Algae Bloom?

Question

I have has a strange algae bloom in my 10 gallon tank that I cannot get a handle on. Any other time I've had excessive algae I just did some extra water changes and it got under control but this time its different. First the algae is really dark green and mostly growing on the rocks. If I go two days before doing a water change it starts to turn the water green. I thought it was being caused by a buildup of waste under my undergravel filter plates so I removed them and thoroughly cleaned the gravel with hot water until there was no sign of algae(I seeded a small bag of "Bio Balls" in one of my other tanks to replace the bacteria). I thoroughly cleaned the sides of the tank and inside of the filter. The algae must have come back from the water I had the fish living in while I cleaned the tank.

Can this be fixed by the standard off the counter algae control products at the pet store or do I need a specialized product and if so where do I find it?

Edit - For all of you cut and pasters out there I appreciate your trying to help, but this is something new that I have never experienced so let me add some more details.

1) I have had this tank up and running for almost 7 months now and I never had a problem with algae before. I have 5 guppies and a Cory Cat housed in it.
2) The temperature is fine and it has the same lighting as it always had.
3) It receives no direct sunlight.
4) I do regular water changes using a gravel vac. Until this bloom it has been working just fine. I normally never even had to scrape the sides.
5) If I don't do a water change every 2 days the tank will turn to green jello it is growing so fast.
6) I understand about the Nitrogen cycle and bacterial filtration. Thats why I use "Bio Balls" to seed with bacteria from one of my other tanks before undergoing a major water change.
7) My Nitrate levels are just fine and unless there was a spike I didn't catch they always have been.

8) I do have a bio wheel filter. The undergravevel filter(which I quit using almost 3 months ago) was for additional filtration and I was convinced to quit using it which I did. I left the plates in place because I didn't want to stir up the mess underneath them.
9) This is not typical aquarium algae!!! It is a dark, almost unnatural, green and grows so fast it will take over within a couple of days. It may not even be true algae. It kind of grows in clumps and looks almost slimy.

Answer 1

It sounds like you are dealing with blue-green algae or a member of the Cyanophyceae class. This isn't a true algae and it more like half way between algae and bacteria. It can grow in slimy mats, long thin strings or free floating in the tank. It often has a foul musty smell as well. Controlling this junk is at the best of times an exercise in frustration. It needs very little in the way of typical algae nutrients and very little light. It can grow so fast you can litterally measure the growth by the hour. When in a mat, it usually wipes off the surface easily with now readily visible remainder.

I would suggest you reseed your bag of bio balls and treat the tank with copper. Typical algaecides don't work well due to the bacteria like cell structure and antibiotic like treatments don't work either. It may take a fairly significant dose to kill the stuff, enough that the tank would not be a good home for snails or copper sensitive fishes for a few months. I would try treating at a typical ich level of treatment for a few days and only increase the dosage if it appears this isn't working. You will also need to remove any dead and dying material so that it doesn't feed the remaining colonies. If my guess is correct, this should bring it under control.

MM

Answer 2

No you can't get rid of it. It always comes back. It is a sign of a healthy system. Just do your water changes. That is a very small home. You will have to take out more water more frequently. Keep all of the algea growing on the ornaments, don't try to scrape it off, you are wasting your time. Get it off of the front and sides of the glass but leave the back and bottom and any other surfaces green as they will get. Did you know some people pay for "green rocks"? Its so beneficial for the fish. They can eat it. It puts oxygen into the water and takes out nitrates. Its not a bad thing. Green is good. Any other color algae is not. Don't put that stuff in your tank. Its not needed. Your water is not broken, its perfect. Green water heals. I have even heard of recovering fish from surgery require green water. Don't stress over it. You are doing your tank right if its green. My tank has been some shade of pea soup for over 3 years now. Fish didn't start to grow well until it was green. You should trust me on this one. You should only concern your self with the nitrate levels. When they get over 20 change water. There really is nothing wrong. Healthy system.

Answer 3

The most common reason for suspended algae (algae causing green water) is a tank that gets direct sunlight. Make sure yours doesn't - even just a few hours of it can cause problems.

Don't leave the lights on any longer then you need to. If you are not keeping live plants then you can get away with only using the aquarium lights when you are home to observe the tank - the rest of the time the ambient room lighting is enough for the fish to live by.

To fix the problem now, I recommend blacking out the tank for a few days (blocking any aquarium or sunlight from it entirely), while doing 20% waterchanges every day during this time. This will usually clear it up.

