Overnight growth of algae- help!?

Question

I have a ten gallon tank- with 5 guppies. My snail of 6 month just died a few days ago ;( and when I got home tonight EVERY plastic plant, ornament , piece of gravel etc was covered with a 2 millimeter layer of what looked like animal fur or what I'm guessing is some type of algae. I have always had some green algae on the walls, but this is hairy and black. My tank is not in direct sunlight- I feed them a pinch of food every other day, and change 25% of the water every 30 days. The tank has been set up for about 8 months w/ no problems. I freaked out when I saw what took over and took out all of the plants and did a 25% water change. What is growing and how do I manage it? I leave the light on from about 7:30 am until 8:30 at night-so 13 hours...but it has never been a problem. I keep the temperature at about 80 degrees...

Answer 1

dont use tab water... tab water contains phosphats and thats what algae eats

Answer 2

When green algae gets old it turns black.  To clean plastic plants, rocks, shells, corals, and other aquarium ornaments, you need to remove them to a bucket, add half a cup of non-scented liquid bleach and enough hot tap water to cover everything in liquid.  Soak for 15 minutes to an hour and they should look good as new.  Pour the bleach water down the toilet or sink and refill the bucket with just tap water.  Do this a few more times until everything is well rinsed.  They will still smell like bleach so fill the bucket with clean water one more time but this time add a table spoon of water conditioner to the water.  This will neutralize the bleach since bleach is pure chlorine.  Be sure to stir the water conditioner so it reaches everything in the bucket.  Now you should be able to put your plastic plants, rocks, ornaments, etc. back into the tank looking clean and new.  Watch the fish and if they come to the surface and hang there gasping for air, add water conditioner to the fish tank and stir it in.  You should not have to do this if you followed my instructions carefully but it is a sign that bleach got into the fish tank.  Ornaments and shells might trap bleach inside where they didn't get rinsed well so be real careful when cleaning them.

Answer 3

Every 30 days, or every 3 days? Sounds like you need to change water more often.

All you can do at this point is scrub as much off as you can, and change water more regularly.

Answer 4

You have Black Beard Algae. Siamese algae eaters, or more snails, will happily eat it for you. The true Siamese algae eater has a horizontal black band that continues to the end of the tail, not a band that ends where the tail begins. Let the plants, ornaments, etc dry, then scratch the algae off. If possible, move the fish to another tenporary tank that has clean water of the same temp, pH and salinity, add a filter. Then dry out their original tank, scratch off the algae as best you can, replace the fish, water, etc, and google it for more info.

Answer 5

First off you should cut your photo period down to at least 10 hours.Next the algae you speak of sounds like BBA (Black Beard Algae).Now when you say you don't give it direct sunlight, Is it near a window?Your going to have lots of algae problems with only changing the water every 30 days since all that waste is going to make nitrates and that will create algae with the help of the natural light.i had a tank get taken over with algae until i moved it away from the window and i change my water on all my tanks once a week.Email me if you need anymore help