Hi! Please help. Green spots growing in tank

sagerace · 10-25-2007, 06:32 PM

Hi! I am a mom with a 9 year old. We have a five gallon tank with a crawdad, two african childas or whatever they are called and some other fish. We have had them for about two months. I have a filter. I have cleaned the tank twice. I keep the temperature at 80 degrees. Recently, green spots started growing on the glass and on the plants in the tank. What do I do?? ( maybe some brown and yellow spots two)

Thanks

RoxiesMom · 10-25-2007, 07:18 PM

Welcome to the forum Sagerace.

Sounds like you've got some algae growning.

If we could get a little more information please...

Tank readings for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.
Lighting type & # hours on daily.
How long has the tank been set up before you put fish in.
What do you mean by "cleaned the tank".

And you have too many fish for a 5 gal. tank

sagerace · 10-25-2007, 10:49 PM

I don't have anything to test the water. I will do that tomorrow. I bought a ph test and the test wasn't high enough?? I needed a higher ph test kit. O.k. the spots on the tank are brown. My son caught a crawdad and we just wanted fish to be with it. There is one small crawdad and 3 fish. I am so confused on how to clean the tank. I take some of the water out like 20% maybe. Put the fish in it. Clean the tank completely out. I put the rocks in a strainer. I buy bottled water because our water is well water and i don't even like to drink it!! I then put the water conditioning drops in there. Then I make sure the water is warm and I put the fish back in.

The crawdad is so fun to watch he is doing great!! The african ch.... fish are fiesty they are like mini peronahs or whatever they are called!!! They seem to be doing well. One is starting to get picked on.

Thank you

I am trying!!!

Can I buy some drops to clean out the spots??? Will it harm my crawdad the spots????

I leave the light on all the time????

Pinkrblu · 10-26-2007, 12:30 AM

1) Welcom to the forum!

2) Algae isn't pretty, but the fish just might like it. Turn the light off at night, or if you use it as a nightlight for your son, make it part of his routine to turn it off in the morning. The light is adding to the algae growth.

3)Not knowing exactly what kind of cichlids they are it is kind of hard to do more than generalize here. African Cichlids are territorial. They also tend to get rather on the large size. A five gallon tank is not going to work for long. As they mature, they will fight for space and end up damaging each other...or worse. We don't know what the other fish is, so can't comment here.

4)A good general cleaning routine removes the detritis (fish poo and uneaten food) and replaces it with clean water of the same temperature. I recommend "vaccuuming" the gravel once a week. I have a python, but I have multiple--and large--tanks. For a five gallon, you could get a much cheaper aquarium vac, or just use a length of tubing. Siphon the "poo" and such out of the tank along with about 1/4 of the water-not more than half- and replace it with fresh water--treated if necessary. It is not necessary to remove the crawdad and fish during this, just try not to suck anyone up.

RoxiesMom · 10-26-2007, 07:32 AM

Back in the ice age, when I had my first tank as a kid, I used to clean everything once a month. I'm amazed any of my fish ever lived. By cleaning the entire tank, I never let it cycle properly. But they don't come with very good instructions

.

So don't worry, if the fish are still alive, then you are doing okay. We'll just help correct any problems and guide you to proper care!

Most of the chemicals you use to control algae will also kill crustacean's (the crawdad). And you'll find that many on this forum, myself included, don't advocate the use of chemicals

.

Let the tank get light (any light) about 8 hours a day, for now. Do the vacuuming and water change once a week. For that small a tank, a small hose will be enough, just watch carefully because it will drain fairly quickly! That's what I do with my nursery tank. I use a python on my larger tanks.

Oh yeah - what type of filter are you using? I rarely throw out any of my filter material, I usually try to rinse it well and put it back in because beneficial bacteria also grows on it.

As a side note, it's harder to care for the small tanks because they can go bad fairly quickly compared to a larger tank with more water volume. So testing weekly but preferably not with the testing strips as their accuracy is highly questionable. The drops are more accurate

harley3k · 10-26-2007, 11:22 AM

Most Africans won't work in a 5gal. Any way you can post pics of the fish so we can help with the stocking?

As far as the aglae goes. Do you have the tank light on a timer? Is it in a location that gets a lot of natural light?

sagerace · 10-26-2007, 11:57 AM

The aquarium is in my sons room on top of a sturdy bookshelf. There is a window next to it but the blind is rarely open. We turned the light off last night. The light is a 25w 120 v Aquarium light bulb.

How big do the Africans get? They are small for now.(half of my pinky) One is light blue with stripes and one is yellow with stripes. The other fish in the tank is silver with a black spot. near his belly. He was in the tank with them at the store. He seems to be doing good. I apoligize I forgot what kind of fish he is but I did look up his care at first and i thought i was doing good.

What can go in a five gallon tank? I didn' know this is so hard. I am trying though.

O.k. about this hose vacuum thing....Wouldn't it suck up the rocks......

I bought a 5 gallon Aquarium kit from Meijer. So I have an under gravel filtration system, airstone, quiet single air pump. I put a thermometer in there so I can keep the water warm for the africans but I do notice the water drops when I turn the light off. It does not go down past 70 degrees though. I shocks me how it fluctuates. That is why we have always left the light on.

Thank you so much

Still trying..........

The tank light is not on a timer. We have to turn it on and off.

It gets some natural light.

Pinkrblu · 10-26-2007, 12:30 PM

What you noticed in the temperature swings with the light going off is precisely what RoxiesMom was saying. If you have a ten gallon, it will be more stable, but the real stability comes with larger--75 gallon, for instance, tanks.

By the way, this is how the obsession starts. You wouldn't believe how many aquarium enthusiasts got started because their kid brought home a goldfish from a carnival. You get a fishbowl, the fish grows on you and outgrows the bowl. You buy a tank, the fish is happier but looks lonely in that big tank all by itself...More fish, larger tanks, pretty soon you are like the rest of us. Multiple tanks and too many fish to count. But all in all, there are worse things to be!

sagerace · 10-26-2007, 01:11 PM

Great!!!! All I need is another obsession!!!! Thanks for the reply. I still need some step by step answers on what exactly I should do please. Thank you!!!!!

Paser00 · 10-26-2007, 03:31 PM

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profile...ies.php?id=798 Look at the young female

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/profile...ies.php?id=845 Look at the young male.

Do either of your cichlids look like these? Make sure to change the picture to the juviniles. If they do, they will out grow that tank really fast.

For vacuming head to the pet store and pruchase a siphon vac. Usually one end is very large conected to long tubing. They can be as cheap as $10 and will not suck up the gravel. As some one stated before there is no reason to remove the fish from the tank while cleaning.

As far as temperature is concerned you may want to purchase a small heater. I never had a tank that small, but I am sure they sell heaters for tanks that size.

Good fish for that size tank would probably range for almost any tetra or even small danios, but not to many. If you adhere to inch per gallon rule, you could fit at most 5 one inch fish. However, fish this small may end up being lunch for the crawdad. I have never seen one and really don't know what that is, but it sounds like something that may eat small fish.