Green algea growing rappidly

[masai_chadi]

Now I have a new issue:

My tank has green algae growing rapidly. Currently, three quarters of the gravel surface is covered and the glass is beginning to be covered.

I change ~20% of water weekly and add 5ml of Aqua Plus and 5ml of Aqua Cycle weekly.

Is my tank cycling? Or do I have a problem?

 

[tropicfishman]

well when it comes to an algea break out theres a few common factors at play, heres the most common you should check for:

1. is the tank in direct sunlight and recieving more light/ sun than 12 hours a day?

2. overfeeding your fish

3. cycling with live plants sometimes causes this

4. high phosphate/ nitrate levels

so let me ask you a few questions. how long do you leave your lights on? how much do you feed your fish a day? how long has it been up and running? whats your water parameters, preferably your phosphate, nitrate, nitrite and ammonia levels. if you don't own the test kits takea water sample to your LFS and they should be able to test your water for ya. I try and stay away from algeacides ( algea removing chemicals ) I've heard they can hurt inverts liek snails and some scaleless fish and some plants. if it doesn't get better I would do a balck out method and alot of scrubbing lol. plus IMO you grow as a hoobyist when you defeat problems liek an algea bloom on your own instead of resorting to a chemcial treatment, but once agian thats my opinion. I'm not knocking or putting down anyone who uses chemicals, I just prefer not to.

 

[masai_chadi]

1. is the tank in direct sunlight and recieving more light/ sun than 12 hours a day?

The tank is not in direct sunlight. The light is on 10 hours a day continues.

2. overfeeding your fish

I feed the fishes once a day a small pinch of flakes. I used to feed twice a day long time ago and I reduced it to once a day.

3. cycling with live plants sometimes causes this

I do have couple of live plants (long leaves type). Dont know the names.

4. high phosphate/ nitrate levels

Don't know as I donot own a test kit and have not been to LFS for a abor 6 weeks now.

whats your water parameters, preferably your phosphate, nitrate, nitrite and ammonia levels.

May be I should invest in a test kit so that I can keep an eye on the essentials on regular basis. Any recommendations on kits?

 

[rkilling1]

The AP Freshwater Master Test Kit is a great kit for the money. Note: the older kits that are in a box, do not come with the NO3 test that you NEED. The newer kits, ones in a see-through inclosure, comes with the NO3 test.

It would greatly help if we knew what type of algae you have.

Look through this website and see if any of them fit the bill:

http://www.aquariumalgae.blogspot.com/

EDIT:

3. cycling with live plants sometimes causes this

That is not a correct statement. Having live plants in a new tank does not directly correlate to having algae.

Having available NH3/NH4 and higher lighting does result in algae, no doubt. This occurs when someone adds to much bioload to quickly or adds NH3 to do a fishless cycle. Cycling with live plants is the favored route to take for many people whom already have plants or want to have live plants in their tanks. Not only do the plants consume the NH3/NH4 directly, the plants are covered in bacteria.

The problem people have with starting their cycle with live plants comes down to being uneducated. You DO NOT perform a fishless cycle with live plants (Period). It's one or the other. Perform the fishless cycle and THEN add the plants or add the plants and slowly add fish over the course of a few weeks. The latter is called a 'silent cycle'. No need to wait to add fish. Just add a bunch of plants and let them sit in the tank for about a week and then add a few fish. A week or two latter, add a couple more fish. So on and so forth. NOTE: the amount of fish added each time depends on the size of the tank. For smaller tanks, adding only one fish at a time would be wise.