Green Algae

[Rocco30]

I have a 55 gallon aquarium a fresh water setup with 3 goldfish and 2 koi and my tank gets green algae that's really hard to clean off the
glass when i do a water change or full tank change... What is some things i can do to get the green algae under control? Its a non heated tank and
it has very good filters running on the tank to keep it clean...

All and any advice would be great...

 

[Madness]

What type of lighting do you have? Do you have a UV sterilizer in the tank? Does the tank at any point during the day, getting direct sun light via a window or sky light?

 

[Salzabar]

The type of algae you are describing comes from too much light with too much fertilizer (food, nitrates, fish waste, etc..). Try cutting down the amount of direct light the tank gets during the day and check your water quality with a good nitrate tester. I suspect you will find it higher than normal. Step up your water changing for the next couple of weeks. Cut down the amount of food the fish are getting until you see the nitrate levels go down to a healthy level.

 

[Rocco30]

What type of lighting do you have? Do you have a UV sterilizer in the tank? Does the tank at any point during the day, getting direct sun light via a window or sky light?

I run 2 single strip hood lights
Type of boulb is Plant & Aquarium 15w 3100k Indonesia..
Lights are on a timer..

 

[Rocco30]

The type of algae you are describing comes from too much light with too much fertilizer (food, nitrates, fish waste, etc..). Try cutting down the amount of direct light the tank gets during the day and check your water quality with a good nitrate tester. I suspect you will find it higher than normal. Step up your water changing for the next couple of weeks. Cut down the amount of food the fish are getting until you see the nitrate levels go down to a healthy level.

What other levels should be monitored and controlled to keep everything running smoothly?

 

[Madness]

What type of lighting do you have? Do you have a UV sterilizer in the tank? Does the tank at any point during the day, getting direct sun light via a window or sky light?

I run 2 single strip hood lights
Type of boulb is Plant & Aquarium 15w 3100k Indonesia..
Lights are on a timer..

So I assuming no natural sunlight hits the tank, and that you do not have a UV on the tank? How long are the lights on each day?

 

[Rocco30]

What type of lighting do you have? Do you have a UV sterilizer in the tank? Does the tank at any point during the day, getting direct sun light via a window or sky light?

I run 2 single strip hood lights
Type of boulb is Plant & Aquarium 15w 3100k Indonesia..
Lights are on a timer..

So I assuming no natural sunlight hits the tank, and that you do not have a UV on the tank? How long are the lights on each day?

Some does but not for very long... the lighs are on for 10 hours of the day and can be adjusted to shorter time if needed...
I do not have a UV on the tank...

 

[Anonymous]

Phosphates can be an issue as well. Phosphate is like a food for algae. With the advice above I would read the ingredients on any additives you put in the water and perhaps change any product that has phosphates in the ingredients.

 

[binbin9]

Goldfish and Koi's produce a ton of waste, and if you are running your lights for a long period you're going to get a bloom in algae. I would lower the photo period, and invest in some nerite snails or amanos to help do the clean work. Sierra sells them. Both of them do not reproduce in fresh water so you won't have tank full of them.

If you're water is green the best thing to do is use a UV sterilizer.

if its the green spotty algae on your glass they only way to get those off is with good elbow grease. Not even ottos or plecos can scrape those off.

 

[binbin9]

how long have you been running the tank?

 

[Rocco30]

The water never gets green and they alagae is mostly the spotty type
I will lower the time that the light is running for to see if that helps
As well as go out and get some snails

 

[Rocco30]

The tank has been running for 1 year or so...

 

[pbmax]

I have one tank that slowly grows super-tough green spot algae all over the glass. I have a couple of others that grow the more easy to remove variety. And then I have others that grow no algae at all on the glass.

As others folks have said it's a nutrient / light imbalance of some sort. I don't fuss about mine much - I just scrape it off periodically with a metal scraper - it comes off easily enough with one of those. The magnetic scrapers don't work so well on it. The shrimp like to pick at it a little, so at least it serves some purpose.

You might try more gravel vac'ing and maybe add some floating plants (frogbit or water lettuce) to help pull nutrients out of the water. I've tried reducing photo periods on a couple of tanks where I have this problem and it doesn't help much.

 

[Rocco30]

I have one tank that slowly grows super-tough green spot algae all over the glass. I have a couple of others that grow the more easy to remove variety. And then I have others that grow no algae at all on the glass.

As others folks have said it's a nutrient / light imbalance of some sort. I don't fuss about mine much - I just scrape it off periodically with a metal scraper - it comes off easily enough with one of those. The magnetic scrapers don't work so well on it. The shrimp like to pick at it a little, so at least it serves some purpose.

You might try more gravel vac'ing and maybe add some floating plants (frogbit or water lettuce) to help pull nutrients out of the water. I've tried reducing photo periods on a couple of tanks where I have this problem and it doesn't help much.

I will give those tips a try and see what happens!!
I think i will clean out the tank 100% and add floating plants to the tank and keep a little algae for snails..

 

[Harris625]

The green algae is not a big problem. Simply change water and
regularly cleaning of water in tank can help to overcome such
problem.