Issues with algae

Recently, due to the buildup of algae in both my tanks (5 gallon and 14 gallon) I had to soak all of my decorations and such in bleach to get rid of it. It worked great, and my tanks looked almost new again, but now it is approximately four days later and I can see the algae building up very quickly. It is mostly on the decorations, very little on the actual sides of the tank.

I can't say I'm the type that scrubs algae every day, but I do take care of them. I try not to overfeed, do water changes regularly, but the algae problem is something I can't seem to fix. I have a few snails, but they do little to nothing, and I'm not sure if the 14 gallon would be big enough for any algae eater (if it is, please tell me).

Ironically my 5 gallon seems to be fairing better with algae, but I'm not sure why.

Could it be down to something as simple as leaving the light on too long? I'd appreciate any help.

 

How long do u leave them on for? Do u have live plants? What do u have in both tanks?

 

How long has your tank been established and what do you use for substrate?

 

Recently, due to the buildup of algae in both my tanks (5 gallon and 14 gallon) I had to soak all of my decorations and such in bleach to get rid of it. It worked great, and my tanks looked almost new again, but now it is approximately four days later and I can see the algae building up very quickly. It is mostly on the decorations, very little on the actual sides of the tank.

I can't say I'm the type that scrubs algae every day, but I do take care of them. I try not to overfeed, do water changes regularly, but the algae problem is something I can't seem to fix. I have a few snails, but they do little to nothing, and I'm not sure if the 14 gallon would be big enough for any algae eater (if it is, please tell me).

Ironically my 5 gallon seems to be fairing better with algae, but I'm not sure why.

Could it be down to something as simple as leaving the light on too long? I'd appreciate any help.

Hello sky...

A little algae is a good thing. It's a very good water filter and makes the tank look more natural. Anyway, algae thrives in water that's got phosphate and nitrate in it. Phosphate comes from most flaked fish food and nitrate from the dissolving fish waste. So, to reduce these nutrients, you remove and replace most of the tank water a couple of times a week and slowly reduce the amount you feed. Try to get low phosphate flakes. You can immerse the roots of certain house plants that will remove all the nitrate or you can use nitrate reducing filter media. HGH and Acurel have some good media products.

Old

 

One of the people living with me usually turns on the tanks in the morning, I believe around 9am. I usually turn them off around 12am. All of the plants in the tanks are fake. The five gallon holds a male betta (no filter) and the 14 gallon holds 4 whiteclouds, 2 guppies, a platy, and 3 female bettas.

I use black aquarium gravel for the 14 gallon and a similar, albeit more fine gravel for the 5 gallon. The 14 gallon has been going since February (although I did upgrade to it from a 10 gallon about 2 months ago) and I'd say the 5 gallon has been going since about April?

I've definitely become more aware of how much and how often I feed, but I am very hesitant to do more water changes than necessary. I used to have a lot of problems with my tank and keeping fish alive, as I would lose them very often despite the water being fine. At that point, I was doing a 20% water change every week. Ever since I moved that to every two weeks, my tank has gotten along much better in terms of fish health.

It does seem that my filter cartridge and ammonia pads are getting dirty a lot quicker, too. I guess with less water changes it is to be expected, but literally a day after doing a water change they were terrible.

 

... I have a few snails, but they do little to nothing, ...

What kind of snails? I find nerites to be pretty effective. Mysteries not so much.

 

What kind of snails? I find nerites to be pretty effective. Mysteries not so much.

Currently have one mystery snail and a few assassin snails (the latter I did not buy for the algae, but they're there). I work at a pet store and with the holidays we haven't gotten much in, but I can double check to see if we've gotten nerites.

 

Here is some information that may help.

Algae are a problem for most fish keepers. The problem is that most “newbies” try to fight the algae and eliminate it from their aquarium. This is simply impossible. The best way to fight algae is to keep nitrates low in the aquarium with water changes. This also keeps phosphorus low in the aquarium. This limits the algae growth in the aquarium. A fish keeper will get some brown and green films here and there, but the algae won’t get out of control.