Sabi

Hi all,

I've noticed for a while now that my tanks getting green algea spots. Its ,sort of, hardish and i've got to scratch it with my nails to take it off. My pleco normaly keeps the tank clean, but there is a bit brown algea on the glass as well. What type of algea is this green algea? And why's it there?
Thanks

Neville

i think u should keep your aquarium lights off for a few days, it happens because of the amount of lights entering the tank. however, more info will help , such as, what is your tank size, how many fish do u have etc., it may also occur from overfeeding.

Sabi

Uhh, I'm going to put my tanks down in 'members tanks' now.

Sabi

Done it. but for here: i've 19 fish in a 65gal. (a diff lot of sizes&types). I feed once a day for 1mnt, 'TetraraMin flake food'. At most, once a week i give them frozen worms.

vin

How many hours do you have your lights on for? Algae is normal, but we can also control it by the amount of light we 'feed' it...

Sabi

Round 8 hours a day.

vin

That shouldn't be too much light in all reality. Algae will consume excess food as well. You could try cutting back on food slightly. But as I said, some algae is normal.

griffin

sounds like green spot algae. it can be caused by various things, but one of them is a low phosphate concentration or low phosphate:nitrate ratio

sgould

If you black out your tank for about 3 days, that will do a long way to getting the algae under control. No tank lights...cover the glass so there is no ambient light from the room. As already said, reducing food a bit can help as well.

Sabi

Thanks.
Will keep on the light less often.
Man, but was it hard to take off!! I was doing a water change today and decided to clean up the spots.
I tried scrubbing with a cloth, it hardly worked, i had to take a small stone and rub it off!
Is there any place here i can read about this "Green spot algea"?

griffin

here's some links, i couldn't find the one that i was really looking for. most of these just say it's hard to clean off.

http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_algae.htm
http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/algae/p/spotalgae.htm
http://faq.thekrib.com/algae.html#spot
http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/algae.html

hope that helps

Sabi

Thanks Griffin.
I'm jolly well going to clean off the algea once a week, if Algy (my pleco) doesn't clean it!
It's really hard to take off.

griffin

np - hope you get the algae under control! i know it's one of the few types of algae that i've found nothing will eat!

gl!

Sabi

Green

Spot

Algy

Is

Driving

Me

Nuts

!!!

I'm leaving the light on longer for my plants to grow and they have been growing, but so has the green algae!!!! THIS IS TERRIBLE!

Neville

u need some algae eaters, u can keep some otos, they gorw up to 2"

Neville

hey sabi, u didn't mention your 65g in your member's fish tanks topic. do u have any algae eaters? BTW u can link your member's fish tanks topic with your signature.

armadillo

Sabi's got this adorable, enormous common pleco that she is not going to get rid of on my good advice, right, Sabi? But I guess he doesn't count as an algae eater judging by recent performance!

Sabi

Exactly! (hopefully!)

but check out this...
So i'm not sure even ottos will be able to get rid of it? Any body knows if any type of algae eter will eat 'green spot algae'?

Sabi

ps. this is in the 65gal.... with Agy

armadillo

This is the link I'd found http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/algae.htm when I was researching the exact same thing. Looking bleak, huh? Turns out the prettiest plecos (zebras, gold nugget, etc.) aren't algae eaters at all.

Sabi

Hard 'green dot' algae

This appears as small round dots on the aquarium glass. It appears to be a normal part of planted tanks with higher light levels. Algae-eating fish will not remove this algae and manual removal requires hard scraping. Magnetic algae scrapers are usually inadequate, unless the edge of one half is used inside the tank - or use a razor blade.

This seems to be what i have unfortunately!!

griffin

do you have a planted tank?

what are your phosphate levels (both in tank and from your water source)?

Sabi

Suppose you tell me how to check my phosphate levels?
I'm afraid i dnt know how... And yes i do have plants but not a v e r y lot f them, i'm getting more solowly.

griffin

some pet stores will test your levels for you. you could also buy a phosphate test kit, but they usually cost more than nitrate test kits.

do you fertilize your plants? green spot algae is usually caused by excess sunlight or phosphate deficency. that's why i was asking if your tank was planted or fertilized.