I'm not a fan of undergravel filters at all, because of the waste build-up and the effort involved in cleaning it. A good powerfilter is certainly worth considering - it's easy to clean out the excess waste from these, and without the filter plates, the gravel is easier to vacuum out.

I wouldn't use algae killer products myself - mainly because I wouldn't introduce poison of any type into my tanks, but also because it's really masking the problem and not dealing with it at its root.

And of course, remember that fish are cold blooded and don't need a lot of food - make sure they aren't being fed to much and all the food is getting eaten.

Personally, I think the algae that grows on driftwood and rocks in the tank makes it look much more natural then a 'clean tank' anyway, and learning to like healthy algae growth can really make aquarium upkeep easier, but that's just me.

Answer 4

algae blooms are brought about by technique of a lot of food contained in the water (fish wastes) as well as severe lights. because the sunlight hits it, thats an extreme lights source that ought to reason a all out bloom of algae. What type of algae is it? like is it algae turning out to be on surfaces or the water turning in basic terms immediately eco-friendly? One ingredient of massive algae growths may be the most concentration of nitrates or ammonia on your aquarium. those chemical substances act like fertilizers. once you've stay flora on your tank, then you definitely have a proscribing nutrient it really is suffering with the flora from using the added food. in a lot of circumstances the proscribing nutrient is CO2. do in basic terms water variations to keep the ranges down. yet otherwise is to get algae eaters, they eliminate maximum sorts of algae, yet no longer all (they try in eating spot algae and in no way eats black beard algae).

Answer 5

I really think you have too many fish in such a small space. There is a product called "algea fix" that you can use to try and cut down the algea growth. Make sure the light is only on no more than 8 hours per day. I would first try just a standard algea product. But you might want to take your water to a pet store to have it tested to make sure your levels are fine and nothing else is detected. But if it keeps coming back, it may have already infiltrated your biowheel so it keeps coming back

Answer 6

These are the main causes:
*High waste particulate matter in the water column, which over crowding, over feeding and also important here is improper feeding (poor quality food that is mostly passed thru the fish, usually non aquatic amino acids an too much cereal are the culprits here)

*Intense lighting, but rarely is the problem, this usually just "feeds" the problem.

*Poor water parameters; Nitrates and phosphates to high, kH and GH to low (best above 50 & 80 ppm respectively), Redox should be -300 mV (don't rush out and buy a test kit for Redox, there are simple ways to check it). This usually goes with the high waste particulate problem and can effect kH and more importantly Aquarium Redox (which measures the water oxidation and reduction potential.

Corrective measures:

*Scrape sides, then;
*20% water change using a gravel vacuum (especially to remove nitrogenous waste producing mulm than often accumulates under rocks or UGF plates)
*Electrolytes and minor elements such as magnesium and calcium Wonder Shells are useful here so is aragonite in the filter)
*Add a UV Sterilizer (100% effective but not always cost effective for small aquariums, but is worth mentioning, not just for sterilization, but for Redox); very effective in BG algae (which is not even algae)
*Reduce your fish numbers
*Cut back on feeding and improve food quality (No TetraMin). Better choices: Ocean Nutrition, HBH, Spirulina 20 just to name a few. For more about proper feeding, please read this article: Quality Fish Food; What ingredients are needed for proper fish nutrition, growth and health.
*Increase circulation and dissolved oxygen.
*Make sure your Nitrates are below 40 ppm, your GH is at least 80 ppm (depending on fish kept), your phosphates as close to 0 as possible.

Edit:
You may also have a Blue Green Algae (Cyanobacteria), for more about this and the unique properties and treatments for it, irecommend reading this up to date article:
http://aquarium-answers.blogspot.com/2006/07/blue-green-algae-in-aquariums.html

Edit 4/17:

From your latest description you may indeed be dealing with Cyanobacteria. This can be difficult to erradicate, especially if the water parameters are favoring it.
I understand your aquarium is small, however if you could even borrow a UV Sterilizer for a couple weeks that would help. Short of that, improving water conditions by bringing nitrates as low as possible (the bio wheel will nothing for you here). Have you measured your GH or Calcium? if either of these are low I can guarantee you do not have the proper electrolytes in your aquarium and your Redox is off, which is important to the erradication of BG algae. I recommend reading the article I posted earlier too.
As for the cut and pasting, please understand that everyone is just trying to cover the basics first.

