For many fish keepers, aquarium algae can become an ongoing problem. This green algae can cover plants or other aquarium decorations in an unsightly film. It can grow on the glass of your fish tank making it difficult to see your fish or can even be waterborne, turning your water into a green soup.
Whichever way you cut it, aquarium algae isn’t good stuff but luckily there are ways to get around this problem.
Light
Algae is green for a reason, and that reason is that just like plants, it needs to photosynthesize to produce enough nutrients for life.
One of the most common causes of algal blooms in aquariums is quite simply that the tank receives some natural sunlight each day. Perhaps it is near a window or against a south-facing wall. Whatever the reasons, direct sunlight can affect the algae in your tank.
Equally, aquarium lights left on all night can also cause problems if the bulb you are using is specifically designed to aid plant growth.
One potential solution therefore is to ensure that no sunlight is able to fall on your aquarium and also to consider ensuring your lights are turned off each night to reduce the speed at which algae can grow.
Nutrients
Just like light, algae also need nutrients just like plants in order to grow. Another common cause of algal blooms is excess nutrients in the water, such as can accumulate in aquariums that are overstocked or have insufficient filtration.
In this way the nitrogen-rich nutrients which your fish excrete are serving as a potent source of energy for the algae that you want to get rid of.
Therefore try carrying out a water test to see if nutrient levels are too high, improve filtration so that excess nutrients are quickly removed, carry out water changes to physically remove these nutrients and also consider adding some live plants which will compete with the algae for the nutrients, thus making the algae weaker.
Chemicals
Lastly there are chemicals that can be added to aquariums which will kill of algae whilst being safe for most fish. However whilst this solution will work over the short term, you should be aware that if you want long-term success, you should fully investigate the other problems mentioned above to ensure that you do not suffer from similar problems again in the future.
