LazySlacker
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I have a 10 gallon planted tank that I've had in operation for about 2.5 years. Recently I've developed a big problem with a specific type of algae, most notably in the past few months after I upgraded my lighting from a 15w fluorescent to 2 20w CFLs. The upgrade really improved the way my aquarium looks, but unfortunately also seems to have caused a pretty big outbreak of green hair-like algae that is growing on my driftwood log, gravel, and mostly on my amazon sword. Every water change (once every 2 weeks or so) I rub the algae off of the amazon and the log and suck most of it up with my gravel vacuum. Before it's time to change the water again, the algae has sprung back up in huge quantities.
I tried to stem the growth of algae with cutting back the amount of light from 12 hours to 9. That seemed to help a little but not really do much in the long run. Should I lower the number of hours the lights are on further? I know that the development of algae indicates that there are an excess of nutrients that algae eat in the water. Will doing more frequent water changes really help? Is there any sort of treatment that will kill the algae but not harm my amazon sword or my fish? Here is a picture of the algae. If you would like a better picture I can definitely take one. :
I tried to stem the growth of algae with cutting back the amount of light from 12 hours to 9. That seemed to help a little but not really do much in the long run. Should I lower the number of hours the lights are on further? I know that the development of algae indicates that there are an excess of nutrients that algae eat in the water. Will doing more frequent water changes really help? Is there any sort of treatment that will kill the algae but not harm my amazon sword or my fish? Here is a picture of the algae. If you would like a better picture I can definitely take one. :
