I've been slimed! Slime algae has overtaken my tank and I've been battling for the past few weeks. I have done everything it says - reduce the amount of time lights are on, reduce the fish food, more frequent water changes - but to no avail.
So today I deep an aquarium 'deep clean' and hope I can get on top of this. This involved:
Taking out the ornaments and washing separately with a slime algae control - this stuff is evil, it says on the side that it kills snails and then if you read all the instructions you realise it is dangerous to plants and fish too!
Removing all the plants. Most were covered in slime and struggling. Dying plants contribute to algae.
Syphoning out half of the water and scrubbing the sides of the tank.
Planting in lots of new plants - the idea being that lots of healthy plants will take all the nutrients that the algae is currently thriving on. Key to these are some floating plants that will shade the tank from the lights, again reducing the light the algae can use to grow.
I've added in a CO2 unit to help the plants again. Contrary to what you would think, it is important to still feed the plants - adding nutrients to a tank seems wrong when it is excess nutrients that are the cause of algae! But plants need them. I added some tablets in the gravel as I planted this time too.
Now its all done the lights will stay off for 3 days, another water change on Tuesday and again when I get more plants through (some were out of stock). Fish will get fed a minimum amount.
Amazingly one of my rabbit snails that I haven't seen for 2 months has shown up, I've no idea where they hide!
Pictures of my new set up when the lights go back on on Tuesday.