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Ok....so my tank was geting all green inside of it....rocks turning green..guessing a lot of algea? but anyways, i have a algea eater..plus i added some algea distroyer stuff.. wut ever its called >_<.. but after a few days, it didn't seem to change any at all. So i took out 25% of the water..got one of those water hose things and cleaned the rocks pretty good while i emptyed it out..blahblahblah...and i also added some more algea killer stuff. At first it seemed that the water was a lot clearer...but latetly..its been geting a lot worse. And i've tryed everything i know what to do. All the levels, amonia, nitrite or nitrate? are at zero...Everythings ok, and the fish seem normal too. Can anyone tell me how to fix my problem? I sugested to my dad to transfer the fish into my bigger tank so we can clean the little one...but he said he didn't want the fish to "bring" all the algea over to the bigger tank..and have it get all nasty and dirty. Oh and its not infront of a window eather, and the filter was just changed, so it doesn't need to be renewed.

More than getting rid of the algae, I think what's more helpful is to figure out what's causing all the algae in the first place. How much light and what kind of light is the tank getting? Is it getting natural sunlight? How many fish are in it? And how much/often are they being fed?

All the levels, amonia, nitrite or nitrate? are at zero...

ok just checking, when you said "nitrite or nitrate" you meant "nitrite AND nitrate" right? theres a big diff between them.

well, i don't think it would be sunlight..even though the tank is in front of a window, about 10-20 feet away from it? but i have a florescent light? i'm pretty sure, and theres about 11 fish in it..(20 gallon) I don't feed the fish, my dad does because i'm mostly over at my moms.. But i'm pretty sure he feeds them twice a day, everyday..and its a little pinch of small pellots and a little pinch of bigger pellets. Least...thats what i told him to do.
I'll ask him later...that way i know how much he's feeding them.

oh..and its not both nitrite and nitrate..i can't remmeber which ones the most important one..i just know that amonia and the one that has to be low..is at zero.

lol..i just realized..you think the algeas comming from always keeping the tank light on? because..i don't think my dad cuts it off at night >.< that might be a big reason?

ok yeah, haha, leaving the lights on 24/7 prolly has something to do with it, i used to do that haha. Now i use a timer, you just plug it into the outlet, then plug the light cord into the timer, set the hours of the day that you want the lights on, and voila!

also, you should test the nitrAtes, nitrIte is basically always almost nothing in a cycled tank, but nitrAtes can be up there, and if they're high enough than they will definitely aid algae growth... I had this problem as well.

I agree: try cutting back on the amount of time the lights are on and that should help. And testing for nitrates would be important. The other possibility is your fish load. Depending on which eleven fish you have, the eleven fish could be a lot (too much) for a 20 gallon aquarium if they're big and produce a lot of waste.

I'd have to agree, without knowing your nitrAte level (a sure cause of algae) it's hard to help diagnose. Does the tank have any live plants? If not then the only reason to have the light on would be to view the fish. If nothing's consuming the nitrAtes then the algae will step into the role. Algae removers will not fix the root problem. Without addressing the cause you'll never have a permanent solution.

Buy a timer for the lights. If there are no live plants don't leave it on for longer than necessary (no longer than 8 hours IMO). If there are live plants, no longer than 10 hours. And post your nitrAte numbers.

^_^
*Proud member of the Committee for Sig Line Restoration*

A sure way to knock down nitrates that feed algae is to do regular water changes. Next time that your at your father's do a large water change and be sure to vacuum the substrate. A "large" water change is 30 to 50% of the water.

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

Ideally you want to keep nitrates below 20 and try to never go above 40. Not only does it contribute to algae, but above 40 we now know that it can degrade fish health by dilating blood vessels, among other problems. Fish immunity lowers in high nitrate water.

Is it the same if one does a 40% water change monthly or a 10% water change weekly for 4 weeks? Not really because of the accumulative effect. You actually do more by doing smaller frequent changes.

When nitrates are high, the best way to bring them down is with a few daily water changes, not to exceed 25% each time. This is less shocking to the fish.

Also, to prevent ich and other stress related diseases, make sure water changes do not alter overall temp more than 1-2F max during a 24 hour period. Fish don't self regulate their body temps and sudden drops of 4-5 or more degrees causes temperature stress, bringing on ich. Sudden rises can cause low lying bacterial infection to bloom into full gear. Imagine your body temp going from 98.6 down to 93.6 in just 5 minutes. Shock!

Nitrites, as with ammonia, should always be zero in an established aquarium.

I'm willing to be that, unless this tank got water changes at least bi-weekly or weekly of 25%, and it if it is fully stocked, those nitrates could be in excess of 100ppm. This won't kill fish, but can make them more e to sickness.

If nitrates are truly at zero, then the algae could be taking up all of what is in the tank. I'd check that number again because zero nitrates is highly unusual unless the tank is heavily planted.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 30-Oct-2004 16:56