Cleaning All Of The Tank Due To Nonstop Greenwater

[tamara]

I've had non stop algea for the past 3-4 months, i've used chemicals blahblahblah...everything, and the guy at the petstore told me to first try scrubbing everything before i spend $100+ on a UV sterilizer.. he said to use 1 part bleach, to 10parts water, and to soak the gravel and the plants [fake] in that for an hour then rinse and rinse and rinse them, but do i do the same to the tank walls? and etc.
i have [yes i know to many fish]
but i've got asbout 60 guppies [10-15 adults] and 3 cory catfish, and one bristlenose pleco in a 20 gallon tank
i'm trying to get rid of some of the fish...but i'm also going to go through them when i clean the tank and get rid of some of the small fry, and some of the deformed ones and etc. because it is way to many. plus my lfs won't take them back.

Please help me!
thanks, tamara

 

[Davidtq]

Get a single angelfish in and that will cure your guppy over population issues

Have you checked tap water nitrate levels and cut back on feeding? You also want to check out your lighting too much lighting for too long a time is asking for algae bloom problems. your problem isnt in the tank its in the way its being run, no amount of scrubbing will cure a problem caused by over feeding over stocking or over lighting.

 

[tamara]

i was thinking of buying an angel fish too...the guy at the lfs said it'll just add more fish to my problem..he knew some things, but i definetly knew more than him so i don't think i should trust him.
I've tried blackouts and not feeding them for 24 hours and all that stuff....it's not working.

 

[rdd1952]

I remember he other thread and I don't think cleaning the tank will eliminate the GW problem unless you do get rid of some of the fish. Also, unless you can keep the filter running and add ammonia to keep the bacteria fed, you are going to be in a big mess because you will have 60 fish in an uncycled tank where ammonia could easily be over 3 or 4 ppm in a single day. You will be looking at 50% plus water changes a couple times a day. I don't know if that is worth the pricce of a UV sterilizer or not but it will be a lot of work.

he said to use 1 part bleach, to 10parts water, and to soak the gravel and the plants [fake] in that for an hour then rinse and rinse and rinse them, but do i do the same to the tank walls? and etc.

As for cleaning, you will have to clean everything and really includes the filter too. I wouldn't wate my time cleaning the gravel as number 1, it will take you forever to clean it completely and number 2 it will also be extremely difficult to get all the leach rinsed off. I guess it would about be the same thing with the artificial plants too.

It may work out fine to take it down and clean it good but keeping the filter and bacteria colony intact is a must. Otherwise, you will most likely be getting rid of some fish but not in a way you really want to.

Edit: The only way adding an angel fish to the tank would help with the guppies is if you get a mature (at least 4") angel fish. Large ones can sometimes be expensive and I don't know if it could handle the water situation either. They need good water parameters. Thats not to say that green water is necessarily bad as usually it doesn't really cause a problem with the fish but it is something to consider.

 

[tamara]

hmm well i've got quite a large pot with most of the guppies in there and a seperate bowl for th epleco and cories, and i'm going to i think put the filters in there while i clean to tank

 

[Davidtq]

i was thinking of buying an angel fish too...the guy at the lfs said it'll just add more fish to my problem..he knew some things, but i definetly knew more than him so i don't think i should trust him.
I've tried blackouts and not feeding them for 24 hours and all that stuff....it's not working.

How long a black out did you try?

Give it 3 days without lights or food, do a good water change every otehr day and see if things look better on the 4th day, dont buy an angel just yet it will add to your problems at the moment, I dont think you want to strip your tank at the momentyou want to get things to settle down, your fish will happily go a week or two without food without any ill effects (the fry might have more of a problem tahn adults but not likelly) Do not on the fourth day go back to your normal routine you need to access then what state teh tanks in, you need to redo your tank nitrate readings etc. Remember fish are still going to be producing waste for a while after their last feeding so 24 hours isnt likely to cause much of a drop in overall nitrate production.

You need to work on the amount of nitrate and phosphate in the tank, the amount of nutrients being produced, the amount of light for photo synthesis as well as getting rid of the current algae problems. Chemicals you really dont want to be adding, rarely do any good over a more a natural and patient approach.

 

[tamara]

i tried the blackout for 4 days actually, didn't change a single bit, i've done 80% water changes, within 2 days it's back to green and etc.
So i think i'm going to clean everything in my tank...but i'm not going to do the bleaching, and i'm only going to rinse my filters in tank water.

 

[rdd1952]

I think she has tried about everything. Her exploits were pretty well covered in this thread a while back. I think the conclusion there was that a sterilizer was about the only solution. I guess the start over option is another but I'm not sure if it will solve the problem or not.

i'm only going to rinse my filters in tank water.

I think I would rinse them in a bucket of clean, dechlorinated water instead of the tank water. That is he biggest down side to using the filter (or anything else that is currently in thetank) again without sanitizing it. You could be putting the algae seed right back in the tank.

 

[tamara]

Okay, but won't that make me have to restart the cycle again?
also i'm going through and have found about 30 ttiny baby fry....byebye fishies, they're gone down the drain.
I just took out the ones that are big enough to be seen without squinting.
Also one of my cory catfish have i guess disintegrated? not there so that makes me only ahve 2 of those..it's strange.

 

[tamara]

Just wanted to tell you, i cleaned everything off and boiled gravel etc. [no bleach]
and it's sparkling clean, i just hope it stays that way...and hope that it doesn't start a new cycle,
which actually..i'm pretty sure it will start a new cycle

 

[rdd1952]

Cleaning the gravel won't have any effect on the bacteria unless you have an under gravel filter. If you kept the filter running or at least wet (provided it wasn't for more than a few hours) for the time it took you to clean everything, it should be fine with only a minimal lose of bacteria and probably not even a mini cycle.

 

[tamara]

yeah...i kept it on in a bucket running, but i rinsed it in dechlorinated water [not tank water]

 

[The-Wolf]

you said that you tried chemicals did you try Sera aquariclear?
it is specifically aimed at greenwater (which is a free floating algae) and really does work

 

[djceri_g]

Have you got your tank in direct synlight? This could cause algae problems.

If your getting an Angel to eat fry, why dont you try having a breeding hatch and try seperating the male/female when old enought to know the ssex

 

[Lynda B]

Please don't ever put fish down a drain. It's really bad for the eco-system.