Amnagrla

Okay.... I keep getting an algae bloom in my tank. I had it at school when I had a planted tank. My friend with a 10 gallon freshwater tank (who had my molly babies!) was also experiencing an algae bloom... AND the kid down the hall with a freshwater tank was as well...
So.. I did what I could, did my water changes, kept my lights off for longer periods of time, kept my shade down... and it never got better. I attributed it to something in the School water since 3 people had it...

I got home and changed my gravel. The tank was good for a few days and now it's back again. I can hardly see through the tank it's so green!

I've been reading about a blackout.

http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_...ater_algae.php
Method No. 1 - Blackout
The blackout method consists of covering the tank for 4 days, so no light whatsoever is allowed into the tank during this time. Cover the tank completely with blankets or black plastic trash bags. Be prepared, killing the algae will result in dead decaying algae that will decompose and pollute the water. Water changes are needed at the beginning and end of the blackout time and ammonia should be monitored also.

What do we think of that?

Shawnie

That algae sure is a pain isnt it!

first off, gotta try to figure why ...is the tank near any natural sunlight? or maybe the filter isnt doing its job?? are the fish not eating all you feed them?

Its no fun not being able to use the lights in your tank, as its so tranquil being able to watch the fishies... I hope it gets better for you!

Amnagrla

lol it IS a pain!

It's in the corner of a room surrounded by 2 windows... doesn't get direct sunlight, however, it was in this same spot for a year and I never had any algae problems!! lol

I'm been feeding them small amounts because of this algae bloom so I don't think it's the food.

I did used to have a background on it and now I don't... maybe that helped.

I sure HOPE the filter is working! Maybe I'll get a new filter thingie (I'm having a major brain fart here). hahaha

I do disagree about putting trashbags on the tank... that sounds like a bad idea to me!

Shawnie

hmmm maybe there is too much natural light even tho its not in the direct sun...try putting the backdrop back on and see if that helps...keep the lights off for a few days and really cut back on feedings ...its weird because something is blooming that nasty stuff...one of my tanks gets direct lite just on one side so I do have to wipe that side more often with water changes...and im not sure on the trashbags either...I think allie had some on the backs of her tanks once..but not totally sure it was her LOL

Amnagrla

yeah... I just did a 60% lol water change. Shut all the shades, turned the lights off.. and I think I will put a sheet over the tank when I'm not here in case my family opens up the windows or something.

I never get that much algae (the stuff you can see) on anything, walls or decor, but I do have otos. I hope this works!!!

angelfish220

I've heard different things about blackouts. I think that the best thing to do about something like algae is plants. It says on your info that you have a planted tank, do you fertilize? that would give algae some excess nutrients to feed off.

Amnagrla

I had a planted tank up until about a month ago....

angelfish220

Did your plants all die?

Did you take the dying plants out of the tank?

If you left them in, the roots could be decaying causing extra nutrients for the algae to feed off of.

Amnagrla

When I did the plants... I never did anything special. I would buy those tubes, use "Flourish" in the water, and that's it. I got mad because I had a TON of snails to deal with and I took out all the plants. But there are no roots or anything like that because I just changed out the gravel.

If anything I was expecting a mini-cycle, not an algae bloom!

angelfish220

Is the new gravel a 'planted tank' gravel, some of the special stuff that keeps plants alive?

See even if you did the blackout, as soon as you put the light back on, algae will grow again unless you know what caused it, and change it.

Amnagrla

I don't think it's planted tank gravel. It's pretty much just little river rocks.

I know that if I don't figure out the problem it will just keep happening, I just can't figure it out.

The only thing I can think of is the sun. Everything else is fine.

angelfish220

Okay so I think that the sun is your best bet.

Do you keep those windows open, or would putting up some good blinds not be an issue

Amnagrla

There are blinds there already but they stay open a lot... I'm going make sure they stay shut for a while and see if that helps..

Butterfly

Anything to block all light from your tank will work for a blackout. People usually use trash bags because their dark and cheap 3-4 days of this and a large water change after should see you algae free. But if the tank is getting too much indirect sunlight light it will probably come back.
I have gravel in some of my tanks too so I don't think thats the problem.
Algae feeds off of extra nutrients your plants are not using, so fast growing plants like water sprite, hornwort etc will soak up the "extras' and starve the algae out.
Also some of those plants sold in tubes are not aquatic plants. If you have some of those then the dieing plants could be supplying the nutrients for algae to grow on.
Carol

angelfish220

I was thinking that maybe she had like Eco-Complete or something, but having no plants to use the nutrients would cause the algae

Butterfly

ahhhh gotcha
Carol

Amnagrla

Okay. I still need help. I moved the tank out of the sun, put a background on it, got plants, turned the temp down and I'm feeding them MAYBE once a day to eliminate excess food.

I end up doing partial changes every few days just so it is only a little cloudy! I even did the black out but when I ended it, like you said, it came right back.

HELP! Any suggetsions at ALL I will be trying....

sasm3

all that algae has got to kinda suck. maybe more info, ammonia, nitrite/nitrate, pH. i have a algae bloom. i used to have an algae bloom and a bacterial bloom. dont do water changes as often as u r amnagrla, it will cause a loss of bacteria and u will get nitrite and ammonia and very low nitrate. it happend to me/. hope ur tank is doing better than mine (it probably is) :-)