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I have never experienced this type of algae before. First, it is green and grows on all four sides of my tank on the glass. I haven't really noticed it on any ornaments because I only have darker wood and darker rocks. When I touch it it's not slimey to the touch but almost coarse as it coats the glass. This stuff is extremely annoying because I have to scrub it twice a week. It's NOT easy to scrub either... I really have to put a lot of elbow grease into to get it out... and then it just comes back.

Obviously its not hurting my fish at all but it gives my tank a very "dirty" appearance. As far as the tank itself: it's 75gallon community. Tetras, rams, guppies, etc. It's somewhere between moderate to heavily planted. I have a huge java fern and its sprouts all over the tank, alot of anubias and many other plants none of which I can remeber their names. I have no CO2 and I don't currently use ferts (used to use Flourish Excel) but I fill my tank right to the top to minimize surface agitation. I'm all out of test kits at the moment so all I know is my pH is on the higher side. I have a total of 120watts of light making my light moderate at 1.6wpg. I leave the light on a timer so it gets about 11 1/2 hours of light a day. I have two light fixtures.. one came with the tank (Perfecto brand 40w bulb) and the other is AllGlass twin tube 80w total.

A guy at a local LFS mentioned what he thought this algae might be but I can't recall what he said. He suggested maybe changing the spectrum of my bulbs...? I thought I should ask here first because this guy is sometimes right an sometimes wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

It is probably green spot algae. It can be considered normal in small amounts for aquariums. Probably the worst to remove. Scrubbing it is really hard and some people use razor blade on the glass(use with CAUTION).
Running CO2 in the tank would probably help eliminate it, though the plants should be able to out compete the algae for nutrients. Is their excess nutrients? Whats the nitrate reading? What are the bulbs and their k readings? How old are the bulbs? Try to cut back on feedings and what is your water change intervals.
The only pleco I have ever noticed to remove green spot algae was the royal pleco.

Last edited by openwater at 22-Sep-2005 17:13

Is their excess nutrients?

Wouldn't be a problem if there were excess. Actually it's quite the opposite here. Green spot alage usually shows up when phosphate is low. Increasing phosphate (yep you heard me right ) stops it from appearing.

A bit nore info about the tank and water params and I can work out a dosage of nutrients for you later. Sorry in a rush at the moment.

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

Thanks for your help. I do not know what my nitrate readings are right now since i'm out of the test kit. I dug around my fish cabinet and only found a pH and amonia tester. So what are some remedies for green spot? I'm pretty sure thats what it is as the method described by openwater is basically the only way to remove this horrid stuff. It isn't in small isolated spots in my tank however... it's all over the glass.

As far as my water change schedule: once a week religiously I'd say about 25-30%. I have absolutely no clue what the bulb info is on these lights. They are all bulbs that came packaged with the light fixtures.. I guess you could say they are "stock" bulbs. They will be a year old on november.

I feed my fish exactly what they can eat in a few minutes. There's very little food that escapes them and what gets by I'm sure gets eaten by my bottom feeders so I can't really cut back and I know I don't overfeed.

Any remedies you guys can think of? Plecos aren't an option.. I'm not a fan of them and they get too big.

Bensaf gave you a remedy -- adding phosphate stops it from appearing. However, you should think about fertilising properly and not just phosphate to tackle that specific algae because once this algae will be gone, something else will raise its ugly head. Fertilising properly means making sure the plants have everything they need, macro nutrients (nitrogen -- nitrate, phosphate, potassium) and micro nutrients (iron, boron, calcium, etc.). Excel will also help as it will boost plant growth, but that means even more fertilisers, although with your lights you would only need to fertilise once or twice a week (every day for excel).

As for the razor method, I would be a bit reluctant to use one. Although fish actually love blood, I don't think you would want to cut yourself with a razor while your hand is in the tank. An alternative (and safer option) is to use a credit card. It works very well so there's no need to use a razor.

Edit: Bensaf, now that you're a world leader can you take your article in three parts from several months ago and stick on the top? I know nobody reads those things before they post a question, but at least if it's there we can tell people to read it as it was an excellent piece of poetry (and very informative too!).

Last edited by Untitled No. 4 at 25-Sep-2005 01:38

Ok so lets say I add phosphates.. what other nasties should I expect to see? The one thing I automatically assosciate with phosphate increases is brown algae. I'm not too worried about that since I have ottos who would enjoy it. Is there anything else I should expect?

Money is a concern right now so running a full in of fertilizers is not an option at the moment.