Aquarium Cycle and Algae Help

Hello! I have a 20 gallon tank that has been set up for around a month. Due to my circumstances, I had to do a fish in cycle. I have been regularly taking water parameters and doing about 4 gallon water changes every three days. So far, no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate has shown up on my tests. Why is it taking so long? Am I doing something wrong?

Secondly, I know algae is a common occurrence, but my tank is already building up quite a bit of algae. And, it is many types of algae. The walls and some of my plants have a fluffy green algae on them, and my rocks and hairgrass have a stringy black algae. Now, the water is starting to turn cloudy green. This is just very frustrating because this has happened to me before in a tank and I had to battle severe algae for over two years and finally just started over because it was consumed by blue green algae. I really don’t want that to happen again. Any tips on how to reduce it?

Thank you!

 

How long are your lights on?

 

How long are your lights on?

It varies, but definitely for too long. They are normally on from about 10 in the morning till midnight.

 

There's your problem

 

Hello! I have a 20 gallon tank that has been set up for around a month. Due to my circumstances, I had to do a fish in cycle. I have been regularly taking water parameters and doing about 4 gallon water changes every three days. So far, no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate has shown up on my tests. Why is it taking so long? Am I doing something wrong?

Secondly, I know algae is a common occurrence, but my tank is already building up quite a bit of algae. And, it is many types of algae. The walls and some of my plants have a fluffy green algae on them, and my rocks and hairgrass have a stringy black algae. Now, the water is starting to turn cloudy green. This is just very frustrating because this has happened to me before in a tank and I had to battle severe algae for over two years and finally just started over because it was consumed by blue green algae. I really don’t want that to happen again. Any tips on how to reduce it?

Thank you!

About your cycle. . .

Maybe it’s just my eyes, but I don’t see any fish in the tank? If there are fish in the tank, how many and what type?

Also, what are you using to test?

 

A 14 hour light cycle is too long. Do you have snails ? I think I see snail marks in the algea but that could be from a scraper . If not , and you don’t mind them , a couple of nerites would be a good start. A new soft toothbrush of the leaves to remove as much as you can, a scraper for the glass then a water change is another good place to start.

You can cut off any badly affected leaves , add some fresh stem plants ( the more the merrier !) , reduce the time your lights are on and see how that goes.

If it’s not helping there’s lots more options like spot dosing, altering flow , ferts etc.

Good luck ! Keep fighting the good fight

 

There's your problem

Cut the lights to 6hrs/day for now, until you get the problem resolved.

 

About your cycle. . .

Maybe it’s just my eyes, but I don’t see any fish in the tank? If there are fish in the tank, how many and what type?

Also, what are you using to test?

There are only 4 corydoras in the tank and a nerite, so pretty low stocking. I was trying to wait till the cycle was fully established to add more. I’ve been using the API master test kit.