Twoapennything
Aquarium Advice Freak
I’m having a significant algae problem in my 40 gallon tank. I have a Marineland tank with a hood with a built in filter, with biowheel filtration. The tank’s temperature is approximately 77 degrees. Before I list out my fish, let me pre-emptively say that, yes, I know you shouldn’t mix goldfish and tropicals; I bought many of them before I knew that I shouldn’t mix them. So, it is what it is, and I’m doing the best I can to care for all the fish I have. That said, I have six goldfish, 2 moonlight gouramis, 2 powder blue dwarf gouramis, one molly, one balloon belly molly, one moonrise platy wag, one angelfish, one betta fish, five neon tetras, two loaches (black and red), three small snails, and two albino cories. I have sand substrate (which currently looks awful!), a lot of glass rocks, a couple artificial plants, two bubble wands, and four resin décor items. The tank receives no direct sunlight; the hood lights are fluorescent and I have them on anywhere from zero to ten hours per day – if there is an upper limit that the lights should be on past, please let me know.
I’ve had this tank since January. I did one cycle with fish, one cycle without. The water levels are perfect: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrIte, 0 nitrAte, and pH around 7.6 – 7.8. I never had algae before this last cycle, which I did in March/April (fishless). One thing that was new is that I bought some plants for the first time – nothing major or fancy. In fact, I don’t even know what they were (the fish have eaten all but one) but they floated at the top of the tank and looked like little clovers. It was just a handful of plants at my LFS, for $2.50. The only other thing that has changed is that I started my goldfish on Hikari sinking pellets at night and floating pellets in the morning.
The algae started out brown – you know that typical brown sludgy algae. Over the past week the algae has suddenly turned a very vivid green. Is this a really bad sign, or is it a positive sign, that the algae is changing?
In my ten gallon tank I have two snails that have grown to be good-sized. Should I swap out the two big snails for the three little ones? The big ones are super cruisers and they are constantly eating. Should I let them at the algae?
Is it possible to clean sand substrate or should I just replace it as necessary? The algae has grown over the top layer of the sand and it looks disgusting.
I was thinking of pulling out all of the décor and rocks and cleaning them up in a 10:1 bleach water solution, but of course the algae will just grow back unless I get the source under control in the tank.
Any and all advice is welcome (except for shaking a finger at me for mixing goldfish and tropicals! Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt . . . )
I’ve had this tank since January. I did one cycle with fish, one cycle without. The water levels are perfect: 0 ammonia, 0 nitrIte, 0 nitrAte, and pH around 7.6 – 7.8. I never had algae before this last cycle, which I did in March/April (fishless). One thing that was new is that I bought some plants for the first time – nothing major or fancy. In fact, I don’t even know what they were (the fish have eaten all but one) but they floated at the top of the tank and looked like little clovers. It was just a handful of plants at my LFS, for $2.50. The only other thing that has changed is that I started my goldfish on Hikari sinking pellets at night and floating pellets in the morning.
The algae started out brown – you know that typical brown sludgy algae. Over the past week the algae has suddenly turned a very vivid green. Is this a really bad sign, or is it a positive sign, that the algae is changing?
In my ten gallon tank I have two snails that have grown to be good-sized. Should I swap out the two big snails for the three little ones? The big ones are super cruisers and they are constantly eating. Should I let them at the algae?
Is it possible to clean sand substrate or should I just replace it as necessary? The algae has grown over the top layer of the sand and it looks disgusting.
I was thinking of pulling out all of the décor and rocks and cleaning them up in a 10:1 bleach water solution, but of course the algae will just grow back unless I get the source under control in the tank.
Any and all advice is welcome (except for shaking a finger at me for mixing goldfish and tropicals! Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt . . . )