Alge issues

[lisa.picchi]

Hi there my son and I are new at this and we have had a tank up and running good for a year. When we went on vacation the tank became overgrown with red brown and hairy green Alge We have tried everything including blacking our tank. Every time I turn on the tank lights the Alger starts coming back. This has been since July. I don’t know if I need to start tank all over again or not. It’s a 29 gallon bio cube. I welcome any suggestions. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this post. Hope to hear something encouraging soon

[mcgyvr]

Its likely that insufficient water changes/maintenance have caused excessive nutrient levels (high nitrates and phosphates) thats fueling the algae.. (I'd wager a bet that you probably have cyanobacteria too and not jut algae)..

Performing water changes to lower nutrient levels and to remove excess organics from the tank is likely the best solution along with manually siphoning what algae/bacteria you can out during those water changes.. It didn't get like that overnight and won't go away overnight either..


Do you test for nitrate and phosphate levels?
High phosphates are typically caused by overfeeding which is quite common..
Without testing to see where you are I'd just recommend a few larger (50%) water changes and then get on say a 20% every week routine for a bit..

If you don't have corals then you can keep the lights off to help with the process..

[JUNBUG361]

Agree ^