Habitat - Indoor :: green algae

[nydiaz]

Hi I am new to this forum, I have 2- 7 month old RES a 30 gallon tank and a very good turtle water filter. I use a 75w basking light. the tank does not face a window and I have 2 large algae eaters in the tank. The constant available food in the tank is minows. I feed them other food outside the tank. I still get lots of algae . is there any meds to remove the algae? so far I have thoroughly cleaned the tank 8 times in 5 months. What am i doing wrong?
Any advice? I can surely use it. Thanks nydiaz

[blackforces get you]

if you want to do it the hard way get 1 of those baby bottle scrubbers and scrub the tank untill theres no algae. because when my teacher had his tank i noticed that the algae attacked his filter and there was algae all inside of it and that didn't look pretty. is light being shined onto the water?. since plants need light to grow maybe thats the problem on the algae. do you have water plants since thats what might be putting algae into the tank?

[nydiaz]

Hi, No I do not have any plants in the tank and yes you see the tubing green, not so much the tank. The algae eaters take care of that, But I am sure the water is a little green from coming out of the filter. I have cleaned those tubes way too many times and they are the first to show green. thanks for the advice. nydiaz

[blackforces get you]

my filter i bought a few months ago. i havnt cleaned the pipes ever since. the filter im using cleans the water and the water is clear. but i never experienced algae because i thought algae came from plants and not from the water.since the tubing is green it might be tough on removing that. what i suggest is to do your best on cleaning the pipes as much as you can. or you can just replace it. but if the algae comes back then you might have to just live with the algae

[Nettle]

It's a little risky, but you can try cleaning everything (and I mean everything) in a very dilute bleach solution. It needs to sit and dry overnight completely.

It also sounds like the tank is a little over-populated. A 30 gallon tank is too small for 2 RES let alone 2 RES and a handful of fish.

What's the diet like for the RES? Having minnows in the tank all the time is rather unhealthy and can lead to a lot of dietary problems.

[steve]

Is it growing on specific surfaces or turning the water green?

[snazzy]

I have this problem too. Here is the short of the nitrogen cycle

Ammonium to nitrites to nitrates (otherwise known as fertilizer) to free nitrogen

Sounds like there is too much nitrates in our tanks. My tank is also overpopulated so I am guessing this is the root of the problem. I just got rid of three goldfish so I am hoping this will help, feeding them outside the tank will help too. Anyway...

I don't know if you can buy de-nitrifying bacteria and add it to the filter or if it is just the bacteria that turns the more dangerous nitrites into nitrates. If you have lots of nitrates (fertilizer) then you will have algae/plant growth. I put a plant in the top of my filter to see if I can feed that plant the nitrates instead of the algae but it doesn't seem to help too much. I might consider buying a live water plant but the downside is that we know the turts will eat them.

As a test, I have removed the turtles from their tank for the next few days to see if it will turn green without them and their big poos in the tank. Just two feeder fish in there now. I am also NOT cleaning all the algae the doesn't bother me since that algae should 'eat' the nitrates and help slow the growth of the kind of algae that turns the water green. At the end of the day, I'd rather see some green algae growth on my already green fake plants than green water.

They say the only thing to deal with the problem is lots of water changes, but that is getting old.

Let me know if you try anything that works.

[marisa]

How big are your turtles? How much water is there in the tank? What kind of filter are you using---if you have a "turtle water filter," is the filter specifically for turtles (if it is, it's probably not that good).

For what you have in a 30-gallon tank (two turtles, minnows, algae eaters), having to clean 8 times in 5 months would be about every two weeks, which doesn't sound like all that often to me. The bioload is rather heavy (all those creatures).

What's the temp of the water?

[nydiaz]

Thank you all for your wonderful advice since then I have changed the tubing, removed the minnows and cleaned everything with bleach. its two weeks down the line and the water is crystal clear. what I do for feeding is, I put them all in a 20 gallon tank and let them eat inside of the tank.. no food in their home and it is working out well. thanks again Nydia - NYC

[TheComputerGremlin]

Your tank is still really overpopulated ... Two 7 month old RES would be like 3" each, needing at least a 60 gallon tank. Two weeks doesn't mean it won't come back, I personally have this brown algae gunk something or another that grows in my tank constantly. I wipe it away and within a week, it's back. I've just learned to live with it.

[corey7144]

Your tank is still really overpopulated ... Two 7 month old RES would be like 3" each, needing at least a 60 gallon tank. Two weeks doesn't mean it won't come back, I personally have this brown algae gunk something or another that grows in my tank constantly. I wipe it away and within a week, it's back. I've just learned to live with it.

I have the same gunt but since i move all the time i give it full rub down when i move. So it will be all shiny again in four days.