green tank

[micha447]

Hello,
I have had my tank for about a year now. About 3 months ago my tank kept getting algea on the glass so my cousin who has had fish his whole life told me to do a complete clean of the tank. So i did that. Then like a week after i did that my water turned green. i have figured out that i must have cleaned the tank and all the good bacteria so that is why the water is green now. I called the local fish store and they told me to do a black out and put in stress zyme in so i have been doing that for about a week now and the water is still green. I am really frustrated. Could someone please tell me what i am suppose to do? I also got the water tested and the first store told me the water was fine. Anyone got an suggestions?

thanks
Michelle

[Osiris]

actually green algae on glass is sign of good tank! just gotta scrap it off, going to need to completely recycle, and get reestablished. Water changes, and don't use chemicals, will help, but water changes your best option.

[shev]

any plants, is the tank in any direct sunlight? clams love the stuff, but that wouldnt fix your algae problem at the root. green water is from algae.

i have figured out that i must have cleaned the tank and all the good bacteria so that is why the water is green now.

never do more than a 50% water change at a time. I dont think that caused the algal bloom since green water likes nitrates, and all the good bacteria ultimately makes nitrates. water changes also remove nitrates.


search the site for more on green water.

[micha447]

ok so how do i fix my problem? what do u mean by water changes? and i have all the blinds shut by my tank. and currently i have a blanket around my tank so it is getting NO sunlight. thank u for all your responses..

[Simoriax]

Originally Posted by micha447 @ Mon May 16, 2005 11:25 pm

ok so how do i fix my problem? ****what do u mean by water changes? ****and i have all the blinds shut by my tank. ****and currently i have a blanket around my tank so it is getting NO sunlight. ****thank u for all your responses..

its when you syphon out some of the water and replace it with fresh water. Should be done once a week. Normally around 10%. What maintenance have you been doing on the tank up till now?

[Pac-Man]

actually, the amount of water changes really depends on the kind of fish you have for the tank. i would expect a tank full of goldfish to have more water changes than 10% a week, since they are big waste producers.

[Osiris]

when u say clean do u mean u took evertything out and washed it including the gravel??

[micha447]

yes i did take everything out of the tank and clean it.... i acutally changed my rocks too. I have been told that i have to recycle my tank but i don't know how to do this with the fish inside the tank. I have not been doing anything with the tank except for blocking out the light. I have only been putting in chemicals to help speed up the process of recycling. The guy even told me to cut back feeding to every third day.

thanks for the help

[Thunderkiss]

Lights out til it's over.

Feed 2X/week.

25% water change EVERY day.

Change the lights to aqua-glo or similar plant oriented light.

Don't turn the lights on til the water clears up.

Be more careful in the future

[Damon]

Anytime you have lots of light+ NH4, you'll get Green water.
If you have NO FL's, I'd suggest a blackout for 4 days.
Don't do lots of water changes unless you also add lots of Excel back and even then, stop doing water changes after you remove some of the GW biomass.

GW will clear up either on it's own(GW prefers CO2 and adding CO2 rich tap water back feeds the algaeYou can buy a UV on ebay for 30-40$ tops.
It'll take 1-2 days a it'll be gone forever.
Mild cases with less light can be beaten with a good water change and then a blackout afterwards.
Light intensity is a a key element in the persistence of Green water.
GW is very common in new tanks (poor CO2, no bacteria backup to convert the NH4=> NO3, not enough plant biomass added from the first day-one of the most common problems for new tanks). Adding mulm and peat at the start will solve this issue as well as adding enough CO2 etc.