Feed them once a day?, or Once every other day?

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JamesMJ2

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Apr 5, 2003
Messages
209
Location
Orange County, CA
I have a tank full of green water, and I am trying to get rid of the microalgae. One of the ways is to starve it of course, so I was wondering if I switch from feeding once a day, to once every other day will my fish suffer? I generally feed them Tetra Flake and some Blood Worms together. I have 12 fish, the breeds are in my sig.
 
I actually feed my fish every other day, and sometimes I skip a few days if they look bloated. [My Gouramis bloat when they eat algae wafers].

I also only give bloodworms once a week. I always thought they were a "treat".
 
High levels of nutrients are definitely one of the causes of algae blooms. High light levels are as well; whats the lighting on the tank? Does it get any sort of sunlight as well?

Diatomic filters are really the best to clear the tank if you are looking for a mechanical means.

What are your water parameters? Are your nitrates really high? Generally its high phosphates which encourage algae blooms; might be something to look into.

And no, your fish won't starve. If they're healthy, they can go for around a week without feedings. I'd also go with Daisy's suggestion and cut down on the frozen bloodworm feedings unless you are conditioning your angels for breeding.
 
Well what most likely caused the outbreak was the Lamp I have. The bulb that came with the lamp was a 50/50 half 10,000k and half actinic. My timer gives the tank 8hrs of "sunlight". I havn't done a test in a few days but at last check my stats for the water were... ph 6.8 Nitrites 0ppm Ammonia 0ppm GH 71.6ppm KH 35.8ppm. Will do on the bloodworms, I have tendancy to spoil my fish. I wanted to vary their diet though. Oh and I have been changing 25% of my water weekly to keep nitrates down.
 
It sounds like you have quite a bit of fish in there, for a 20-gal, and you may be overstocked. There may be excess nutrients in the water purely from the fish waste, and the best solution might be to remove some of the fish. I think 2 angels would be plenty for this tank, unless they are wee babies, just for starters. The clown loaches potentially reach 9 or 10 inches (but I hear they are slow growers) so you will need to be thinking about moving them, as well. If this is a common pleco it will get huge, as well, and produce a great deal of waste. They sell these very small, so yours might be a tiny one right now, but I just see a potential problem here.
 
Actually it's funny you mention this.. I am working on getting a 46 gallon bow front. It's actually what I am doing right this moment. On topic though two of the angels are small the other two are large. Pleco is medium size at the moment. I am familiar with how big they get, but this one is a slow grower. Should have the big tank before he's too big for his territory. I would like to get rid of the Platy,Red Velvet, and the Gold molly. Any takers in the Orange County area PM me.
 
Well I think that is the source of your problem, and it sounds like you are well aware of it! Once you get your big tank set up I believe your troubles will resolve. Until then, frequent water changes, maybe bumping up to every 3 days, should help any overload of nutrients. I resolved a nasty algae problem in a 10gal with this regimen and gradually was able to cut back to once a week.
 
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