[Almost]

I've had my 10 gallon tank set up for about 5 months now with my betta in it, it's filtered and heated and I have never had a problem with Algae until this morning when I went to feed my fish and it was all over the walls and even on the heater and I know it wasn't there yesterday.

I just changed about 50% of the water about 5 days ago, and when I did that I increased the flow of the filter too.

Why would this have happened all of the sudden? I was hoping with just my betta I wouldn't have problems with algae.

 

[Oldfishlady]

What kind of algae is it......can you post a pic.....google cynobacteria-BGA and make sure that is not what you are seeing....

 

[Almost]

Here's a pic of it, most of what you see is in the back but it's in the front, too:

It comes off and easy maybe it's not exactly algae but I still don't know why it just appeared all of the sudden...

 

[Oldfishlady]

It looks more like diatoms from what I can see-for what ever reason the pic isn't loading all the way for me-I am sure it is me/my computer not the pic/you....since the tank has been setup for 5 months-it may be light related, how old are the light bulbs and how long are the light on....how much and how often are the water changes, type of substrate, what kind of filter and have you changed the filter media lately....any live plants....

I will try again and see if I can get all the pic to show up so I can get a better look....

 

[Almost]

The only major change I can think of is that about 2 months ago I moved to a new house and the room the tank is in now has a lot more windows, some up really high, he's never in direct sunlight but all of the windows aren't covered so there is a lot of light in the room.

I change about 50% water ever 2-3 weeks, have an aqua-tech 5-15 filter. When I noticed the buildup I checked the filter and it wasn't that bad looking but it has been in for a while so I replaced it.

 

[Oldfishlady]

Now that I can see the pic...it looks like diatoms.....how old are the light bulbs and how long are the lights on.....

Diatoms-when not related to new setup and since it was re-setup 2 months ago-that could be part of it too-it can be caused by old light bulbs (over 12 months old) and/or lights on for less than 6h/day....

I would increase the water changes to 50% weekly with vacuum-rub the diatoms off first then vacuum.
Filter media-needs a rinse/swish in the bucket of old tank water with a water change a couple of times a months.