Green cloudy water!! HELP!!

[PurpleButterflies]

I need help. We have a 125 gallon fresh water tank. We have about 10 - 15 fish in it. One upside down cat and the rest are different types of Tetras. The nitrates and amonia are fine, the PH is a little higher then I like, not quite 8. We have been having to do water changes about every other week. We were doing about a third, the last change we actually did about 2/3rds water change. We have tried putting the water through a filter to see if that would help, it didn't. We have cleaned all the "decorations" in the tank, that didn't help. We had a couple algea eatters, they died. We had a couple albino cats, they died. The fish that are in there now have been in the tank since the tank was about six weeks old. The tank has been set up since late May of 2003. It was clear for awhile and then the algea started growing. We really don't have the algea growing on stuff now we just have green water. We have tried all the different products out there to help control algrea and also to clear up cloudy tanks. Nothing seems to work and after water changes it still doesn't clear up. We have at times changed the water two weeks in a row trying to help it. I am amazed we have any fish left. Both my husband and myself have had tanks most of our lives. Before we moved to our new house we had a Salt water tank (which was my third one) and we were very successful with that tank. The biggest fresh water tank either of us have had was a 75 gallon. I just don't know what to do, we are at a loss. If anyone has any ideas of what to do PLEAASE PLEEEASE let me know. I do not want to add any more fish till we get this under control, also who can enjoy a tank when you really can't even see the fish. We went on vacation for a week and when we came back the tank was so green and cloudy that you could not see the fish at all. We did a water change and all it did was make it less green so that we could see the fish when we looked hard. Anyway I will stop for now and hope someone can help us.
Thank-you

 

[semper fi]

what type of filtration are you using on this tank and what kind of medium? is the tank in sunlight? algae eaters will only eat algae that is attached or growing on stuff. also how long do you keep the lights on in your tank?

 

[Lithril]

Do you have any living plants in the tank that could try and outcompete the algae. Ok 100% sure on this so someone else will have to confirm or correct but you could try buying a UV pre-filter for the tank this should kill off the algae?

 

[Mogo]

From what I know Lithril, a UV sterilizer is supposed to kill off the algae. I have no experience with them, but I would think that the dead algae particles would continue to float in the water, too small to be trapped in regular filter media. And if the water is as green as Purplebutterflies is describing, I would be concerned about the added organic load of the floating dead algae. My best suggestion would be to run a diatom filter on the tank. It may take a couple or a few recharges of the diatom powder if the problem is bad, but it will remove the algae from the water. Diatoms are a little costly, so maybe you could borrow one, if you know someone with one that's close by. I recently purchased one with money I got for my birthday, and was able to finally win my losing battle with the copepod problem in my 72 gallon.

 

[Lithril]

Actually didn't think of the diatom, personally if I had the problem I could borrow some micro filters from work but I don't know where you can get them in the shops.

 

[Cian McLiam]

Have you tested the water for phosphates and nitrates, and also the tap water???
What figures are you geting if you have?
The algae needs two things if it is to survive and take over the tank like what you are describing:
Source of food.
Plenty of light.
It also has to compete with normal aquarium plants for food, and while ading more plants wont cure the problem it may help speed up a cure. What I did when this happend in my tank was:
Removed some plants to another aquarium and leave hardy, deep water plants that dont need much light. Added floating plants, Salvinia.
Cut out tank lights completely for 5 days, didnt open the blinds in the morning before going to work as I normally would. Changed 10% water daily with tap water which was de-ionised.
You say you are now carying out water changes every second week. What were you changing before? Every other week is far too long IMHO. Especially if you change more than 20% at a time.
5-10% daily would be far better to help cure the problem.
Add a polyfilter sheet to your filter, it removes phosphates, nitrates and turns dark brown to show organics being removed.

Hope this helps,

Ken

PS Algae Destroyer liquids, tablets etc were probably developed by Saddam Hussein and should be de-commisioned immediately!!