Planting HEAVILY to combat algae?

I've had my betta tank running (cycled, with critters living inside) for about 8 months. It was "desert themed" so very sparsely planted. But I've been having a mad green algae problem. I cleaned off all the algae, added a snail thinking he would help. It all came back. Cleaned it off again, added a bunch of my blue velvet shrimp, thinking they would help. It all still came back. The tank is located in my bedroom which has the only south-facing window in the house, so at this point I know it's from too much sunlight. But my planted shrimp tank is in the same room and that one has never had an algae problem.

So today I've taken apart my entire betta tank and am redoing it completely. New substrate, starting completely from scratch. I want to heavily plant this tank to help with the algae problem. My thinking is that more plants need more light and there won't be all this "extra" light lying around encouraging algae to grow. But am I fundamentally misunderstanding how this all works? It seems the only difference between my shrimp tank and my betta tank is that the shrimp tank had way more plants with varying light needs (and they're all doing marvelously) while the betta tank basically only had dwarf hair grass. (The shrimp tank also has a ramshorn snail problem, but I don't want both tanks to be overrun with snails.) I'm looking to do some type of carpeting plant for the foreground and lots of medium and tall plants for the mid to background. Will this help me, or am I going to do all this work and buy all these plants only for the algae problem to resurface?

Specs:
both tanks are cube, ~6 gallons, fully cycled
lights are crappy small LEDs but both tanks get full sun all day

shrimp tank is 50+ blue velvet shrimp, too many ramshorns to count (I remove handfuls every couple months); 1 anubias nana on driftwood (30+ leaves), 2 large moss balls, hydrocotyle Japan as grass/shrubbery, frogbit off and on
betta tank is one adult male betta, 1 Japanese trapdoor snail, 5-10 blue velvet shrimp, dwarf hair grass

 

How long is ur light on?

 

Well, my tank gets less light than yours, but if it's any help I found that algae is barely a problem now that I have more anacharis. I think I read somewhere that fast-growing stem plants such as that one absorb a lot of nutrients the algae needs and outcompetes it. I also have moss balls and anubias in there but I'm not sure how much they help.

 

How long is ur light on?

Neither lights are on a timer so they’re probably on around 8-10 hours a day. But I turn on and off both tanks at the same times as each other and only one tank has an algae problem.

biscuit I’m definitely gonna look for some stem plants for the background. I’m not crazy about how anacharis looks but my LFS is having a big plant sale today, so I was thinking I might just see what they’ve got and plan my scape around whatever I end up getting.

 

Water wisteria is another fast grower, and it provides resting places for bettas.

 

Algae is caused by an imbalance. Are you dosing liquid ferts? Your shrimp tank probably isn't getting algae because that's what they eat. Same with the snails. The reason you have so many snails is because there's a lot of food for them. The less food the less snails because there's not enough food to sustain them. I would say that because your tank is in light of the sun that's probably it. That and a combination of 8-10 hour lighting periods. Buy a timer run it on that for 6 hours see if that helps. Heavily planting doesn't change your algae problem necessarily. It can if nutrients are the issue. Light is not a finite resource. More plants doesn't necessarily use up light it's not a fertilizer. The only situation that works is if they're shading out others. Cut your light down and get it out of direct sunlight. A heavily planted tank is probably just going to give you algae for another imbalance. I added more plants to my tank and now instead of excess nutrients and light causing algae it's low CO2 that's causing algae so now I'm going high tech. Something is off in your tank and my guess is your lighting. Based on your snail boom in your other tank I think you do have the same problem of algae in both tanks but one tank eats it the other doesn't. Shorten the light time.

 

Algae needs nutrients and light to grow, so if your tank has few plants then the algae has little competition for nutrients.

8-10 hours of light seems excessive, I keep mine on for only 6 hours.

I was getting some long green algae when I had my lights on for 9 hours and less plants.

I added some more stem plants, floating plants, and some java moss, and reduced light to 6 hours. No more algae problems.

Too much light will also encourage it to grow.

My tank does get a little indirect sunlight during the day, but the lights don't come on until 3pm and stay on til 9pm, that way they are on when I am home.

If your tank is getting direct sunlight on top of 8-10 hours of light, that is far too much light and will continue to grow algae even if you add more plants probably.

I would add some floating plants to reduce the direct light and suck up some excess nutrients (water lettuce, salvinia, frogbit are good ones), and add some more plants in the tank itself. Java moss is great at out competing the algae for nutrients, you can wrap some on some driftwood if you have some in the tank with some string or glue it on.

Stem plants that grow quick will also deplete the water of excess nutrients, which will make it harder for the algae to thrive.

I agree with the above recommendation of wisteria (get the one with the spikey leaves, the ones with the rounded leaves were grown above water and will take awhile to start growing as most of the old leaves will die before new spikey ones will grow), bettas really love wisteria too as it has great leaves for resting in!

Another one that I have seen used in low light no co2 tanks is Pogostemon erectus and hornwort.

The shedding leaves of hornwort made me batty, other people use it with no problems. It also is best no planted, and loosely floating.

Plants I have had that grew very fast in my low tech setups are bacopa australis, sunset hygrophila, and ludwigia repens.

What substrate are you using?

It makes sense that the shrimp tank is doing well with no algae. You have moss balls (which are actually a type of algae) and the frogbit, which both suck out excess nutrients and will outcompete algae, and more plants in the water itself. Shrimp and the snails also help to some degree, since they graze on algae.

Reduce the light, add more plants (floating and stem, maybe some java moss or another moss), and your algae problems will be solved hopefully!

Unless it is a co2 problem, in case I am no help as I don't use co2 (used to use liquid excel co2, but it melts vallisneria so I stopped)

Rev explained things much better than myself.

 

I’m not dozing any ferts, no CO2. My setup is extremely low-tech, which is why I’ve never bothered going super crazy with plants. I pick easy and low light plants as much as I can help it because I feel like I don’t really know what I’m doing. My substrate over most of the tank is either sand or smooth gravel, in planted areas I use contrasoil.

So I’ll definitely cut down on the time my lights are on, unfortunately getting the tanks out of the sunlight isn’t an option. I was also considering swapping the positions of the tanks, as the betta tank is closer to the window, since the snails and the shrimp seem to keep the algae under control. I can also definitely add a moss ball or two to the betta tank. I just picked up wisteria and a tall grass the guy recommended that has some purple running through it. Forget what that one was called. Once I get home I can lay everything out and figure out how the new setup will be designed.

Also, I live in California and it’s technically illegal to sell frogbit here, but I bought it before I knew that. It kept taking over the shrimp tank and blocking the whole surface so I kept reducing it. At this point I’ve gotten rid of it entirely as I can’t keep it under control. But if I find more I’ll get some for the betta tank.

 

Does Frogbit cause cancer in California?

 

Does Frogbit cause cancer in California?

Everything causes cancer in California.

 

Does Frogbit cause cancer in California?

I would assume it's due to the danger of it getting into the waterways and becoming invasive, but we are talking about California, so who knows?

 

New setup for the betta tank. Lots of wisteria and some of that purple stuff that I’m not sure what it’s called for stem plants. Also some anubias to hopefully block out some of the light from the window.