Green Water Came Back. Argh.

[mark.w.jones]

Well my friend has black gravel that looks REALLY good, so maybe i could put some black gravel at the bottom and have the occasional larger rocks that i already have on it?

I have black gravel in my 125l 33US Gal tank. Looks fab and I believe that fish feel more secure swimming over it as they don't stand out as much as they do on lighter gravel. I'm sure I read somewhere that certain species do a lot better on a darker coloured gravel. The only downside is that it is expensive to buy, as it tends to only come in small bags so you have to buy loads. Try and get one with quite a small consistancy, <3mm as plants will root much better. Avoid the smooth, polished looking larger stoned stuff that can usually be found in the same range as flourescent orange and blue

 

[tamara]

Alright, thanks! I was hoping.. i wouldn't have to spend much money, but i guess i'll have to.

 

[tamara]

Okay, well before i bought the plants, and new gravel [at the moment i don't have the money]
I deceided to change all the water and clean everything and hope for not a mini cycle
-but luckily last time i didn't get one
and now i've narrowed my list of species down a little
[i found out i had more guppies hiding...there were AT least 10-15 of them]
so now its:
2angel fish,
5cories [3albino-2peppered] and
1 guppy [the prettiest one i had left]

-so i'm hoping that perhaps it was because i suddenly put so many fish in the tank
and that maybe cleaning out the whole tank would get rid of all the crap & the algae
Also just for maybe a week i'm not going to put th rocks back down on the ground,
because i found i was overfeeding the fish as there were lots of bits of food leftover under the rocks
and this way i'll be able to tell if i'm over feeding them if there's food on the ground still
(I feel i need to feed them more because or else the cories won't have any more food left to eat - i feed flakes&shrimp pellets)

 

[pandacichlid]

Your green water is purely and simply down to over stocking and fluctuating ammonia levels and will continue to keep coming back if you don't make some adjustments. Guppies breed like anything and will soon over run a small tank like yours. You need to get more ruthless with culling fry or consider keeping all males or all females. Again the Angels are really not suitable for that tank and bought as a impulse buy rather than with proper planning.

You need to have a rethink. If it was me I would return the Angels and go for all male guppies if you like them. Either that or consider keeping something other than livebearers. Good options for a small tank are danios, rasboras, tetras, corys, shrimp. Unless you change you stocking then the algae bloom is very likely to return.

To get rid of the green water once you have thought about your stocking try a 3 day blackout with a few towels followed by a large water change.

Incidently what are your levels for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, temp. + how long are lights on for, what are you feeding + how much and what is your maintainance schedule?

I agree with this dude, overstocking maybe the cause. I've never had a problem with green water. Obviously do frequent water changes to help it, that's as much as I can advise

 

[tamara]

Hey i'm not sure if you read the post above yours,
but i just wrote that i cleaned out the whole thing and etc.
[just read the one above yours- or re-read it if you already have]

 

[tamara]

and so i just went home to check on my fish tank [it's @my moms house, and i'm @my dads house for a few weeks-my brother/mom are feeding the fish]The tanks looks like the water is crystal clear, only thing is that my brother was leaving the light on full time, so i decided to shut it off and only let natural sunlight be used as some lighting until i get back home to them! I checked the water stats, and everythings normal [Yay no mini-cycle from completly cleaning the whole tank!]