algea starting to form

by Realest Sun Oct 19, 2014 4:25 pm

I have brown looking algea starting to form on my rocks and on the leaves of the stem hedge.

How should I go about fighting this in the early stages. Less hours of light? Frequent water changes? Physically clean the leaves and rocks?

by **CAAIndie** Sun Oct 19, 2014 5:08 pm

What is the current lighting setup and the time period that you have lights on?

by Realest Sun Oct 19, 2014 5:18 pm

no timer currently (should get one tomorrow), leaving light on approximately 12 hours. It is a single T8 2foot 20watt lifegro (6700k)

by **Shell** Sun Oct 19, 2014 6:42 pm

Every tank is different of course, but I'll tell you about our 10g mosquito tank. It is planted and has a timer, always set to be on for nine hours. We had a massive algae outbreak a few months back. We tried changing the lighting routine, nutrient doses, etc. and nothing seemed to work. Water tests were always perfect, and the tank is under stocked. About a month ago, I got fed up and decided to keep the lights out for two days, and then turn them on for one hour a day for two more days. Pretty much all of the algae disappeared. We slowly upped the lighting hour by hour each day, and now lights are only on for seven hours a day. So far so good. No algae problem to mention and plants are doing great. I only bring this up as maybe your algae problem might cease if you reduce the hours of light per day - maybe not drastically as this doesn't sound as bad as what we had going on. As I said though, every tank is different, sometimes it is a matter of figuring out balance for more than just light. Smile

by **CAAIndie** Sun Oct 19, 2014 6:52 pm

Yeah I might try reducing the lighting period. I'm only running my lights on for about 6 hours per day, as if I had them at 8 or 10 I would get quite heavy algae build up on the glass.

I'll still have to scrape the glass a little bit now and then, but it's helped a lot.

by Starfish Sun Oct 19, 2014 7:32 pm

I agree with the above comments. My algae growth was reduced significantly when the lighting was reduced. I also scrape the glass once or twice a month.

by GaryE Mon Oct 20, 2014 4:49 am

Just don't make the classic mistake of deciding to buy a common pleco as an algae eater, as they are algae producing machines. They grow too large for all but the most immense tanks, and their high fibre bulk eating habits result in enormous amounts of waste.
They are cute when small, but they don't come as advertised.