Need help for orange algae growth - advice varies

[Alaina]

Hello friends,

I need advice on a new-ish aquarium, please. It actually belongs to a family member with less experience keeping fish than I have, but I'm not sure how to solve her trouble. It's a 30-gallon tank with six small goldfish in it (under three inches long).

My mom was transferring her four older fish into this new tank along with two new ones which I had hatched at home. The new tank was set up about six or seven weeks ago, with some gravel from the old tank and a dose of bacteria starter to speed the process. Since then the fish all seem robustly healthy, no visible ills to report, all swimming and eating well, but the water remains cloudy and Mom's having trouble with some kind of orange growth in the tank and especially the filter cartridge. I'm guessing it's algae - I've never had this problem in my own tank, but I've read this can be a common problem for new tanks at this stage. She had the water tested at the pet store and it came back a tad high on ammonia, so she added another filter.

So I'm reading conflicting advice about eradicating the algae. Some people say the tank needs constant thorough cleanings or frequent partial water changes and frequent filter changes, while others say that these frequent changes will disrupt the cycling of the new tank and only extend the problem. Still others say getting a pleco is the answer. Who really knows what to do? Again, the fish seem perfectly happy, but this algae needs to go. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for your time.

 

[aqua_chem]

Orange is an odd color for algae. A picture would help greatly.

Adding a filter won't reduce ammonia. You have to wait for a filter to cycle completely before it will properly process ammonia.

Water changes won't hamper a cycle at all, so no worries there. The bacteria you're growing live in the filter, not the water. Replacing the water therefore doesn't impact them as much as some think.

Plecos are never an answer for algae. They are a deterrent at best, IMO. Most algae that crops up in a new tank will eventually do away on its own as the ecosystem within the tank starts to establish itself. The same is true for cloudy water, as long as the cloudiness is white, meaning a bacteria bloom, and not green, indicating an algae bloom.

 

[phoenixkiller]

The orange algae could mean diotoms, I have it in my tank that is about the same age as that one. I do say that I picture would help in order to properly identify it.