Algae/Cloudy Questions

[zebbyboy]

Thanks for everyone this site and in the chatroom who helped.

I just wanted to post it on here anyways.

I keep getting green cloudy water or I just started to begin getting it. I did my weekly water change as always, cleaned the gravel clean with my vac, but in a few days it came back.

So today I went to my lfs and bought a new filter cartridge (i just changed it 2-3 weeks ago) to make sure. I also bought new tablets that treats cloudy water or fizz. I did all this a few hours before and the water is now crystal clear for now.

My question if this comes back again is could overfeeding or all the food the fish might not eat cause algae growth? I also have the sun hitting on the take which helps the algae.

So today to see if this works I bought a feeding ring just a plastic ring and put a lot less food inside it. Cut down alot from my major overfeeding. The ring slowly dispered and dropped the food and the fish ate it. I think this works better since now the food isn't flying everywhere and falling into the gravel helping the cloudyness. Do you think this is right?

And three more questions .

-I turn my light on to the tank at night when I go to bed. If I keep the light on longer then needed does this help algae? And what is the recommended time or usage to have it on?
-Should the fish tank be getting any direct sunlight or should that be cut off?
-Any other ways to cut down cloudiness?

Thanks so much everyone! And I have a 10 gallon with 6 neon tetras.

 

[Zagz]

How long has the tank been set up? More light time equals more algae. Cut back on feeding and hours of light. 10-12 hours is more than enough. Direct sunlight will cause algae as well.

 

[snowangeltae]

I had a green cloud in my tank a couple of years ago. Light and left over food and waste will make the algae worse. You should only have the light on for about 8 hrs a day, I think. I'm not an expert. But, with an algae bloom you should cut the light down to even less. I finally had to do a total blackout on mine for a couple of weeks and do a weekly water change of about 30% or more. My tank sits next to a window and I don't use my overhead light at all anymore. To do the blackout I just taped black trash bags all the way around it and covered the top with towels. When I ended the blackout, I removed one trash bag every 10 to 15 minutes. My water was crystal clear at the end of the blackout.

 

[zebbyboy]

Well the tablets seemed to help and I did a huge water change yesterday as well. I turned off my lights in the room and I have my office chair blocking the direct sunlight from the tank. The feeding ring works fine and I also bought a bamboo shrimp and stuck it to help with the food leftover. I am going to start turning on my light later in the night so it's getting about 6-7 hours of it.

But does the fish tank need that light at all on? Or is it ok without it?