I have a 35 gallon fresh water aquarium, it has one sliver dollar in it, two angle fish, one beta shark, one mini cat fish and one bottom dweller. It has a duel oxygenation system, a filter, various fake plants, etc. The problem is the underside of the aquarium light hood keeps getting green from algae and the water is never crystal clear anymore. I know about checking the
nitrates, and ph balance and that when you clean the water you need to leave some of the old water at the bottom so that the ecosystem doesn't get messed up. Anyone have any suggestions as to how I can make the water crystal clear again (I suction the rocks about once a month), and how to keep the underside of the hood from not getting green all the time from algae. I was also wondering how many more fish I could possibly add to the tank, what other fresh water fish are compatiable, etc.
Answers:
The green stuff comes from the ratio of nitrates to phosphates and the overall level of both. Your phosphates or nitrates are probably high. More than 1.5 ppm of phosphates is enough for this stuff to grow and probably 15 or 20 ppm of nitrates is enough for this stuff to grow. Both chemicals are removed the same way. By doing more frequent water changes, reducing the amount of left over food, and reducing the bio-load of the tank so there isn't so much organic waste decaying.
The stuff is called cyannobacteria or cyanobacteria. It looks like algae, but smells much worse.
More water changes ,less feeding.
adding another filter will do no good since phosphates come from dissolved organics. If there is trapped food in a big filter or little filter, its still trapped in the tank. And excess carbon releases phosphates into the water.
You can add a uv sterelizer or diatom filter to help if you want to spend lots of money. But really, just clean a little more %26 feed a little less.
No more fish. The silver dollar will get big enough. Too many fish excreting biological waste will compound the cleaning issue.
Oh, Try a shorter photoperiod. Like 8-10 hours. The lights are there for you to enjoy the tank. Not for your fish. If you leave them on too long, weird algaes will grow.
One other thing you can try is lowering the level of the water. I bet your air bubblers are spraying the glass with dirty water %26 it never dries off.
I would venture a guess that you need to get a bigger filter. Or if your filter is rated for larger than 35 gallons you need to change the filter cartridges. Especially if your cartridges have activated carbon, since when carbon is full it starts spitting the stuff its absorbed back into the water. There isn't much you can do about the hood, other than making sure it doesn't get wet (if its not wet algae can't grow on it) or just cleaning it more often.
First of all, you only need to do partial waterchanges of 25% with a gravelsiphon, but that WEEKLY and not just once a month
as for the algae on the lid, you can't do anything about it but cleaning it off when you do waterchanges
What I found was putting pure white vinegar on it, letting it sit for at least an hour, and then just wash it off, is the easiest way to get rid off, but you just can't prevent it
There is no more space in your tank for additional fish, because they will all get pretty big
and the most important thing to check is for ammonia and not nitrates, that's what usually causes the nasty color in your tank
Also replace the carbon cartridge every 4-6 weeks
Also what might help, is putting real plants in there instead of these plastic ones
Hope that helps
good luck
EB
You're so overstocked its a wonder you can keep clean water ever. Do some research about these species and how big they get. And while you're at it, don't fill the tank as high as you do, so the algae doesn't grow on the hood.
