Brown gunk on the goldfish tank !!! What am I doing wrong ?

[LeafTurner]

So - it's fully cycled - I do the 25-30% water change every week, use water conditioner and stress zyme. Don't overfeed. Bought some real plants which have all but been eaten. Every water change I clean all the gunk off - using paper towels, and then it's back in 3 days !

It's kind of browney orangey stuff ! Maybe algae ?

Anyone got any tips ?

Is it near light?

We stupidly had our last tank on a wide windowsill and got loads of algae.

Well not really - on worktop with back to wall and under the units. It is opposite kitchen window - but not in direct light.

Does brown gunk sound like the algae you had ?

could be algae or maybe you are over feeding them? the waste food can turn toxic and form this brown gunge.

yes it does sound the same.

is it far from the window?

Am certain I am not overfeeding threm - they eat it all withing mins and I just feed once a day.

It is maybe 7 feet from window.

I remember someone said on here once to get a snail to get rid of algae !

What about a pleck its a small fish that eats the algae

you can buy a scraper which is a long stick with a razor blade on the end, gets it off really quickly

tis the 3rd one down here

Oh thanks - I'll get one of them ! And look into a snail or pleck fish !!

So - is there no way to stop it appearing in the first place ?

bump for fish experts !

although mine isn't in direct sunlight it still gets a build up of algae after time. I just keep wiping it away with some kitchen towel after their weekly spruce up.

A plecostamus is a good idea, they do a good job but can grow very big and they need something to hide in as they don't like being out in the open.

We had a lot of problems with algae, and eventually bought a phosphate test kit. We discovered that our tap water is very high in phosphates which the algae was feeding off.
Our solution at the time was to get an RO filter and get all very technical about it, but I doubt that would be for everyone. Not the cheapest option!
You can get phosphate filters that go in your existing filter (if you think that is your problem) but we didn't find them that effective.

As far as light goes - try cutting down on the length of time you have the lights on. It only needs about 8 hours and too much more than that can encourage algal growth.

Otherwise re - algae eaters - all our plecs have ended up being rehomed when they out grew our tanks. Very nice to look and can be characters, but while they do eat algae they also pooh an awful lot, and rearrange the landscape so if you have real plants they can be a pain.
Our most successful algae eaters are Chinese Butterfly loaches like these. They were sold as coldwater fish but are doing fine in our not overly hot tropical tanks. Small cute little things with amazing colour change ability.