I have a 10 gallon tank with a baby bass and catfish in there and all is fine and dandy, except for the brown algae that collects in there. Its all over everything and is quite unappealing to the eye. The gravel at the bottom is the main issue as my nice pink rocks have gone to a nasty brown looking color. What is the best way to go about cleaning the algae off the rocks? Also, what ways do yall keep the algae levels down in your aquarium?
Getting rid of andkeeping out algae
- Thread starter ScottAlan
- Start date
I had the exact same problem. this was fixed for me by doing a 40 perc cent water change and then leaving the light on for about 1 hour a day untill it went. It didnt take long at all to go and it's never came back. When I had this i found out in a pfk magazine that this is common in new set-ups. Good luck with your baby fishes 
The bass is 2 inches long and the catfish is maybe 3.5. The light is on maybe 10 hours a day or so, but from the sounds of it, leaving the light on so long is causing the algae to grow rampantly. I change the water once a week, but I suppose that doesnt matter much?
Water change does matter. Algae will feed on excess nutrients in your tank ex. Nitrates. If you have a lot, that's more food for the algae. But in your case the fish are small so you shouldn't be having nitrate problems. The cause is most likely the 10 hours of light a day, reduce it and you should see a decrease.
First of all there are no catfish or bass that would fit in a 10 gallon.
Secondly pink rocks are terrible. i would go with a natural coloured sand or gravel with plants and wood.
But if you really want to clean the rocks i would take them out and clean them in a bucket with a hose and a lot of aquarium salt.
If you want the algae to stop growing i would but a small amount of aquarium salt in the tank or an algae removal ( but i could hurt your catfish )
also do weekly water changes and scrap the algae of with a algae scrapper.
Secondly pink rocks are terrible. i would go with a natural coloured sand or gravel with plants and wood.
But if you really want to clean the rocks i would take them out and clean them in a bucket with a hose and a lot of aquarium salt.
If you want the algae to stop growing i would but a small amount of aquarium salt in the tank or an algae removal ( but i could hurt your catfish )
also do weekly water changes and scrap the algae of with a algae scrapper.
Algae needs 2 things to exist, nutrients and light. Keeping a cleaner tank will take care of excess nutrients, as for lights if you're not in the room turn them off. The lights are for you not the fish, they'd actually prefer that you never turn them on.