siemeseninjafish

I've had my vision 180 litre tank set up since November with a large piece
of mopani wood in it. I've also had a problem with black and green algae
since about December. I've been checking the nitrite ammonia and nitrate
levels every two weeks or so and the nitrite and ammonia have been at zero
and the nitrate has been from zero to about 5ppm. the tank has five large
plants and three small ones in it, there is also about five to seven
centimetres of aqua grit in the tank. I've been changing 25% of the water
every week or two, and I have been cleaning the gravel once a week in stead
of once every three or four weeks for about the last month, before starting
to do that I cut all the infected leaves of off the plants with the algae
on. but the algae is coming back fast and they only thing I can think of is
that it is because of the driftwood, as it stains the water brown with
tannin, and I guess that that's feeding the algae in some way. please help!.
thanks

sue

How much light is this tank getting?
What colour is the algae & what fish are in the tank please?
It might be worth checking your tapwater for phosphates & nitrate.
Adding a carbon sachet to the filter stack monthly will take out the bogwood
staining.

Sue

siemeseninjafish

Hi Sue, the tank has two 28inch 25 watt bulbs, with reflectors that are
meant to
boost them to 50watts. the one at the back is more of a red brown colour to
aid plant growth and the front bulb is a brighter white colour. there is a
carbon sponge in the filter and my tap water read as zero for nitrate. I'm
not shore about phosphate, I'm going to be getting a test kit for that soon.
thanks for your post.

siemeseninjafish

theres also eight neon's, two molly's, 2 angel fish, two dwarf gouramis, 2
clown loaches, one coolie loach, 2 cichlids that are roughly the same size
as the gouramis and a red crab.

sue

Is the black algae separate from the green & in tufts or is the algae
blackish green?
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/algae.htm is a good starting point. If it
is green you have to address the cause.
http://www.fishprofiles.net/faq/algae.asp gives other options.
A Siamese algae eater would help but your tank is pretty heavily stocked
already.
What are the cichlids?
How long are the lights turned on?

Your reflectors don't double the wattage but add about 50%. Eight plants is
not a lot in a V180.

Sue

siemeseninjafish

the black algae grows on the edges of the leaves first and grows to about
2cm in length. the green algae is similar and grows all over the leaves.
there is also blue green algae and long strands of green algae. I used to
have the lights on for twelve hours a day but I recently reduced it to ten.
I'm not shore what the cichlids are but they grow to 7cm in size and are
peaceful. I did have a golden algae eater for the first three months but he
damaged and killed some of my plants by ****ing on them, so I had to get rid
of him.