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The end product of the tank cycling are nitrates which are a wondeful fertilizer. Try doing a sizeable water change (over a number of days) at the rate odf 24% each day for a week or so.

Also check how much light the tank is getting. A tank near a window will tend to get an oversupply of algae.

There are some algae inhibitors available at your local aquarium shop.

Lastly, many fish deaths and tank disasters are caused by overfeeding. Too much food falls to the bottom where it decomposes polluting the water ..... When deciding how much to feed your fish .... assume that its stomach is about the size of its eye and feed just enough to fill he eye.

Hope this helps

mes111

What size tank? Algae isn't a bad thing. It is also some more evidence that your tank has established a cycle. In my experience green algae is usually caused by excessive phosphate in your water. Too much nitrate will also help. Fighting algae is like putting out a fire. If you remove one of the elements of a fire ( oxygen/air, fuel and ignition/) the fire will go out. With algae it's kind of the same. Too much light and nutrients will cause algae to grow excessively. If you have no live plants in the tank then cut your lighting down by amount of time the lights are on and intensity. Use a good quality fish food with low phosphates in them, read the label. Avoid pH down products which have high contents of phosphates. Don't use those water conditioning locks or vacation feeding blocks.
Personally I like a little algae here and there in my tanks. It looks more natural and the fish don't mind it at all. Get more Oto's you can get quite a few, they don't add much to your "bio-load" as far as "inches of fish per gallon"

Congrats on your success. Like woeisme said nutrients and light are the main causes of algae. Water from the tap naturally has many nutrients, once the algae consume all the nutrients from the water the algae will die. Over feeding can also cause an algae bloom. Try having the lights on less also. Real plants can be helpful as they compete with the algae for food. Algae is ok in small doses, just clean the glass with rocks with a sponge.

Other than what was already said, maybe add a Molly or another Otocynclus Cat or Plecostomus. Your forum name implies being a mom,so you can do what I did when I was a kid - scrape off some algae and look at it under a microscope. It's neat seeing the living organisms!

If you didn't already have the platy I would say get some barbs that you like. They will eat the algae that you are concerned about. But, how 'bout some different type platy's. They come in a wide variety of colors. Another favorite is fancy guppy's. Some people get a single "centerpiece" fish like an angel or gourami and put larger groups of smaller fish I mentioned around them. A large school of tetras are also pretty. Just keep in mind to slowly stock the fish. A couple at a time. Use their adult size as a gage for stocking limits rather then the size you get them at in the pet store. Another important factor is offspring. Guppies and platy's and the like breed constantly. Be prepared for fry or get only one sex fish. If you get one sex fish, the safer of the two are the males. More often then not the female livebearers you may have purchased are already "expecting".

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to cut back on the amount of food I've been putting in. We went and got another platy, two more oto cats & one more julii cory. The two cories really seem to be liking each other. As far as I can tell anyway. They are so fun to watch.

Maybe I got too confident too early. This evening my two platys have been fighting. At least I think that's what they're doing. They chase each other frantically in circles and I'm not sure if they're biting each other or what they're doing. I don't see any injuries.

What are the sexes? I have had a nasty platy or 2 before. You can try to re arrange decorations and plants etc. Sometimes the platy thats been there longer has "claim" to certain area(s). Changing things around kind of "resets" everything, sometimes.

I don't know if they are male or female. I googled it and attempted to find out but I'm still not real sure. My guess is they are both males. The new platy is a little bit bigger, but it's being picked on by the platy we already had. I kept the bigger platy in the net at the top of the tank overnight and just now let him out this a.m. And the smaller platy went right bak to chasing him around the tank. He doesn't quit either, continuously chasing it back and forth. This is just a 10 gallon tank. There aren't many decorations in it, but I could try rearranging them. He seems to chase him, wherever he's at. I don't have another tank to put one of them in. If this is going to happen with whatever fish I put in there, then I almost should get rid of the small, aggressive one, not the new one. What do you think?

Get a few plants,rocks to put in the tank. This will help no matter what the outcome is. What is the tanks water temp.? Lower water temp.(of course not too low) will help wit aggression somewhat. Check the link below. Notice the bottom fins closest to the tail. The male on the left is pointed and the female right is a fan shape.

Here is a link that might be useful: good platy sexing reference

I'm pretty sure they're both males. They both have the pointy fin. The little one is still harrasing the big one. I do have gravel in the bottom, a 'no fishing' sign, a castle looking thing, another rock/tunnel thing and a fake plant. I have another big coral-looking thing with a big hole in it and another fake plant. They looked gross covered in algae so I took them out and rinsed them off, they just haven't made it back in the tank.

I don't know what I can get that will get along with this platy. I love love the julii corys and would love to have more of them. Should I get one of the platys out of there, both, wait and see, or what?

I guess wait and see. If one starts to look damaged from stress or being nipped then remove the aggressive one. I would bring him back to the LFS and ask for a replacement or refund or just take him off your hands. Platy's are only about $1 so no large financial issue. Platy's do chase each other, it is good to have about 4 of them. The more plants the better, but since you have this algae bloom, I would wait on fake plants because you'll only be cleaning them. Is the algae a brown powdery type stuff? This is very common in new set ups and will take care of itself after a whle (3 months to a year).

Yeah, I think I might get rid of the aggressive platy. I could get some pretty guppies I guess. I'm not sure what else I could get. I just want something nice to watch, something my kids will like and something that will live!! LOL

Guppy's are pretty sturdy fish and don't take up that much on "bio-load". They definately have awesome color and look really nice together. You could probably get another Cory to total 3 in your tank.
So what type of algae are you getting?

I'm not sure if the platys have stopped fighting as much, or I'm just not catching them at it lately. I really thought the bigger one that was getting picked on would be dead by now. I really have no idea about the algae. It looks kinda greenish brownish to me. It's mostly on the rocks but could be on other stuff that's just not as noticeable. I was going to cut way back on the food but the platys really eat like crazy when i put food in. I have some wafer-like things I bought for the corys. There's a picture on the front of the package that looks exactly like our corys so I got it. The platys eat them too. I've only put in one a day. I'm definately going to get some more corys since they are the family's favorite by far.