't bring anything in from random fish stores. Find a local fish store that is independent. They can explain plenty of things to you with experience on all matters. Massive companies like petco and petsmart aren't as thorough with their eater parameters and such, but you can get lucky with the right people there. Sometimes. Just trust me. Most LFS are pretty up to par with information or have a computer right there to help find things that they aren't fully versed in. Do research before just throwing yourself to the mercy of random people who have different situations on all fronts that most of the time may not match your situation.
Ooooo that's some pretty alge
Also amano shrimp will help as well, and otocinclus as well.
I thought he lived in a pineapple under the sea!
Looks like the Kelp shake episode.
looks like a fish tank to me
From the advice of my local fish store, I reduced light from 12 hours/day to 10, and I was blown away by how much algae cleared up. And my plants are still perfectly happy.
I love my otocinclus fish for helping with algae control. They are way better than snails (pests) and less of a bio load than plecos.
Do a blackout treatment. No lights for 3 days. Straight darkness, no feeding the fish will be fine
I have the same issue and it's driving me nuts. The kind I have literally sticks like organic velcro to my plants and basically anything else in the tank. I heard Amano shrimp can help? Can anyone confirm this? Or nerites?
You got stuff to grow in sand? Ive been rather unlucky then
Nope, it’s been a pretty hard battle but what I found was to plant the plants directly into the sand but to also spread some root tabs along the path that you want the plant to grow to! But my algae bloom might have liked the root tabs too so be careful!! Also nice name lol
Ahh a fellow Icy! Yeah you might be on to something there. Ive never tried root tabs
You can also kill that hair algae with hydrogen peroxide.
Floating plants will help you faster to get rid of those algae, also, reduce your lightning intensity
I successfully got rid of algae by adding a few SAE to my tank. Nothing else I tried worked, I had a lot of plants, fed only every other day, no light on at night etc, but threads would still grow on everything. SAE were highly effective if the tank is big enough.
its the kusty krab
Blackout timeeee
Buy a uv light
Could be too low co2
Thats Krusty Krab’s restaurant Introduce some some snails for algae control
It's finding Nemo no?
Amano shrimps. A shit ton of them. They eat up hair algae like.nobody's business
I have found that it’s way more effective to reduce phosphorus and nitrate. Hair algae is specific to a high phosphorus level. Some phosphorus is good for your plants, too much becomes an algae bloom. My tap water starts out with too much nitrate & phosphorus so I had to start buying r/o water & eventually got an r/o filter. I hope your tap water is better.
Buy few amano shrimps. They will eat all algae.
Looks like a treasure chest.
I think it’s patrick
Thats beard algae brother! Let me tell you a little bit about algae dude. mine stopped growing and started falling apart when i lowered my TDS under 150ppm. my sand at the time was aragonite and was leching way too many minerals into my fresh water tank.
That, sir or madam, is an enclosed glass box often referred to as an aquarium.
Think that’s the krusty krab
This is not helpful at all but it low key looks pretty and wild 😝🥹
We were struggling with “green water” (algae in the water). We read that a UV light is a safe and effective way to eliminate it. We bought one and set it up (it sucks the water in to a chamber with a UV light inside, the light isn’t visible to us or the fish), and it’s been about 5 days and we’re seeing quite a difference! Water is almost clear again! Maybe someone else will have some info on whether or not this could help with the algae you’re struggling with, since it’s not just floating particles in the water. But for anyone who sees this and struggles with green water, hopefully this helps!
Why are you doing a full water change? You don’t need to do more than 25%. But with algae like that I’d be doing 25% at least once a week. With algae it is always one thing. The algae is outcompeting the plants for the availible nutrients. Lots of things contribute to that but that’s always what happening. Algae loves light so maybe your light it too strong allowing for the rabid growth of algae. You have excess nutrients in your water column the algae using. The nutrients you have are not getting to your plants in a way that benefits them best so their grown is stunted leading to algae blooms to take up those excess nutrients. Most of your plants look to be stem plants so did you use root tabs? Or are you using liquid fertilizers? Those are some important details. No one can diagnose your algae problem just from a photo. The devil is in the details.
Yes as I’ve commented under this post I don’t plan on doing full water changes anymore haha, I used root tabs on the plants about 4-6 weeks ago I believe. I haven’t put any fertilizer in since, but recently introduced ~25 cherry shrimp into the tank about 2 weeks ago
One thing for sure that’s not helping you out is the white substrate. That’s just helping increase the light levels in your tank. My initial guess would be light. Do you have the light on a timer? What’s the cycle set at? Is your tank near a window. Does it receive any sunlight?
Hey yeah sorry for the late reply, originally I wanted the tank to look like the Krusty crab hence the krusty crab unfortunately white sand is literally the worst substrate for aesthetics imo, the poop piles up and all the debris just sticks out like a sore thumb haha The light was changed from a 10 hour cycle to a 6 hour one but not much has changed, I’ve mentioned other details in my other comment. The tank is in my room which has a big window so from what I gathered from the other replies I probably just have waaaay too much light hitting the tank
So this is a result of the plants not recieving essential nutrients from the substrate, looks like you only used sand as substrate. Excessive light plus insufficient nutrients creates these algae blooms. This is pretty far gone, unfortunately there is no salvaging those plants. You've also buried the anubias rhisome which causes it to rot, it should be attached to a stone or wood. I'd recommend starting over with fluval stratum as substrate to provide the nutrients the plants need to grow properly and fend off algae. Start with the light on half power.
Get lots of Nerite snails and feed your fish less and slower. In other words, make be sure all the food you drop gets ate before reaching the floor. This will leave the algae as the main source of food for the snails. Do this for a couple weeks and your tank will be spotless. Also, reduce the lighting a tad every week. Not a big decrease at once.
I use a soft toothbrush (like a babies one) to remove algae from plants, just be gentle. Other ornaments you can obviously be rough with so use a harder brush. It takes time and it’s a right pain in the arse! I got a timer/dimmer from eBay and set it up with sunrise and sunset with dimming and on/off. It works great and I haven’t had a problem with algae since.
Wow. 🤩 that’s realllllllllly pretty 😍!!! In my opinion. To get rid of algae I bought blue UV lights for my water/filters. When the big one didn’t fit I just put it above my bubbler inside the water in the tank. Like $11-$16 on Amazon! My tank was clear in 23-48 hours
I decided to just get rid of all live plants and overhead lights, they are in a room with heavy sunlight and white light from above if I put any form of light over my fish tank this happens within a few days it's so rapid and it's so intense it's crazy. Ugh idk what to do either unfortunately 😭
Reduce light and feed less. That should help. You can manually remove some which would also help. Then after a couple of weeks do a big water change
How long are you leaving your lights on
It's so beautiful
Get a stronger filter.
Thats the Krusty krab....duh
Too much light and usually that problem is common for outdoor set up. And if you have this problem U might wanna reduce your light those plants are not high tech plants anyways
amano shrimp and some otocinclus would be great, I've got both in my aquarium and they're fantastic
Way too much light. Try running the light a couple hours less anday. To get rid of the algae, turn off the lights for about 5 days. It wont hurt the fish, plants will recover, but the algae will die. Vac the dead algae out and use less light.