Algae Bloom Advice Needed, Please.

[MaeDae871]

Hello,

I have a 75g that I recently did a 25% (roughly) water change on.  It kick started an algae bloom, and I am not sure what to do.  Usually what I do is just darken out the tank and hope for the best.  But I am afraid that if I do that, and all of the algae abruptly dies, I will have a major ammonia spike.  I have a young Oscar in there at the moment, and I know they're highly sensitive to ammonia.  

Am I overthinking this, and should just go ahead with a black out?  Or are there any other routes I can take to clear this up?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!  

Edited June 11, 2021 by MaeDae871

[Lemon]

first sometimes algae blooms just go away, unless it is bothering you a lot I would it alone for a while if it does bother you enough here are some suggestions

can you remove algae manually? if you can remove as much as possible

reduce feeding

reduce lighting length/intensity

let us know how it goes.

also can you get a picture of the young oscar 🙂 

[MaeDae871]

I don't mind it as long as I know it will balance eventually.  I had a fluval 3.0 running over it (which probably contributed a lot, haha!).  I kicked it off yesterday and I am hoping it calms down. 

And sure! 

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

How old is the tank? What are your parameters? What has been your fertilization schedule? If you’re using tap water has the water changed recently- pH, tds, gh, kh etc? Check your tap water and if you have a basis of comparison from when you first started this could help sort it. I ask because In summertime many municipalities change the water to counteract the heat in the summer. This can really suddenly throw things out of whack. I’ve seen this happen in the winter as well. 

[MaeDae871]

The tank is about 3-4 months old. I can't give EXACT numbers on parameters.  But the nitrates and nitrites are at 0, and the water hardness is about 8, and the Ph is about 6-7. I live in the country and we have a well. All of my other tanks have the exact same parameters.  I sort of find that odd considering I have one that is over planted, and a couple that are under planted.  All of my tanks are crystal clear, except my 75g.  It has a few plants, but not many.  I am running 2 sponge filters in the 75g, and I have never had any issues up until this point.  It hasn't seemed to have improved over the last 2-3 days with turning out the Fluval. 

I fertilize the tank *maybe* every 2 weeks due to the low amount of live plants in the tank.   

I will say that when I did the water change this time that I used straight from the well which was a lot colder than when I try to use from our faucet where I can control the temperature.  It was pretty cold.  Could this have thrown everything off?  The temps didn't seem to fluctuate *that* much. 

Edited June 13, 2021 by MaeDae871

[Isaac M]

Hi @MaeDae871, would you be able to post a picture of the aquarium? It would be very helpful in being able to identify what kind of algae you are dealing with. 

[MaeDae871]

It *almost* looks like a bacterial bloom, but it has a green tinge to it. I have maybe 4 live plants in there, the rest are fake because I know he will try and tear them up.  

The substrate is sand.  I have two Aquarium Co-op sponge filters, one a large size and one a medium.  Two fluval heaters.  And I use a fluval 3.0 above light, although I have been keeping it off hoping that some of this will die down.

Here is a picture of my Oscar, Tyrion, he might be about 3 inches in length. 

Edited June 14, 2021 by MaeDae871

[Isaac M]

It looks like it could be green water to me, a fluval 3.0 can be a very strong light. Do you have it set at 100% intensity? 

[MaeDae871]

I think so.  Yikes!  That may be my problem.  I am still learning how to mess with the manual settings.  I used to have it over a fully planted tank, and I got a new one for that and moved the fluval over to this one to brighten it up.  Maybe I brightened it just a bit too much! 

 

Edited June 14, 2021 by MaeDae871

[Isaac M]

Fluval has an app to control the light from your phone. I think it is called the FluvalSmart App. A common issue with lighting and algae as well is to have the blue light on too high (I would put it in the single digits percentage wise on the app). I would try to reduce the light intensity overall and see if that helps. If you want the greenwater to go away faster, I would reduce the amount of hours the light is on for as well. 

[Mmiller2001]

On 6/14/2021 at 9:06 AM, Isaac M said:

It looks like it could be green water to me, a fluval 3.0 can be a very strong light. Do you have it set at 100% intensity? 

This.

Drop blues to 0% and drop all the others down to below 50%. You will either have to do the blackout, or grab a UV sterilizer. Green Machines are cheap and will get the job done. 

I was having green water issues on my 75 with 2x 3.0's. I had to really drop the light intensity. Here is what I'm running on my main tank. 

I just swapped the substrate out and it's a bit barren, but there are a few high light plants doing fine in the tank (so far).

 

[Dwayne Brown]

I had the same issue in my 29 gallon. In a kind of weird way its actually good to have an algae bloom. it just means that all the extra nutrients and nitrates are being consumed and not just left floating around. What I would recommend is to get a UV light filter. I know its not ideal but I had this problem several times. NO.1 get the UV light filter and install it it shouldn't take to long to get it up and running NO.2 after its been running for a day or two do a water change. No.3 buy some floating plants duckweed and water lettuce are my favorites. They will help suck up nutrients from the upper levels of the aquarium. I see your aquarium is planted but perhaps you could try getting some pogostemon octopus it really grows quickly and uses a lot of nutrients. If your worried about the UV light causing an ammonia spike, the only issue I had with one is when It was uncovered and just the bare bulb. With the enclosed ones I was fine. I even had it running during a algae bloom with a rainbow goby in the tank which are extremely sensitive to ammonia and it was fine. 

 

 

wonderful tank by the way

Edited June 15, 2021 by Dwayne Brown