Aggghhhhhh

[Aquaman2009]

Hi, My 125L tank is now really ugly to look at thanks to a horrible green cloudiness which has developed in it almost over night! I did a 30% water change yesterday and also added some ACCU CLEAR which I bought from the LFS, the guy in the LFS said that a cloudy tank was nothing much to worry about and that the ACCU CLEAR should clear it up in a couple of days, but after the second dose today it looks even worse, could this be a problem with my filter and should I be worried about the fish? the tank is cycled for the past 6 weeks or so and all has been fine up until now, also all my fish seem to be really happy in there despite the cloudiness...

Thanks in advance for any advice, I really don't know what to do!

 

[waterdrop]

Sounds like a green water algae bloom. How many hours of light at what wattage and bulb type?

30% water change sounds "wimpy", are your tap water stats very different from your tank water stats?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[home breeders]

Is your tank near a window ?
or in direct sun light?
water drop sounds right in could be algae growth do you have any algae eaters in there?

when you do your water change do you hoover the gravel?

 

[sic0198]

Don't know how big of a tank you've got but a BN pleco might help ya out.

 

[cowboy507]

50-70% water change, with about 2-3 days of no light, cover the tank with a blanket or towel. i would do another large-ish water change after also.
increased water flow will also help. thats about all you can do though.

 

[Aquaman2009]

Cheers everyone, I assume the chemicals I bought were a waste of money...they don't seem to be working anyway, according to the pack I should have noticed a difference in the first few hours, I have a pleco in there but he's obviously not eating much algae! I guess I'll have to do an 80% water change and see how that goes, my main concern was that it might be harming my fish but they seem quite content in there

 

[Yanks15]

Last one I had, did 30% WC and left light off for 2 days.......all gone

 

[Aquaman2009]

Great advice from everyone here as usual thanks, did the 80% water change last night and now I can see fish in there again (all I could see the evening before were shadows) I might have to do an 80% water change every couple of days for the moment just to stay on top of it but it seems to be on the mend now

Thanks again

 

[OldMan47]

Any recent medications in that tank Aquaman? Some medications will kill off the microscopic life, infusoria, that usually feeds on green water algae and that will release the algae to reproduce out of control producing what you have been seeing. If the infusoria population can recover, the green water will quickly clear up n its own. I have tried and failed repeatedly to grow the stuff to feed my daphnia cultures. The only time I saw any success was with a brand new container that I fertilized and placed outdoors in the sun.

 

[Aquaman2009]

Any recent medications in that tank Aquaman? Some medications will kill off the microscopic life, infusoria, that usually feeds on green water algae and that will release the algae to reproduce out of control producing what you have been seeing. If the infusoria population can recover, the green water will quickly clear up n its own. I have tried and failed repeatedly to grow the stuff to feed my daphnia cultures. The only time I saw any success was with a brand new container that I fertilized and placed outdoors in the sun.

Yes there are Oldman, I've recently treated some of the fish for white spot, thankfully that cleared up fine, I think I used Protozin for that...that was almost two weeks ago but now that you mention it, this problem did only develop after treating the tank with that stuff, the only medication I'm using now since I changed the water is accu-clear but I don't think it's working...

 

[OldMan47]

I have no idea what accu-clear is. Never mind, I googled it and it is a coagulant aid by the description I found. If you are using it to try to combat green water algae, you are wasting your money on that stuff. It is for dust and dirt that need to be clumped together so that the filter can remove them a little easier.

Given a little time with no medications in the tank, the infusoria will recover and the green water will be gone. If you want to speed things a bit, mystery snails are known to carry some infusoria on their shells and in their wastes and do not become pests in your tanks.