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My algae doesn't seem to go away. I'm doing 25 percent water changes everyweek with gravel vaccuuming. I have an aquaclear 150 filter which i replace the media almost every month or so. I have plants. Cud it be that i'm overstocked?
25 gallon tank
5 lemon tetra's
3 albino catfish
2 clown loaches
1 platy
1 pitbull pleco

What kind of algae is it?

The first thing I'd suggest is keeping your lights on less. That should help cut down on the algae, depending on what type it is. Your tank isn't REALLY overstocked, there's just some problems with it.

I'm hoping the 3 albino catfish are albino cories, and not albino channel cats. Cories should be in a group of 6 or more as they like to shoal, bump up that school.

Clown loaches are also schooling fish, and need a group of 6 or more too, which means that their minimum tank size is like 125 gallons. You should probably bring them back or move them to a new home.

When you say replace the media, what are you doing? You don't want to replace all the media in the AC, you'll be killing off your bacteria. I suggest changing the activated carbon every four weeks, if you're using it, and rinsing the sponges out in tank water, never tap, and never replacing them.

Do you have any airstones in the tank? What are your water params? (temp, pH, ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte?)

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish

Stocking and algae might be two different problems, depending on the circumstance.
If you have green algae, reduce the lighting. If you have brown algae, reducing food would help.

About your stocking . . .
You are overstocked. What are the dimensions of the tank? From the looks of it, you'd probably have a crowded bottom unless the tank is very short. You should remove the clown loaches if they can, considering how large they can get. A 25-gallon is too small for even one.

-The albino Catfish are Albino Corys
-Clown loaches were just to remove the snails and there really really small right now, the guy said they take long time to grow.
-when i replace the media i'm just changing the carbon catridges on my aquaclear every month or so. and rinsing the sponge unless its all ripped up.
-ph is about 7.1 or so. no nitrite or ammonia, minimal nitrates.
-its green algae
-

Algae is usually an indication of light conditions. If it was stocking probs then the issues would manifest in other ways.

How long are your lights on? If you are not trying to encourage plant growth specifically you can try cutting the hrs with lights on drastically.

My home tank I only have lights on from 6pm to 9:30pm when I am there to enjoy it. And if the light has come on at 6pm and I am going out I switch it off when I head off. They get a lot of ambient light throughout the day in the room so I am not concerned on that count. (I realise this isn't appropriate for every setup - just sharing)

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

well, not necessarily. Algae can also indicate high nutrient levels.

How often to you feed your fish? Once a day, twice? Every other day? If it is excess nutrients, then I'd first cut down the food, I only feed my fish every three or four days (currently its whenever I remember to as I'm on crutches so it limits mobility).

But, i've currently got a problem in my tanks with hair algae. That stuff is a real problem. But, cutting back on the nutrients and it is slowly dying.

One way to prevent algae is to increase your plant load. After all, the plants would be using the nutrients instead of the algae, creating direct competition. Fast growing nutrient suckers like ambulia would be great for that.

Also, if it is brown algae, it can be a sign of the wrong form of lighting. I've seen brown algae manifest itself in alot of tanks with incandescent lighting. But the green stuff generally is indicative of nutrients. Of course, wrong lighting will also play a part in algae. It'll grow under anything really.

But a description of what kind of algae (is it crusty, is it hair algae? green slimy or whatever) will help a possible diagnosis.

I keep my lights on my tank for 12 hours a day for the plants.

So for now I'd probably suggest cutting back on feedings, and if you don't have plants, cutting back on light.

Meriadoc is on the right track here. I used to have an algae problem till I checked for and found high phosphate levels in the tank. This can be caused by over feeding or using cheap foods. I have done as much as I can to reduce phosphates and am having some success. Try feeding live foods of frozn bloodworms and less flake or granule foods. I have a heavily planted tank and the lights are on 12hrs minimum. Try fertilising your plants as they can have trouble using nutrients if they are lacking in some trace elements.
check out this site.... http://www.cam.org/~tomlins/algae.html
it has some interesting info on reducing algae and not a chemical in sight.
Cheers, James

Last edited by james747 at 16-Feb-2005 13:46

I'm pretty new here, but for what it's worth here's our algae experience:

We live in an apartment with lots of windows, but no direct sunlight coming in. We thought that since the tank was not in direct sunlight (it's even at the opposite side of the room from the windows) the algae wouldn't be a problem - wrong! All of a sudden we had algae covering everything; brown, green, the whole package.

So, we ended up covering the side of the tank facing the windows with background plastic. We also bought a few Amano shrimp. All of the algae was gone within 2-3 days, and we've never had a problem since.

Hope this is helpful!

Meriadoc you are right, my mistake. Great advice you gave.

I am always light on the feeding in my setups (always a day or 2 with no food) so I have always had a light/algae love/hate relationship goin' on.

Last edited by wish-ga at 17-Feb-2005 21:11

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~