Am i feeding too much?

[4D3]

I have a 125l tank, I have an FX2 loaded with marking pure and purigen and an FX Uvc

The tank is stocked with a 7cm flowerhorn and nothing else.

My tank is covered with algea!

I feed 3 pinches of tetra bites per day.

Please help! Should I send the FX uvc back?

 

[Midwater]

Am i feeding too much?

Everyone feeds too much.

 

[4D3]

Really not helpful! ..... I want to know if I am doing something wrong and I should return this £150 uvc if it doesn't do anything.

Or am I feeding to much I don't want algea in my tank!

 

[duanes]

You may not be feeding too much, but.......
it depends of your regime of water changes.......
everyone gets some algae, but...
usually lots of algae is an indicator of excess nitrate concentratiion, and that for the volume of water changes you are doing, for the size of tank your fish is in,
you may not be changing anough water per week.
I like to keep the nitrate concentration of my tanks, under 5 ppm.

 

[4D3]

You may not be feeding too much, but.......
it depends of your regime of water changes.......
everyone gets some algae, but...
usually lots of algae is an indicator of excess nitrate concentratiion, and that for the volume of water changes you are doing, for the size of tank your fish is in,
you may not be changing anough water per week.
I like to keep the nitrate concentration of my tanks, under 5 ppm.
View attachment 1553398

My water perameters are perfect. The tank has only been running for 9 days.... Is there something I am missing?

Nitrate less than 10, nitrite about 1......is this wrong?

 

[phreeflow]

Algae needs light and nutrients to grow…if any are in excess, they’ll bloom. If your tank is new, it could just be diatoms. There are too many variables to consider.

Play with the parameters…cut back the frequency or amount of feeding, adjust the light intensity or duration, do more water changes to reduce phosphates, nitrates, organics, etc

Again, it could just be diatoms..post a pic

 

[4D3]

This is the little guy... I have never in my life had an algea problem.

Now you mention it, maybe it's my lights..... I have them running from 10am to 10pm.....is that too much?

 

[4D3]

I literally have a stunning fish, I have an FX2, FX UVC, it's loaded with marking pure!

Should I change the lighting to 8 hours instead of 12?

 

[danotaylor]

The presence of nitrite indicates that your systems is not fully cycled yet. You may continue to have challenges until your system is properly balanced.
The quality of your filter & media really has no bearing on the algae issue. UVC works well when algae is suspended in the water column cause it kills it as water passes through the light column. Your algae is growing on the side & bottom of your tank so the UV will have little to no effect on it.
12 hours is a lot of light though. I would suggest no artificial light when you’re not sitting in front of your tank. Ambient room light is plenty for fish to do their thing when “home alone”.
Is there any sunlight hitting the tank during the day? The algae looks to be concentrated to the left end of the tank
You could add a bristle nose catfish to “clean up” the inner surfaces

 

[FINWIN]

Is that a qt tank? It's very bare...

You could try floating plants if you're worried about algae. As for the lighting, take some filter foam, put it up top and shade off some of the light. Adding some substrate and maybe some smooth rocks and silk plants will have the double benefit of adding surface area for bacteria and reduce stress for your flowerhorn giving it things to explore and rest around. And depending on the substrate if you go darker it will absorb some of the excess light that feeds algae!

Its a physics thing

dark colors absorb light/heat
light colors reflect light/heat

light and heat along with higher nutrients feed algae. Give it competition for nutrients.