Those who have been around for a while might remember my awesome tanks in Texas. My Gorgeous Beast (75 gallon) with Guppies, Mollies, Swordtails, Tetras and Princess Pat the Dwarf Gourami. As well as my two 10 gallon Guppy Maternity wards:)
Well all my fish had to be given away (two brothers with several ornamental ponds and outdoor tanks took them all) and my tanks torn down. I had been having no problems with any of them for a while. My 75 gallon had been set up for almost a year and not once did I have to do a complete tear down. Until we moved.

But anyway we got there in one piece. All my tanks are intact. One broken filter (for a ten gallon, cheap to replace) and a chip out of the top corner of the Beast (made by my husband when loading the truck).
After being here for a month I set up one of my 10's as a night light in my youngest daughter's room. In it went 4 little "guppies" my Mom gave me.(I think they were Gambusias as they had absolutely no color and 2 were males.) Those 4 recently went into my Mom's pond to see if they could survive the winter along with their Mother and my Mom's 7 goldfish.
I now have a little blue tailed female guppy named (by my 4 year old) Blueberry Muffin. She was in with males at the shop and is maybe a week away from her first drop in my tank (I hope).

Anyway I have been slacking a bit in the water changing area. With the 4 original ones I was trying to get the water to cycle. No test strips yet tho. Just going by smell of the water and health of the fish. When their gills would get a bit pink I changed 25% of the water. Or when I smelled that nasty tank smell.
Now that Blueberry is in there I think there is an over abundance of good bacteria. It's doing too good of a job of converting the ammonia/nitrites into nitrates and setting of an outbreak of algae and Cyanobacteria.

So today I'm taking care of the fish tank. I did a 25% water change and then noticed how nasty all the plants and decorations looked so I removed them and currently have them soaking in a bucket of bleach water. After I removed them I took the hood off the tank and moved the filter to the end so the water shoots the long way across the tank. Then I took my rubber spatula (dedicated to fishes) and scraped the sides of all visible algae. The filter has been gobbling it up for the last 1/2 hour. Blueberry is still in the tank as I have no place else to put her right now and can't find my net. So anyway I'm gonna leave the tank water, gravel and fish until tomorrow or later tonight so the filter can pull everything out of the water. The decorations (when done in the bleach) I'll rinse and then soak over night in water and dechlorinator. Tomorrow after doing another 25% water change I'll add the decorations.

Hopefully all the algae will be gone and stay gone. If not I'll repeat this procedure as needed along with picking up on my water changes. My water changes need to be done more frequently anyway. I did do some reading online about Cyanobacteria and it seems like when it occurs is once the tank is cycled and there is an overabundance of nitrates in the water. Hmmmmm maybe my local pet store (75% fish:) will test my water for free. I'll have to give them a call.