Algae Everywhere

I have a 30 gallon with one parrot fish & 1 pleco. Unfortunately there is too much algae for the pleco to take care of. I thought of covering the tank with a blanket for a few days, but I have live plants ( also covered with algae ) in my tank.

It does get morning light so I took the advice of one member & closed the blinds.

Another member said to stop air flow so I shut off my airstone.

Another member said to get my CO2 injector up & running. That does not make sense to me.CO2 would only feed the algae wouldn't it ?

Since it is a planted tank, a minimum of 12 hours a day of light is required.

How do I get out of this one ?

 

What are your nitrate and phosphate level? What kind of light are you using? How old is the bulb? Are you using tap or ro/di water? How often are you feeding your fish? How often do you change water? What kind of filter are you running?

 

You could go with a couple of chinese algae eaters combined with some large, frequent water changes (like 25% every 3-4 days) to lower the nitrates and phosphates significantly.

 

Chinese algae eaters are not the way to go. They don't do a good job and they will attack your other fish as they get older. Buy SIAMESE algae eaters they are much better for consuming algae.

The CO2 will allow your plants to grow faster and out compete the algae for food. Algae doesn't use CO2 as a food source as much as your plants.

You can have your plants do well with 10 hours.

You don't need an airstone in a planted tank. Just make sure your circulation is 2-3 times the volume of the tank per hour.

 

I've blocked the tank from natural light. I have started my CO2 injector once more. I will give the tank from 10 to 12 hours of light per day for my plants & I've taken out the airstone.

Thanks for all your help. That is why I like this site so much ! ))))

 

My worst algae build up is on the gravel. The pleco stays only on the glass. I get most of it on my weekly water change, but when I do the change, most of the algae is back the next day.

 

Gravel

Most of my algae is on the gravel. I vaccuum it up on my weekly water changes, but it starts coming back the next day. My pleco is no help. He sticks to the glass.

 

If you wanted to you could blanket the tank for a few days the plants will most deffly survive. When I had a planted tank I had to do it once and helped greatly to get rid of the algae. The hard part is figuring out why its there in the first place because it will just come back again.

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I blanketed my tank today ( Friday ) & plan to remove it on Monday. Like you, I don't know what is causing it. The water tests ok. I guess, if it continues, in addition to my weekly water changes, I'll have to vaccuum the algae off the bottom everyday.

 

Blanket

The blanket came off today. There was a bit of algae left, not much. I googled algae problem & it said much of what I have heard here. It did say not to overfeed. It said to block out all natural light, lower the intensity of light & the length I have it on, using a timer.

The natural light was already blocked due to the advice of a member as well as the blanket.

I only had 80w of light on for 10 hours. I have reduced it to 40w for 8 hours.

I turn the light on in the morning just long enough to feed. Then I turn it off. I have the timer set to come on @ 4PM & go off @ midnight. I thought it would be nice to watch while I was going to sleep.

I did a water change this morning just to vaccuum up the excess algae. I put a teaspoon of plant food in @ each water change. It has really helped my plants.

I hope I am on the road to recovery.