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Hello All,

I have some algae in one of my tanks that I just cannot seem to control. First let me explain that the tank is not over stocked, I feed the appropriate amounts, the tank gets minimal sunlight, water tests indicate the proper nitrate levels and I perform weekly water changes by siphon. The algae growing on the glass and decor are well controled by the pleco, but I have algae that stays on the rocks even after the cleaning by myself and the pleco. I know I want some algae in the tank, but it's like this stuff is spray painted on about 1/5 of the rock in the tank - is this normal?
Thanks

How many wattage of light do you have & for how long do you keep the lights on?. How many litres does your tank have?.


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Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
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What colour is it? How old is the tank/setup?

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Keep in mind this is my smaller tank - 10 gallons so it has two 25 watt lights that remain on for 2 four hour segments during the day. The tank is little over a year old and the algae is a dark forest green color.

I was told by my neighbor I could boil the stone, but I can tell you that I would be better off buying new stone than trying to convience my wife into using her pots for boiling the rocks from the tank.

Since I posted the intial post a few days ago I have performed another water change and I get all the waste and nastys out of the rock, but this algae might as well be spray painted to the rock!

Thanks

If all you want is the algae off the stone, bleach it. It is cheating though, and although it'll provide an immediate fix for the visual issue, it will not fix whatever the cause is. It will save the wife's pots and you from buying a new rock

You'll need to rinse it well and dry the stone in the sun afterwards, but a 1:20 bleach in water solution should kill it for you. Just let it sit in a bucket until you can't see the green. You can then work on sorting out how to prevent it from returning rather than trying to deal with an existing issue (IME that is a bit easier)

I have that in one of my tanks and the only things that seem to shift it are platies and the BN, and even they can't keep it completely algae free. I suspect SAE would do a better job but I don't have space and I wouldn't recommend them for a 10gal either. My tank is getting a fair bit of ambient light from outside and does not have enough plants to take up the nutrients. I'd check those things first, perhaps by increasing the size or freqnency of your water changes, or by blocking out part of your tank if it is nearby windows or other outside light sources.

Also, 25w is a bit of an unusual wattage for fluro light tubes or bulbs, are you using incandescents? If so, swap them out. I had a tank that ran on those a while back and the algae just loved it. Once I swapped to screw-in fluros it fixed it right up.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Thanks Callatya,

The tank is near a window, but I have already blocked out the sun light. The bulbs are just those standard screw in incandecents 25w bulbs. I will try the switch to some fluros.

Thanks again.