Water with a mind of it's own?

Question

I got a 10 gallon aquarium with two danios and a red eye tetra which i've kept for bout 4 years now well actually 4 and a quarter more runnin off a hagen aquaclear 30

I do water changes every week to keep the aquarium clean and i feed just a good pinch once a day with plenty of aeration and less than 6 hours of light to keep algea under control but even so i've had to clean out seaweed from the glass itself and the top glass!

I can't seem to keep the algea under control at all even with less light and sometimes..just sometimes the water stays nice 'n clean but 80% of the time the water is cloudy with algea still even if i use a water clarifier :( i'm tempted to switch back to the emperor penguin filter which does wonders but it's annoyingly noisy :(

help! :(

Answer 1

You should cut back the feeding frequency to twice a week. In addition, with only 3 fish in the tank, a good pinch maybe too much. Try feeding enough to make sure they consume all of it without leaving hardly any around.
Doing weekly water change is good. Just make sure you clean the debris off the bottom and do about 1/4 to 1/3 of the volume.
Your hagen aquaclear 30 should do the job fine. It has a pump rate of 150gal per hour. For a 10 gallon tank, it is 'turning' the water 15 times an hour. That's more than sufficient (maybe a bit overkill) for a rule of thumb of about 5X an hour.

I would recommend getting a fish that will eat algae. Some types of pleco (such as gold nugget) can take care of the algae. I also have algae eating shrimps that cleanup all types of algae in the tank quite nicely but they are generally not available from pet stores.

I have attached two links for you. Once shows the algae eating shrimp. The other has a picture of the gold nugget pleco. The pleco is fairly pricey (aroud $20 and up). My 6" gold nugget can clean up a 20 gal full of algae in 3 days. After than I have to feed it with algae tablet.

Happy fishkeeping.

Answer 2

You have no functional "nitrogen cycle" happening in your tank, would be my guess. Do you add a capful or two of one of those live bacteria solutions every couple of weeks? That's what you need to do. Then the bacteria will keep the tank "clear", your mechanical filter won't need to work so hard, and your fish won't be suffocating in their own poop!

Follow the instructions properly on the live bacteria treatment. The water WILL initially go cloudy, but will then fall into a natural rhythm more like an actual pond or lake.

Be nice to your fish, they are people too!

Answer 3

My Mom always had snails crawling around her aquarium. They go up and down the glass, and over the rocks and plants on the bottom, cleaning out all the algae. Never saw a sign of it. However, my daughter tried having a tank, and I mentioned the same thing to her, and the snail ended up attacking one of her goldfish and eating it's eyeball.

Answer 4

get bottom feeders and do the snale trick, get a mystery snail or ramshorn snale. they are cheap and will work wonders on your tank. I agree that you may be feeding too much, and where is the tank located? Is it getting sunlight at all? If so, theres your problem.

Answer 5

I.ve tried copper sulphate. It killed my guppies. After that I read you have t start the copper sulphate treatment BEFORE you get algae. You increase it gradually so the fish can get used to it. My fish are dead, so I can't tell you more.

Answer 6

If you don't have plants in your aquarium, consider using an algae killer. It will kill your other plants though.
Have you tried an algae eater?

Answer 7

buy an algae eatting catfish