Is there algae in the water of a fish tank, as well as on the plants and rocks and glass?

Question

What I am getting at is if I change the water more often, will I have to do less cleaning? Presently, I do a complete cleaning every month but its pretty gross at that point. I have 5 fish, maybe 1.4 inches long each, in a 10 gallon. I bleach and rinse the plastic plants and rocks.

Answer 1

Basically, yes. If you clean more often you will have to do less cleaning each time. The algae is growing in the tank due to nutrients and light. it must have both to grow. If you change 25% of the water each week and clean the gravel with a gravel siphon as you go, you will remove the primary food source from the tank. In addition to doing that, only use the lights when you are there and looking at the tank and even then no more than 8-10 hours per day. If you already keep it on for a short time, reduce it even further for the next few weeks.

Don't remove and bleach items from the tank or completely drain the tank. That damages the cycle of the tank and upsets the balance you are working for in a tank. If you change water as above and reduce your lighting it will eliminate the vast majority of the algae in the tank within a few weeks with no additional cleaning.

MM

Answer 2

Hm... well, goldfish tend to be very messy fish and will dirty up your tank in an instant. That could be why your tank is getting cloudy first. Regarding the green water it does sound like algae, even though it is not on the side of the tank. Acrylic tanks grow algae more because they scratch easier (making a nice home for the algae to grow). I got a glass tank and don't have near as much trouble. You could try an algae killing liquid but make sure you have no invertebraes, I believe it can hurt them. The most important thing is... keep your tank out of direct sunlight! That will cause excessive algae growth. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

You may have too many fish. I know the rule is 2 inches per gallon, but a ten-gallon tank really isn't large enough to easily keep the water clean. However, here are a couple of fish success secrets for you:

Fish food pollutes. Never overfeed. A good general rule of thumb is to only feed a fish the amount of food that will cover one of it's eyes. That's per feeding, which should be more often for baby fish, but only twice a day for adults.

Don't overclean the tank. You don't need to bleach everything every time you clean. You need some bacteria to remain for the critical nitrogen cycle. Also, most experts recommend only changing 20% to 30% of the water at any time. Otherwise you could drastically change the pH or other chemical properties that the fish take awhile to get accustomed to. Too much change can lead to sick fish.

If you're seeing algae on everything, you might be leaving the light on too long. Or maybe the tank is too close to an unshaded window?

Answer 4

Hi Barney, The algae only exists on the surfaces of objects in your tank & in moderation is beneficial to the general stability & quality of your tank. Also partial weekly water changes are beneficial to do because even when a tanks parameters read perfect if the water hasn't been changed for a while there are no trace elements left in it which is vital to fish well being. There is however no substitute to regular manual cleaning. You will find regular cleaning doesn't involve much effort & keeps your tank healthy.


If you have Goldfish then 5 in a 10 gallon is way overstocked so the bio-load on your tank is always at critical & leaving it a month could push it into overload killing all your fish.You must stop doing a complete change every month, your tank will be in a constant state of cycling with high ammonia stressing your fish further than they are already, I would also advise you to be extremely careful about using bleach to clean fish tank accessories, even if you do rinse them well beforehand-white vinegar is much safer.

I strongly urge you to invest in at least a 29 gallon filtered, lidded tank at your earliest convinence for the health of your fish & please read the attached link, it tells you all about every process I have briefly gone over plus a lot more that you will find useful.

Answer 5

Put algae eaters in the tank, they help alot, also catfish/plocostomous clean the bottom. The problem though is a 10 gal tank, it is too small to ever stay clean long. I started with 10 gal, but went up to a 20 as the smallest that stays clean any length of time. I now have a 40 and it needs cleaning almost never as long as I do not overfeed, and keep fish like algae eaters, cat fish etc.

Answer 6

That tank is far to small for all those fish, with it being that heavy stocked you should be doing a water change at least ones a week.

Algae does not grow in the water, it lives in the water but grows on plants, glass and other decor.

And do not bleach anything in tank you are doing more harm than good this could kill the beneficial bacteria in your tank and it can also kill fish.

To answer your question, clean more often and it wont get as dirty

Answer 7

There is a type of algae that strickly grows in the water column. It is generally refered to as "green water" Many fish breeders in fact try to kept this going in a separate tank so they have it to feed to very small fry . But this does not seem to be your problem.The fish waste provide nutrients for the algae to grow .The idea of using live plants in a tank is to use these nutrients and reduce the nutrients available for algae growth. However this is easier said than done since you need the right balance of fish ,plants and growing conditions. So the solution with plastic plants as was mentioned reduce light and reduce nutrients by water frequent water changes. I maintain about 70 tanks and I have used bleach to clean and disinfect diseased tanks for years it is very effective but you are playing with fire you need to make sure no trace of it is left on whats going back in the tank.Plastic plants and HARD rocks are easy to rinse but be carefull with porous rock or driftwood since they are more difficult to rid of the bleach .I don"t think your tank is over crowded with five fish at 1.5 " as long as they are not going to grow more than an inch more.

Answer 8

You shouldn't have to clean that often. Something is wrong. Algae gets out of control when there is too much light and too many nutrients. Are you overfeeding? Is the tank exposed to excessive sunlight? I would be VERY concerned about your bleaching. Your tank NEEDS a bacterial colony to keep your water balanced and your fish healthy.

Answer 9

Stop bleaching anything that goes into your fish tank! Yikes. You can do a quarter water change every two weeks. Make sure you are using the under gravel cleaner when you change the water to get all the muck that has settled to the bottom.

Cheerio!

Answer 10

yes the algae will be in the wtr, as well as on plants, rocks, and glass. the best thing to do would be to purchase some algae eating animals to help keep the tank clean-- like sucker fish and snails this will help tremendously or purchase the chemicals that helps keep the wtr algae free.
good luck
hope this helps