Algae in ACF tank

[Gemma]

I forgot I posted this. Thanks for the replies. My tank lights broke this week so it might stop growing so much until I replace the light unit :/

My tank isn't new but until recently I hardly ever turned on the lights. My flat is full of large windows that light up the rooms and tank so well that the tank lights aren't necessary. I've never had a spot of any kind of algae in this tank. A few days before it started to appear, I started turning the tank lights on for 7 hours a day because I added some live plants (just floating water wisteria). I added sand to the tank just over a month ago as well, so that might have contributed, although the brown algae didn't appear until I started turning on the lights for the water wisteria 3 weeks later.

When my lights are working again, would adding loads of plants to the tank help? That was what I was planning on doing anyway before the algae appeared and my lights broke.

Right now it is probably a combination of overfeeding (which leads to extra poo) + not enough filtration + too much light + water not changed frequently or enough water changed in possibly too small a tank or too over stocked a tank....


Can you give a run down to remind us about size in gallons/liters, how many and how large the ACF are, type of filtration, feeding, how often and how large the water changes, how many/types of live plants, lighting type and duration....

The tank is 180 litres (47.5 US gal).
I'm keeping 3 ACF in there. They're only about 2 inches long, not including legs.
I'm using an external canister filter (for tanks up to 300L) and also an internal filter (for tanks up to 300L too, I think).
I usually feed them live earthworms every 2 days. One or 2 each depending on the worm size.
25% water changes every week.
No live plants other than water wisteria. I'm going to add loads more when I get my lights working again.
The tank just has two 30W T8 bulbs. I started keeping the lights on for 7 hours a day just before the brown algae appeared.