How much algae should scare me?

[Crlomancer]

Hey everyone,
I'm a new tank owner (some of you helped get me up and running a few months ago). Metta the Betta is happy - by far the healthiest and most active betta I've owned. The 8 gallon BioCube setup is pretty basic - just some gravel, a java fern (growing like mad), a small heater, and the pump that came with it to circulate water through the filtration chambers. We'll be heading to Montana in a few weeks and I'll grab some rocks/driftwood from a nearby river to spruce things up a bit.

Here's my question - how much algae is OK? We were fine for a couple of weeks and then BOOM! Algae City. Light is a BioCube 10K and was running about 8 hours a day. I cut it back to 6 hours, but don't know how much light the betta needs to be happy. I got a decent scrubber and clean the tank out weekly with ~35% water changes. Every week I also have to remove the java fern and rinse/rub the leaves off as it accumulates dark brown algae on it. Is this normal? Too much light? Too intense a light? Do you need pics of my modest/dirty tank to know?

Thanks in advance!

[Funken_A]

This might help some..

https://www.thespruce.com/brown-aquarium-algae-1378629



Newer tanks do tend to go through this phase. If your doing water changes vacuuming the gravel and your fish look healthy it may just phase out.

DO you vacuum the gravel. If not add that to a possibility. Lots of gunk int the gravel. DO you test nitrate levels. If you had high nitrates you might see a surge in algae

If you are over cleaning your filtration medium and doing large water changes you could be resetting your tank cycle. But I would suspect your fish looking stressed if this were the case, and it sounds like the fish is happy and healthy.

Low oxygen levels is another possibility a small air pump and airstone might help there.

[Bert2oo1]

Yea I'd say it's just new tank syndrome. You get diatoms in new tanks, it fades out after a while

[Crlomancer]

Originally Posted by Funken_A

This might help some..

https://www.thespruce.com/brown-aquarium-algae-1378629

Newer tanks do tend to go through this phase. If your doing water changes vacuuming the gravel and your fish look healthy it may just phase out.

Great article, thank you! Looks like it's not enough light causing this, instead of the other way around. I'll try upping the timer to 10 hours and see if that helps... There's a bit of green on the outside, but it's brown on the plant and other things in the middle.

Originally Posted by Funken_A

DO you vacuum the gravel. If not add that to a possibility. Lots of gunk int the gravel. DO you test nitrate levels. If you had high nitrates you might see a surge in algae

If you are over cleaning your filtration medium and doing large water changes you could be resetting your tank cycle. But I would suspect your fish looking stressed if this were the case, and it sounds like the fish is happy and healthy.

Low oxygen levels is another possibility a small air pump and airstone might help there.

Yup, gravel vac is how I get water out of the tank and is the reason why that much water gets cycled - I like to do most of the gravel each time so I don't see the brown algae on top.

Originally Posted by Bert2oo1

Yea I'd say it's just new tank syndrome. You get diatoms in new tanks, it fades out after a while

Awesome, that's what I'm hoping! I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully it'll die down over time.