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My tank has for the past few months had an obnormally large amount of algae growth. At first I thought it was a lighting problem but with only 1.4 watts per gallon it cant be. Then I ran out of ideas. All my plants have been covered in green spot algae and also in brown tufts of algae. The bristlenose doesn't eat a lot of the algae in the tank. So far I have tried keeping the light off for a week which stopped the algae growth but it started again as soon as I put the light back on. Here are the specs:
55 gallon tank
2*36Watt flurescent bulbs (one for aqautic plant growth the other a blueish on for good fish viewing)
lots of val
2 annubias nana
1 crypt
1 amazon sword

2 angelfish
2 blind cave fish
10 scissortails
4 neons
3 guppies (turned into 34 babies surviving)
1 pakistani loach
6 cories
1 bristlenose
1 khuli loach

This is what I have done now:
Taken out all the plants and wood. Did a propper gravel vac and cleaned tank. Replaced all the plants and wood. Now I'll keep the tank light off for the week and do a 10% water change every day. Hopefully the increase in untreated tap water means the algae will get killed by the chlorine and the plants will not really suffer for it. Is this long enough or should I do it for more than a week. I will also not feed the fish for that period.

Question is, do I add a black mollie or two and a siamese algae eater? I cant do a bleach bath as the entire tank is algae infested. Doing the plants will only solve half the problem.

I guess there was too much nitrogen from the fish feces and food in the water.

Personally I think the lighting had nothing to do with the algae problem to start of with.
I also think you have a massive over stock to start off with. This will cause too many problems as well.

Plants I would add some floating Water Sprite I tossed out (because no one wanted it FREE)enough for your tank and more a few weeks ago. Also get a lot more plants.

Now for the Chlorine this could be like adding poison to the tank. This will depend where in Aust you are. Also at this time of the year Winter by not storing the water for a week you "Could" run the chance of adding Ich again depending where you live.

Lights again in my opinion light should be for the tank plants and all the fish not for its looks. (this "Could" be a cause of the algae).

Lighting should be of a high quality and changed regularly the cheaper the lights the less time they will last. A high quality light should give you at least two year of service and many of those cheepies only months of use.
Don't get confused by they are giving off light it is OK far from it. FRANK is the expert in explaining this certainly not me.

You have not mentioned your filtration, water parameters, or you substrate also you house keeping routine.

No to adding any more fish.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info
Look here for my
Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos

Keith

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Ok fair enough. I'll get a heap more val and java moss as I have a lot of it in another tank. I have a cannister filter which apparently cycles the tank volume twice an hour. As for tank parameters I haven't ever measured them. I've never really had the need to in the last 5 years. Maybe now is a good time to start. I clean the filter once a month and do a waterchange ever fortnight (30% to 50%). The guppies are going soon so the overstocking problem will be resolved. Are there any good chemicals out there that will kill the algae and not the plants like java moss etc. I didn't think that lighting was the cause being only about 1.5 watt/gallon but I thought it would help kill the existing algae if it were turned off for a while.