Green Algae On Wood

Hey guys, I have some green algae on my wood... I've been trying to get rid of diatoms for a while now and then this green algae came out of no where... I have some Darwin Algae Shrimp, which are basically Australian amanos, which should eat the algae but aren't touching it... I have changed my lighting to 6 hours and also lowered my dosing and feeding for the past week. Should this be enough to stop the spread of the diatoms and the algae? I also get some afternoon light from a window but that goes for about an hour some days since it is winter. Thanks

Here are some pics:





The diatoms covered the whole anubias before, now there's less.

You can see the shrimp on the heater of the second pic

 

The diatoms will go away on their own.

For the other algae, I'd put a siesta period in your lighting - 3 hours on, 4 hours off, 3 hours on, 14 hours off.

 

The diatoms will go away on their own.

For the other algae, I'd put a siesta period in your lighting - 3 hours on, 4 hours off, 3 hours on, 14 hours off.

Should I leave the light on when there is some sun light hitting the tank or not? Will it even make a difference?

 

Sun hitting the tank can very easily cause algae. Is there a way you can prevent the sun from hitting the tank? If not, no, I would leave the light off when it's getting hit with sun.

 

Tom Barr said that a siesta period to get rid of algae is nuts and I don't think it has ever been proven to have a dent on it. I have a planted tub outside that gets 6-8 hours of sunlight and it doesn't have algae problems so I don't think
There is something unbalanced in the tank. My first planted tank never saw Diatoms but my second one did saw them, and bad... mainly because I left the lights for 12 hours or so lol. I then dialed it back to 6-8 hours and it stopped growing as fast, but it was still there. After I cleaned them all up they never appeared again. I am still confused to this day.
I started to get green spot algae on the glass of one of my planted tanks after leaving the lights on more than 9 hours too.

I would say: Dial back the lights and clean it all manually, see if it comes back.

 

Having a siesta period definitely helped me. I didn't change anything else but that, and I saw a reduction in algae.

 

This is where problems arise. We don't have factual evidence to prove any of our points, only our experience. The siesta period may help your plants a little bit on the CO2 aspect which in turns helps them compete against algae but algae isn't only caused because of CO2 problems.

 

I'm not saying it helps everyone, but it did work for me, so I have no problem recommending it. Plus, it doesn't hurt them, so why not try it? I agree that it would beneficial to figure out what else is going on, but there's no harm in trying it.

 

You are right that it would not harm to try it out. Unless you have ballasts... I was pointing out that it may not work and the reason why. In other forums some people seem to hold the siesta period on a gold plate when it isn't that magnificient.

 

I don't think it's a cure-all, but I do think it's a useful (and easy) approach.

 

Thanks for the replies guys