Rust color on white aquarium rocks?

Question

i have had my aquaruim set up for around 5 weeks and i am noticing this rust red clor on the artificail plants and the white rocks any ideas on what this is and how to get rid of it and keep it gone it washes right off but it looks bad please help im really new to this fish stuff

Answer 1

thats algae.

As long as you are maintaing a clean tank, and change 1/2 the water every 2-3 weeks, it will not be that bad but will always grow.

There are fish you can buy that specifically eat the algae off the rocks etc.

Or, you can buy the stuff that kills it. A few drops in the water does it... Follow instructions to the T

Every couple of months you want to break it all down and clean the entire aquarium.

Put the gravel in a large pot with a few drops of bleach and stir it around till it is clean... doing about 1/2 the gravel at a time. Rinse really well after.

Some of your plastic plants may be dishwasher safe.
Put them in a strainer... or soak them in a large pot of water with a few drops of bleach overnight.

Answer 2

That is brown algae. Brown algae is cyanobacteria (green blue bacteria, not true algae, that photosynthesizes) that takes on this brown color when it receives too many nutrients but not enough light. The best way to prevent it is to lessen the amount of food you feed your fish (give them 2/3 what you normally give them) and you will effectively starve the cyanobacteria. To remove the current issue, take the afflicted decorations, and soak them in a 10% bleach mixture overnight. In the morning, dump out the water/bleach and fill it with water and dechlorinator. The dechlorinator will neutralize the chlorine in the bleach, making it fish safe.

Bleach = NaOCl
Chlorine = Cl
dechlorinator removes the chlorine (Cl), leaving you with sodium oxide (NaO).

Soop Nazi

EDIT: You do NOT want to be doing bi-weekly 50% water changes! That is very stressful for the fish and will lead to a lot of algae for a week before it gets cleaned. By vacuuming your gravel (20% water change) once a week, you will limit the nutrients and not stress your fish. Also, algaecides should be used as a last resort because they contain chemicals that can be harmful to fish, inverts, and plants if something goes wrong.

EDIT: AVIOD SOAP AT ALL COSTS! Soap leaves residue (that is practically impossible to get off) that is highly toxic to fish!

Answer 3

No diatoms, algae geesh. no might desire to waste money of chemical components or this pad or that pad. It comes from an some distance extra beneficial than phosphates and nitrates in the water. the main undemanding source of it quite is uneaten fish nutrition. superb treatment is to do some great water changes back to back. exchange approximately 50% another day for some days then 25-30% each week. determine to scrub the gravel with a gravel vac as you adjust the water and interior of each week or 2 there will be virtually not one of the algae left. this is beneficial to shrink the quantity you're feeding in basic terms a splash, that could desire to sparkling up the concern very at as quickly as. superb of success - MM

Answer 4

try cleaning out the aquarium , really well!, wash each rock in hot soapy water and focus on the red spots, get water purifier stuff from the store (that kills germs) and if it wont go away , get new stuff, to stay on the safe side