ok i give up, i need help with algae control

[Smcoyle87]

I have a 15g and 45g both planted.
In the 15 i have 2 CFL 15w.
In the 45g i 2 T5 21w bulbs.

The 45g is a newly set up tank, its only been up and running fully stocked for 2 weeks.

I have brown hairlike algae on the wood in the 15 that i CANNOT get rid of.
The leaves on some plants have algae on them too, in both tanks.
I try and do a 10 hour a day lights on period.

Help me!

 

[BBradbury]

Algae Control

Hello Sm...

A little algae is good and means you have a healthy tank. When I had an algae problem in my tanks I started doing three things: I got some snails from the LFS. These little guys are fast breeders, but IMO are the best algae eaters around.

Second, I started an aggressive water change routine. Every 6 to 7 days, I replaced at least half the water in the tank. By flushing a lot of clean, treated water through your tank, you remove a lot of nutrients. So, if I remove half the old water, I remove half the algae food. I still follow the water change routine, best thing I every did for my plants and fish.

Last, every couple of large water changes, I added a couple of fast growing plants. I like Water wisteria and Pennywort. These are complex plants and grow quickly using up the available nutrients in the tank.

Don't resort to using "Gluteraldehyde" based chemicals to kill the algae. You don't want to kill it, because the dead stuff floating in the tank just makes more food for the next algae bloom and chemicals can really be stressful for your fish.

The key to algae control isn't to kill it, just take away it's food source and it will eventually disappear. This takes time, but believe me the natural methods work so much better than chemicals. My tanks are essentially free of visible algae.

B