What is causing all of the algae in my fish tank?

[PapaBear]

I've had this 10 gallon tank with two goldfish for about 5 years. For the past few months, it's been getting algae really bad. If I start with a totally clean tank, it only takes a little more than a week before it starts getting totally covered. The only thing that I've done differently is I switched from incandescent bulbs to fluorescent bulbs less than a year ago. I tried Tetra Algae Control and it's no help. I picked up one of those sucker fish tonight, but I don't think he'll be able to conquer the problem. Any ideas?

[razorboy]

Has your aquarium been receiving more direct sunlight recently? Have you considered putting your lighting on a timer?

[biggirl]

you'd be surprised at what those algae eaters can really do. We had a 40 gallon tank and our algae eater kept up with it just fine. We had a lot of algae.

We invested in a water test kit and that helped us figure out lots of problems.

[PapaBear]

Has your aquarium been receiving more direct sunlight recently? Have you considered putting your lighting on a timer?
It gets absolutely no sunlight. I turn on the light when I wake up and turn it off when I go to bed.

[PapaBear]

A side question... Why are 20 gallon tanks SOOOO much more expensive than 10 gallon tanks? Ronfish and Fezfish are getting way too big for this one.

[razorboy]

It gets absolutely no sunlight. I turn on the light when I wake up and turn it off when I go to bed.

You might be overfeeding your fish. Do you keep live plants in your aquarium? If not, you may want to try that.

[PapaBear]

You might be overfeeding your fish. Do you keep live plants in your aquarium? If not, you may want to try that.
Never thought about live plants. I probably do overfeed them, though. But I haven't been feeding them more than I did before the problem started. I actually feed them less than I used to.

[~Katja~]

your different lighting might cause different temperatures too. if it's too warm the algae builds faster.

[PapaBear]

your different lighting might cause different temperatures too. if it's too warm the algae builds faster.
The only problem with that is that switching to fluorescent lighting actually LOWERS the temperature. I'm still dumbfounded.

[topless_mike]

algae thrives off of phosphates. because you have goldfish, im also assuming that you use tap water for water changes. could be excess phosphates in your water.

you said that the tank does not get direct sun. this is good.

could also be that your lighting has surpassed it's "useful" life.
sure, it still lights up, by after a while, the PAR (photosynthetically active radiation) drops, and the color of the bulb changes (not visible to the human eye). when the bulb par drops, algae soak this up and go nuts.

try phresh bulbs, and try using some kind of conditioner to remove metals/phosphates/ etc.

let me know if you need help.

[Patient zer0]

Years ago I had a small aquarium, I found when I had the heat set a little too high algae would spread like wild fire.