Help! Big burst of algae, out of nowhere?

[Doc4PC2]

In one of my fish tanks. It just has a nice size Angel Fish, a yoyo loach, and four neon tetra.

 

The tank is fine, clean, decorations are clean, water is crystal clear, water parameters are great.

 

Then one day out of the blue, the tank all of a sudden has algae on the glass, decorations, bottom

of the substrate, everywhere?

 

It was just fine yesterday, you couldn't even hardly see any algae, but today, it all of a sudden has

a massive burst of algae. Like a big algae bloom out of nowhere?

 

Does anyone know what could cause this?  The tank is not in the sun or by a window, and I rarely have

to clean algae off the glass. It is very strange?

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Doc

[Soothing Shrimp]

What sized tank, what power light, and how long do you leave it on?

[chibikaie]

Green or brown?

Algae can do a lot in a short period of time. I routinely ignore it in between water changes and am stunned by how much growth it manages.

[Doc4PC2]

It is just a 10 gallon, with a beamworks led light. I leave it on day light for 7 hours, 7 hours on blue night led lights, and off the rest of the time. Plus the

light is raised some above the tank. I have had this tank for quite awhile now, and I rarely have to do anything with it, but water changes and some

cleaning here and there, vacuum the substrate, normal maintenance. Like I said, yesterday, it was pristine, clean, clear, just a tiny bit of algae, all of the décor was fine and clean, the sponges

look good, filter looks good. It has a biowheel 200 on it, plus two sponges, and a small UV sterilizer, and air stones. It does not have any live plants in it at all. Just decorations. No moss, no plants,

nothing live. Drift wood is all.

 

Just today, all of a sudden, I look at the tank and it had algae everywhere, on all of the decorations, sponges, substrate, glass, drift wood. I was stunned,

because yesterday it was fine. I have never seen a tank just all of a sudden in one day, have a massive algae bloom explosion like that. The tank is in

my kitchen and it has been for a long time now. It does not get direct sunlight at all, and normally looks great.

 

I was just wondering what could cause something like this. I vacuumed the substrate, cleaned the glass inside, cleaned all of the decorations, cleaned the sponges in aquarium water,

cleaned the filter in aquarium water. Cleaned the light, and changed about 65% of the water, and it now looks fine and back to normal.

 

But wow, did it blow me away. Overnight, it exploded with algae. I would like to prevent this, so I was wondering if anyone would know what would cause this all of a sudden in an established

tank that never does this.

[Shaun]

Is it algae as in bloom or is it gsa,hair etc?also what wavelength is your blue lights?Blue light and some species of algae is like bolts and nuts they just get along like a house and fire.

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[Doc4PC2]

It is algae, not hair like, just like a kind of turned everything green, just like a light coat of green. my light is 6500

[Shaun]

It is known as greenwater and is due to too strong of a light for your tank.Turns the water into pea soup.BTW the "k" is the light temp not the frequency K stands for kelvin the higher the number the more towards the red spectrum your light is the lower the closer it is to blue.

HTH.

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[Soothing Shrimp]

Back to this post again.  Been gone most of the day, and just received a call that I got a part from my last audition.

 

Back to topic though, the reason why I asked about your light was to see if it was either too strong, or left on too long.  I don't know much about lighting, however that';s what happens to me when it's one or the other- or a combination.

[Doc4PC2]

Yeah, I am going to monitor the lights better and change the timer on it.