You also might consider reading this article about Redox:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Redox_Potential.html

Answer 7

When I read your question, I also thought cyanobacteria (see photo: http://www.aquamax.de/Shop/Artikelbilder/Zusatzbilder/Algen%20im%20Aquarium_Blaualgen%20-%20Cyanobacteria_STUG_cyano1.jpg

Being a bacteria, the "usual" algae remedies won't work. Instead, try increasing oxygenation, controlling nutrients in the tank, and if you have aquatic plants, increasing the photoperiod - the plants will produce more oxygen and compete with the cyanobacteria of nutrients.

The most effective chemical control is erythromycin (an antibiotic available for fish), but this will completely destroy your biological filter as well as the cyano.

See the link below for additional info on cyano.

Answer 8

you should not be emptying the entire tank do clean it. This is going to cause other problems with the biofilter. Scraping is your best bet and using your gravel siphone to clean.

There are a few ways to control algae. Also, monitor your lighting and excess food in the tank.

Algae are mostly-photosynthetic organisms that sometimes resemble plants but are not plants, having no true roots, stems or leaves. Algae grow in freshwater and saltwater. Saltwater algae are sometimes referred to as "seaweed." Like plants, algae require light and nutrients to grow. We supply plenty of both in our aquariums, with several hours of aquarium lighting a day and nutrients like nitrates and phosphates from fish waste.

Algae come in many forms. There are microscopic, one-celled algae, filamentous algae that resemble hair, algae that grow in sheets, and macroalgae that look like plants. There are even algae that live inside the outer integument ("skin") or calcium shell of some corals, anemones, and other sessile invertebrates called zooxanthellae. There are slimy-looking algae that are often not algae at all, but a colony of primitive photosynthetic organisms known as cyanobacteria. There are also very hard-to-remove little dots of green that sometimes grow on aquarium panels which also are not algae, but diatom or radiolarian colonies (microscopic, one-celled, animals with hard shells) with algae incorporated in their matrix. With all that said, let us answer some common questions right up front:

Algae growth is inevitable in an aquarium.
Algae consume nutrients in the aquarium that if allowed to accumulate, are harmful to fish. Algae can be a good thing.
The presence of green algae in an aquarium indicates a healthy environment for fish.
There is absolutely no way to completely prevent algae from growing in an aquarium, without killing the other life in the tank.
Chemicals should never be used to control the growth of true algae in an aquarium, and should only be used in rare circumstances to control cyanobacteria.
Correcting a severe algae problem requires time and patience.
Natural methods of controlling algae are the best and most effective.

Algae removal from the tank panels can be done on an as-needed basis, but no more than once a week. Removing algae involves either correcting negative water conditions to control or slow excessive algae growth, or an age-old process known as "elbow grease" (scrubbing it off!). Algae removal in an aquarium should be done only when necessary. We have seen many aquariums where daily removal of algae resulted in fish that were so stressed, most had diseases and were dying. You should never remove all of the algae from your tank. Allowing some algae to grow in the aquarium can be beneficial to the aquatic environment.

When algae is removed from aquarium side panels, care should be taken to select an algae scrubber that will not hurt the finish of an aquarium. Be careful not to get gravel caught in an algae scrubbing pad where it can scratch the aquarium. Never use household cleaning pads to remove algae. They contain fungicides that kill fish.

First, test the water you are filling up your tank with. Many public water supplies (our homes) have a concentration of nitrates at around 7ppm or higher. (Bottled water is no better).
This could be the start of your problem.
Be sure your tank is not within direct or indirect lighting such as a window or in a room where the lights are on constantly. Is you tank near a heat source. Sometimes we do not take into consideration a fishtank is near a heat register which can and does add additional temperature changes to your tank.

be sure to clean the filter as well? Be sure the entire filter is cleaned and free of algae.

Use a razor or scraper and gently scrape all sides of your tank. Clean your gravel and return it to the tank as well.

If you have a stick on thermometer, get yourself a floating one. The stick on thermometers pick up ambient air temperatures from OUTSIDE the tank and can be up to 10 degrees off. DON"T trust them.

You can also purchase phosphorus pads for around $2.00 at your local pet store. These can be cut to fit with your filter and remove large amounts of phosphorus. These can be reused over and over just remember to rinse them out well when you clean your tank.

Test your water. You will want to scrape the sides of the tank and do a water change no more than 20% every other day. This should only be done if the algae returns in a heavy form.

If you need any more help, you can im or email me.



EDIT

And do yourealy think any of this matters? Secondly spiking nitrates are no whre near as bad as ammonia.

It is still green algae, one way or the other. Typical or non typical. Green algae is green algae is green algae and is all treated the same.

No reason to quit the undergravel filter WHY?

LISTEN to what those who are trying to help are saying. IT IS ALGAE hun.