Algae and Cloudy Water in Tank

hey guys! I just had a small question: I'm having what I assume is algae appear on the cup hide in my bettas tank, but it isn't appearing anywhere else. my water has also become a little cloudy. prior to this I've never had algae in my tank and have been trying to fish in cycle my tank since August. I was reading that once a tank nears the finished cycle, algae appears because there is enough bacteria in the tank for it to appear. I read that you don't always have to remove the algae from the tank as long as its under control and it's more of an aesthetic thing,, but should I still clean it off the cup and siphon it out? why is my water cloudy all of a sudden? is it another bacterial bloom? is my tank already cycled and I just didn't know? I have a nerite snail that I know will eat the algae if he ever finds it (he loves the glass the most in my tank)

my water parameters are:
pH: 6.8 (I use seachem neutral regulator and dose my tank every water change)
ammonia: 0 ppm
nitrite: 0 ppm
nitrate: 0 ppm
planted tank with 2 cryptocoryne undulatas, 1 amazon sword, 4 java ferns, and 2 silk plants my betta still loves, 1 nerite snail
my lights are on a 12 hour schedule 8 am to 8 pm and has never caused algae before
airstone running 24/7 at low pace to keep surface agitation
I cleaned my tank on the 6th and will get back in there to clean the 13th

thank you so much in advance!

 

Question......what is your pH without the regulator?
I personally think 12 hours is too much light. Are you using any fertilizer? No you don't need to clean it off if you don't want to.
If you have 0 Nitrates you are more than likely not cycled yet.
It probably is a bacterial bloom. They pretty much go hand in hand with newly cycling/ cycled tanks. It will even out and go away.
My Nerite dismantled the algae on my rocks in 1 day...lol It will find it.

 

Question......what is your pH without the regulator?
I personally think 12 hours is too much light. Are you using any fertilizer? No you don't need to clean it off if you don't want to.
If you have 0 Nitrates you are more than likely not cycled yet.
It probably is a bacterial bloom. They pretty much go hand in hand with newly cycling/ cycled tanks. It will even out and go away.
My Nerite dismantled the algae on my rocks in 1 day...lol It will find it.

My pH is a base of 6. I use Primo RO water. My snail has found a lot of the algae on the tank walls and will not venture off of them into the rocks or the plants, but I always have just assumed that my walls are nastier than I thought and not ‘clean enough’ for my snail I do use Seachem Flourish once a week and dose .4 ml. I always have had the light on 12 hours and never had an algae issue, what time frame do you recommend for having the light on? I do use some Seachem Stability when I do a water change and feel like my tank has gone through mini bacterial blooms because it will be cloudy and then crystal clear. I only have had an ammonia spike and no spikes from nitrite or nitrates which was why I was confused!
Thank you so much for your help

 

Usually people have lights on 6-8 hrs. or do like a 4 on 4 off something like that.

I would look into a better fertilizer than Flourish. It doesn't have all of the nutrients your plants need, that may be why you are now seeing algae. Flourish is a line of ferts that have several different bottles that you have to have along side it. Im no chemist and have no clue what my plants need so I use a "all in one" fert and it seems to work pretty good. I use Thrive C for low light plants. There is one called Easy Green from Co-op too.

 

Usually people have lights on 6-8 hrs. or do like a 4 on 4 off something like that.

I would look into a better fertilizer than Flourish. It doesn't have all of the nutrients your plants need, that may be why you are now seeing algae. Flourish is a line of ferts that have several different bottles that you have to have along side it. Im no chemist and have no clue what my plants need so I use a "all in one" fert and it seems to work pretty good. I use Thrive C for low light plants. There is one called Easy Green from Co-op too.

i use thrive products havent had any issues with that other than high nitrates but thats to be expected

 

Usually people have lights on 6-8 hrs. or do like a 4 on 4 off something like that.

I would look into a better fertilizer than Flourish. It doesn't have all of the nutrients your plants need, that may be why you are now seeing algae. Flourish is a line of ferts that have several different bottles that you have to have along side it. Im no chemist and have no clue what my plants need so I use a "all in one" fert and it seems to work pretty good. I use Thrive C for low light plants. There is one called Easy Green from Co-op too.

I just started today with having my light on from 8 am to 5 pm to see if that helps at all with the green dust algae! I know I have to let the algae run it's course for the 3-4 weeks before I lower the water line and deep clean the aquarium to reduce the chance of it coming back. I've been trying to research if having the algae is bad at all, but nothing helps too much outside of keeping it under control :/ it is food for my nerite snail though so I am unsure on what to do ;;
thank you for the suggestion on plant fertilizer! I just grabbed Flourish because it was what my LFS had and I read good reviews about it so now I will be looking into Thrive (-: thank you so much for all your help !! I absolutely appreciate it