SOS Drowning in all kinds of algae PLEASE HELP

[Voxon]

Alright I will get right down to business, but first thanks for coming and helping! anyway I will be uploading several photos the first is of my tank pre-algae drowning event. The second will be current and today, ok to begin, I do not have any water testing kits the ones I do have are all kaput. So I will do my best to give the conditions of my tap water which I condition before adding to the tank(trying to switch to RODI going to be at least two more weeks before I can get my hands on a RODI filter). My water to say the least is hard I don't think this has as much to do with the issue as does the fact that before my tank was setup both substrate and plants that were in a previous algae filled tank were added to the aquarium. In my mind I thought hey no big deal I will be taking care of the aquarium right it will just disappear no. As you can see in the photo it went into complete takeover and my nerite snails only just started to take care of it. Unfortunately the two little guys seem to have gotten a tad full and have become lazy and wont do anything more I don't blame them though as they have a little bit more than a buffet going on here. I know I am supposed to do water changes and have been I have only just started by I have been only doing one every day which is 20% which I usually do every two weeks. I don't know how to stop it and it appears I apparently also have cyanobacteria which I believed to have had killed after I left the lights off for a week and covered the tank with a heavy blanket. Any and all help is needed feel more than welcome to respond and please help me through this! Thank you.

 

[goatnad]

what lights are you using? how long are they on? are you dosing ferts? what kind of substrate are you using?


most algae is due to to much light or excess nutrients. if you give it food and light it will grow. cut those out(or down) and it will die. get more plants in the tank to absorb any excess nutrients. do a heavy cleaning of the tank scrubbing all the plants as much as possible, glass, rocks and then siphon the tank to clean out all the algae you knocked loose.if your lights are on for say 10 hours a day then cut them back to 8 hours. i do at least 30% water changes weekly and scrub the glass, siphon waste i see on the substrate and scrub some rocks i see building up algae.

 

[Voxon]

Thanks for the quick reply, I’m using the stock top fin 29 gallon lights(bright but not very powerful). I’m using the natgeo substrate, I’m waiting to get a python water changer/gravel vac so hopefully that will get here soon. I just scrubbed the glass down so I guess that will slow it down for now, I rubbed off the brown algae from my anubias and trimmed the leaves that were dyeing out from under it. Thanks so much!

 

[Fresh2o]

How long are the lights on per day (been asked already)?

 

[Potluck]

Light cycle?? I don't think that low powered of a light would cause that but I've been wrong before, but here's what I would do, manually remove as much as you can, you don't have a lot of plants so cut your dosing to 1/2 of what you're doing (if any at all), you have a huge imbalance somewhere, do a 50 % water change with substrate vac to remove decayed organics, lower light cycle to 4-5 hours, feed more lightly, increase flow in the tank.

 

[Autumnsky]

What foods are you using as well?

I would also get some Purigen and some PhosGuard. Cheapest online.

Is the light LED or a CFL?
CFL replacement with something like thishttps://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/product/fish/fish-tank-hoods-lighting/replacement-aquarium-bulbs/zoo-med-t-5-ho-flora-sun-max-plant-growth-fluorescent-bulb
https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petco...oramax-17-watts-t8-fluorescent-bulb-24-length

https://seachem.com/purigen.php
https://www.seachem.com/phosguard.php

Take the suggestions of cleaning and water changes.

Maybe a couple Mystery snails.

What filter?

 

[Voxon]

Alright my light cycle is just about 7-8 hours, I dose irregularly and that is probably one of the causes I will cut it down to a small amount every two weeks plan on adding some java fern to help. I plan on doing a 50% water change tomorrow, again I can’t gravel vac yet because I don’t have one so I will also just have to have another set of hands doing their best to scoop up any floating debris with a net till then. My lights are led but detachable in case I want to get a better light after awhile. As for snails I’m hesitant to get any more than the two nerites I have now because I don’t want a insane amount of snails taking over the tank especially with the dwarf cichlids I want to add. Thanks for the advice all!!!

 

[Voxon]

What foods are you using as well?
What filter?

I’m using some old food from my last tank it’s messy I will take a look at the ones suggested as for the filter it’s a top fin 30 gallon.

 

[goatnad]

Alright my light cycle is just about 7-8 hours, I dose irregularly and that is probably one of the causes I will cut it down to a small amount every two weeks plan on adding some java fern to help. I plan on doing a 50% water change tomorrow, again I can’t gravel vac yet because I don’t have one so I will also just have to have another set of hands doing their best to scoop up any floating debris with a net till then. My lights are led but detachable in case I want to get a better light after awhile. As for snails I’m hesitant to get any more than the two nerites I have now because I don’t want a insane amount of snails taking over the tank especially with the dwarf cichlids I want to add. Thanks for the advice all!!!

if you havent bought your python system you can build your own like i did. here is the one i use for my larger tanks and i have a shorter one for my smaller 10 and 20g tanks. very easy to make and cheap. i think it was like $10 for me to make this(i already had the water hose)
oh i did mean to say this doesnt work as a vac. thats the only down side to it. its just for water changes.

here is a video of a guy showing how it works. his is built just a bit different from mine.

 

[Potluck]

if you havent bought your python system you can build your own like i did. here is the one i use for my larger tanks and i have a shorter one for my smaller 10 and 20g tanks. very easy to make and cheap. i think it was like $10 for me to make this(i already had the water hose)
oh i did mean to say this doesnt work as a vac. thats the only down side to it. its just for water changes.

here is a video of a guy showing how it works. his is built just a bit different from mine.

Op needs to substrate vac, not only water, nice contraption I do my water changes the back breaking way as I like to dose prime before the water goes into the tank

 

[goatnad]

Op needs to substrate vac, not only water, nice contraption I do my water changes the back breaking way as I like to dose prime before the water goes into the tank

i used to do it the hard way but after 2 months of carrying 12 or so full 5g buckets back and forth i said screw that lol. so far i havent had any issues dosing prime right before the water goes in.

 

[Autumnsky]

Also you can shut off the filter and dose the tank and add water, just remember to turn the filter back on again.

Thinking designated rolling 55G treated FW only, trash can and a pump for pwc. Add water at correct temp already treated in whole can pump in. Pump out first, lol.

Substrate vac of course too. Purigen and Phosguard, great stuff.

 

[earhtmother]

Just a quick snail note - I am fairly certain that Nerites only lay unfertile eggs but I could be wrong

 

[Autumnsky]

True, Nerites eggs do not produce additional snails in FW.

Mystery snails can produce additional offspring but lay large snail egg clusters from the size of a thumb nail to the size of a finger and are whitish, yellowish to peachie to pinkish above the water (or the baby snails would drown as they breath air). Easily removed with just a flat item to pop them off. Side note FYI.

They are usually larger and great eaters.