I have never had a huge problem with algae, but now I have no clue what is going on. My water is turning green and my sand is turning green. The last 2 days i didn't even turn the light on and today i covered the whole thing with a towel and did a water change. Even my glass hoods are growing algae from the condensation I get on them.

It all started off like this I am guessing, I changed my substrate from gravel to sand. I don't figure that is the problem. After that I changed to a double bulb t5 light so I could grow more types of live plants. I also added some ferts because my plants weren't doing to well. After I started adding ferts it really went crazy. i did a water change and vacuumed my tank about a week ago. Since then this has all happend. I was having trouble with green sand before but not near this bad.

Any suggestions would be great.

A lot of times algae is caused by the water not moving as much as it should. Check your pump and make sure it is running at its peak. I am always battling it outside, not inside, and I learned about barley. Most pond supply stores sell it and it works wonders keepign water clean and keeps algae down. I use in even in my beta tanks.

i agree i would also blame it one the t-5's dotn get me wrong i love my t-5's but when i got mine i had to up my flow to keep the algae down

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What are your water parameters and how much light / tank are we talking about? Definately sounds like the balance is way off. Not sure what kind and how many plants you have but they just can't out compete the algae for nutrients. Do a water change and stick with the black out for ~ 3 days completely covered.

What type of ferts are you using? Any Co2?

Yeah...hornwort is a major sponge and will out compete everything.

Lighting is the major problem for algae growth. If you increase the lighting you have to increase nutritents and CO2. Adding nutrients when plants are not doing good, probably just helped that algae take hold and bloom.

You should start out with a lot of plants and the lighting should match the rest of your setup. If it is low tech (no CO2), then you need to keep lights low and ferts low. If it is high tech, then you can up the lights as needed.

Sand is also iffy to me, it allows more mulm to build up on the surface and has less filtering and air pockets than normal gravel. Sand can also have more silica which brown algae (daitoms) love. More anerobic areas and compacting can lead to anerobic bacteria that produce H2S (sulfide gas) that can be deadly to plant roots and fish. If you choose to stick with sand, vacuum the mulm up frequently and stir the sand with a chopstick to check/remove pockets of gas bubbles.

Can you describe the algae a little better. Right now it sounds like either green dust algae or blue gren algae. Is it slimy, or more patchy? Is it light or dark green?

One other factor that might lead to more algae is the weather. It is summer and if you room is warmer or your tank is near a window, your tank's temperature might be a few degrees higher than usual. This can also lead to an algae bloom.

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I would also consider investing in a UV sterilizer as it will keep the water from turning green, it'll keep free floating algae from competing for the nutrients that your "wanted" plants should be consuming.