Algae problems—how to address?

[Nanci B]

 

 

Hi everyone!
 

I have been working on my new 75g since February. I used media and my sponge filter from my 20 long.  At first, I didn’t really have any algae except some green hair algae on my sponge filter which was from my old tank. 
 

This is my only tank and it is in my living room where it receives a lot of natural sunlight. This is the only place it could go, so I have to find a work around. The tank is along an outside wall, on the east side of the house. The only side of the tank that is getting direct sunlight is on a short end facing south. The rest of the room is pretty sunny, so lots of indirect light on the front of the tank. 
From the beginning all my plants didn’t have any problems with the move and just kept on growing. Due to this, I felt that the tank was doing well and out competing the algae. But I only had one sponge filter (I took down a large HOB due to spouse complaints) so there were dead spots with no water movement. 
I rearranged some wood and plants and have been adding more plants, but there is a long way to go. I changed the location of my sponge filter to the center back of the tank and placed my aquarium co-op powerhead at the far left on the front of the tank. It does create a nice circular water flow, so that is much better. 
I still have a lot of algae, mulm, and  detritus at the base of most of my plants, and sediment on my plant leaves. I put assassin snails in my tank because I had so many snails and they were eating my water lilies that were not planted yet. Now only a few snails left. I am planning on buying some shrimp to help with clean up, but I need to know what to do now. I did the wait and see approach and that didn’t seem to work. I did finally get a black board to block the direct south sunlight. 
 

Last but not least I noticed I have some blue-green algae deep in my substrate that is up against the glass. I haven’t disturbed it. 
 

I know I need more plants, and most likely stem plants. My favorites are my crypts and I am building my anubias collection. (I do realize that these grow slowly). 
 

I also just got my Fluval 3.0 light set up, but that needs fine tuning. I need to re-read the informational long thread about setting up 2 siestas for my tank. 
 

The tank is very lightly stocked, but I will be adding more of the same fish to have large schools of nano fish. 
Currently there are 6 chili rasboras, 6 green neon tetras, and 6 Pygmy corys. I definitely overfeed the fish, because it is hard to know when everyone has eaten. I also tend to use more than one type of food each time because of the different areas they each eat. There are days I don’t feed them at all. I like to leave some algae on the walls to give these guys something to nibble on. 

 

I think that covers my algae issues. Any ideas on how to slowly mitigate these issues?  I am uploading a video that shows the current state of the tank.  
 

I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to read my long post, and suggest possibly fixes  

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

On 7/10/2022 at 8:32 PM, Nanci B said:

But I only had one sponge filter (I took down a large HOB due to spouse complaints) so there were dead spots with no water movement. 

If you wish, you can have one sponge on either side of the tank to help alleviate dead spots. If i may ask, what was the HoB that was causing issues with noise?  Maybe there is an easy fix.  If it was an aquaclear, it's likely the impeller grinding on the shaft (no way to avoid it) and the other major complaint is the lid rattling, which just means I put something heavy on it.
 

On 7/10/2022 at 8:32 PM, Nanci B said:

I changed the location of my sponge filter to the center back of the tank and placed my aquarium co-op powerhead at the far left on the front of the tank. It does create a nice circular water flow, so that is much better. 

I notice the pump head up front too, that's an awesome thing to have in there as well.  You can install the pump head into the sponge filter to boost circulation that way and the sponge filter will act as a prefilter also!
 

I think what would help most with deadspots and keep noise to a minimum would be adding a ziss airstone where you can make the bubbles fine.  I have a tank next to me i added Tidal 75 filter on, it has 2 sponge filters, and a ziss bubble bio and it's quite silent.  I tend to run a sponge on each corner or centered like you do and then just add an airstone for circulation on one of the lower flow spots (being the wood on that left side would be my best guess).
 

On 7/10/2022 at 8:32 PM, Nanci B said:

The tank is very lightly stocked, but I will be adding more of the same fish to have large schools of nano fish. 
Currently there are 6 chili rasboras, 6 green neon tetras, and 6 Pygmy corys. I definitely overfeed the fish, because it is hard to know when everyone has eaten. I also tend to use more than one type of food each time because of the different areas they each eat. There are days I don’t feed them at all. I like to leave some algae on the walls to give these guys something to nibble on. 

One of the tips I heard from one of Irene's or Cory's videos was that when feeding nano fish it's hard for them to eat a big meal, so the recommendation was to feed them less, several times a day.  I would recommend feeding them half the amount you are feeding them now, but feed them morning and night.  There might be some foods like the xtreme nano pellets that tend to float (and some will sink right away) which would give you a better feeling that all the fish have had the opportunity to feed.
 

On 7/10/2022 at 8:32 PM, Nanci B said:

I think that covers my algae issues. Any ideas on how to slowly mitigate these issues?

With regards to the siesta settings, It essentially just means you light the tank for 4 hours, take a break, then light it again for another lighting window of 4 hours.  Because of the high natural light you're describing I would start your fluval light at pretty low settings and then report back on whether or not the plants are getting enough light and you're seeing new growth.

Pure White: 25-35%
Warm White: 20%
Cool White: 15%
Red: 20%
Blue: 1-3%

If you aren't seeing new growth, after ~3 weeks you'd increase it up by 10% and then run that for another ~3 weeks.

I have a tank that gets a lot of direct light but only has very, very slow growing plants.  Because of this I run a very underpowered fluval light (aquasky) and I only use it at 10% power.  The planted 3.0 is going to be anywhere from 3-4x the intensity and it sounds like the situation you're describing is that you have more ambient / sunlight than I do.

Usually when you have light in that way, you'll first see algae on the side of the tank itself, on the glass mostly.  I do see signs of that on the right side of the tank.  If possible you can add some window film to that side of the tank to block a portion of it.  Some tanks I have covered on 1 side, some I have covered on 3 sides because of light and wanting to give the fish a secure place where shadows don't really stress them as much. (that's my QT tank)

Hopefully this helps.  If you have any direct questions you need some help with please feel free to ask!
 

[Guppysnail]

You can use a turkey baster or long acrylic coral feeder for settled detritus at the bottom.  Use the baster to blow it off with your gravel vac sucking up yuck right where you are blowing the detritus off. This keeps excess from simply clogging up at the base of things.