shrimp tank algae

[ranmasatome]

Hi,

i was wondering why my shrimp tank has algae??? i don't use ANY ferts what so ever and no CO2 injection...its a simple set up just lights, a fan and a filter...yet the algae is growing on the glass.....i have quite a bit of moss in there and its a one feet cube...kh is like 3 and ph is 6.5~7. Algae on glass is like small little fine hairs....could it be a NO3 problem?? i cahnge water pretty regularly about one a week..50%. how do i get rid of it? put zebra snails?

[lorba]

algae grows anywhere and everywhere, and they can make use of it with the tiniest bit of light. Under different kind of light and with different nutrients limited or in abundance, you get different algae.

How many shrimps do you have inside?
What do you feed?
What is the lighting period?
How strong are the light?
What is the temperature?

You dont really need a lot of light for this tank.

[yan]

Lack of C02.

[budak]

This guy's shrimp tank could be an inspiration

Since you are not injecting Co2, stop water changes (except for topping up evaporated water weekly), don't add fert, rely solely on slight overfeeding of food. Then wait 2 weeks to see the algae petering out.

[ranmasatome]

Hi,

Thanks guys,
This is the plan of action..let me know what you guys think....

1)Right now the temp is at around 25....i'll bring it down with the fan to around 23-24.

2)i'll do one water change....this is AFTER scrubbing all the existing algae off the glass....and then repeat this again the next day...then no more water changes liao. Or should i not do any water changes at all?? And don't scrub glass?? will the algae really just "dissappear" on its own? Currently i have about 15 BABY cherry shrimps and 5 boraras brigittae in there....if don't change water won't nitrate or ammonia build up?? then shrimps will die no??

3)the light is a 18w i leave it on for around 11-12 hrs.....will definately cut this down...to around what?? 9-10??

Currently feeding this feed by haifeng...its the small red one with the gold cap meant for tetras and fish with small mouth...

What do you think guys?? is this better?? Thanks again

[af2373]

[quote:6c27a5dea4="ranmasatome"]Hi,

Thanks guys,
This is the plan of action..let me know what you guys think....

1)Right now the temp is at around 25....i'll bring it down with the fan to around 23-24.

2)i'll do one water change....this is AFTER scrubbing all the existing algae off the glass....and then repeat this again the next day...then no more water changes liao. Or should i not do any water changes at all?? And don't scrub glass?? will the algae really just "dissappear" on its own? Currently i have about 15 BABY cherry shrimps and 5 boraras brigittae in there....if don't change water won't nitrate or ammonia build up?? then shrimps will die no??

3)the light is a 18w i leave it on for around 11-12 hrs.....will definitely cut this down...to around what?? 9-10??

Currently feeding this feed by haifeng...its the small red one with the gold cap meant for tetras and fish with small mouth...

What do you think guys?? is this better?? Thanks again[/quote:6c27a5dea4]

sounds good to me. like wat budak suggested, no change is fine for a low maint non co2 tank. my shrimp tank's water has never been changed since been setup 3-4 months ago. no problems watsoever.

not too sure on what u plan to use to bring down the temp. but if u r using fans and intend to add some more fans to help, forget it. the higher rate of water evaporation will make u very busy...

cut down the lighting period to 9-10. btw, wat size is yr tank?

[joe]

reduce the light wattage ... IMO, 9W would be more than sufficient for your current tank

here's my suggestion, dun bother with the fan as 25 is good enuff ... next srcub off the algae you can see ... dun change water and wait for another month to see if the algae comes back

[ranmasatome]

if i scrub and dont change water then wont the algae spores just be floating around in the water?? i scared the settle on my moss then i really headache liao....now on glass,bad but not so bad.....will they grow on my mosss instead?
Thanks.

[budak]

there will always be algae spores in the water. With setups like yours (no CO2, low light - i agree you should reduce your lighting to 7-8 hours), the plants operate at a 'lower' level, so changing water only adds fresh nutrients that they can't utilise optimally. Follow the suggestions given and see how it turns out in a week or two.

[ranmasatome]

k...Thanks guys...will keep you updated 2 weeks from now....
Scrubbing operation begins.....