Green Water

[MHunt]

I have green water in my goldfishes tank, I thought originally it was my under gravel filter that was producing loads of nitrates to feed the algae spores, but after a complete tank strip down, the green soup has returned within about a week. I have a small power filter running too but i didn't clean that completely to preserve the bacteria colony after the UGF was cleaned out. The tank is a 10 gal aqua one 320 and is home to a lovely gold fantail.

My question is should i use an algae killing med to clear the green water, or does anyone have any other suggestions?

Thanks, MHunt.

 

[GoldLenny]

DO NOT USE ALGAE KILLING CHEMICALS IN YOUR TANK. There is no need for it as the green water is a temporary thing caused by an imbalance in the ecology of your tank.

When you did the complete "strip down", you actually messed things up even more. You may have "cycling" issues to deal with so please check daily for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and post your numbers so we can help. Any time your ammonia gets over 0.5ppm, you should do a 25% PWC (partial water change) to lower the ammonia. This may mean doing multiple 25% PWC's every couple of hours until the water is safe again. For nitrites, if and when you start getting them, add just a pinch of salt to your tank to protect against nitrite poisoning but you should also do 25% PWC's whenever your nitrites get over 0.5ppm to keep them at non-dangerous levels. Anything over 0.0ppm for ammonia or nitrites means your tank is re-"cycling" (The Nitrogen Cycle).

For a single fancy goldfish, 10G really is not enough water so you will have to do 25% PWC's every couple of days if you want to keep from having algae or water quality issues. You should also vacuum your gravel really good to remove all detritus from the gravel as the decaying detritus is putting out lots of nutrients which feed the algae also. You should also do filter maintenance at least once a week. Here is my blog article on doing filter maintenance so you do not kill off all of your good bacteria in the filter system. http/goldlenny.blogspot.com/2007/02/noti...-important.html

My long term suggestion for you and your goldfish is to get at least a 30G long tank (not a 29 tall) but if you can find a 55G 4' long, that would be even better to give your big guy some swimming and growing room.

 

[MHunt]

I'm quite happy that there is enough bacteria going on in the small power filter to continue the nitrogen cycle until the under gravel filter gets itself going again. This goldfish is the most hardy of all my fish, and has previously survived a small completely uncycled bowl, so a little ammonia and nitrite if my tank does have a mini spike probably won't and so far hasn't worried it.

I really don't have the space to get a 4' tank for a single goldfish and i won't part with it as i have had it for years now, before i really understood about fishkeeping.

I understand how the green water is produced, but i'm a little confused how i can stop it. One thing that has just sprung to mind, is i removed a couple of the amazon swords to use in my planted nano about a month ago, their removal may have freed up nutrients for the algae to feed on. I may have to go and get some more to compensate. I will make an effort to increase the water changes on the tank too.

Any other suggestions would be great.

 

[The-Wolf]

you can add Nutrafin clear particulate (the blue bottle, not the pink/red bottle)

it works within a few hours (says 1 on the label), is safe for filter bacteria.
it works be making the green algae particles clump together, thus allowing your filter to trap them.

I do advise adding new floss to the filter before using it and throwing it away after the tank is clear.
if you have an internal that only uses sponges, remove those from the filter but keep them in the tank
(thus keeping the bacteria alive) and fill the filter with floss.

 

[Chubbywubs]

or just add a carbon pad to your filter, it fixed it for me.


I've also tried the green algae control, it doesnt actually kill anything, it simply causes it to clump together so your have to maintain your filter everyone so often until the waters clear.


It was called "King British Green water control" which is probably your best option as it wont effect your filter bacteria at all.

 

[MHunt]

you can add Nutrafin clear particulate (the blue bottle, not the pink/red bottle)

it works within a few hours (says 1 on the label), is safe for filter bacteria.
it works be making the green algae particles clump together, thus allowing your filter to trap them.

I do advise adding new floss to the filter before using it and throwing it away after the tank is clear.
if you have an internal that only uses sponges, remove those from the filter but keep them in the tank
(thus keeping the bacteria alive) and fill the filter with floss.

Thanks for that Wolf. I knew there was some stuff out there. I saw the Interpet Green Water Control the other day, i've also seen the nutrafin clear particulate, i may even have had some of that free with PFK the other month. I have space for filter floss in my power filter, like you say i could put it in instead of the filter sponges to clear the water, then remove them once it's clear.

or just add a carbon pad to your filter, it fixed it for me.


I've also tried the green algae control, it doesnt actually kill anything, it simply causes it to clump together so your have to maintain your filter everyone so often until the waters clear.


It was called "King British Green water control" which is probably your best option as it wont effect your filter bacteria at all.

Thank's for the reply Chubbywubs. I did try adding carbon to the filter before i noticed the cloudiness as green water but it didn't do anything. I'll try the King British treatment next if the nutrafin stuff doesn't work.

I think i'll get some more amazon swords too, I think their removal trigered the algae bloom. They were probably keeping the excess nutrients at bay and taking them out allowed the algae to take over.

 

[Chubbywubs]

Are the amazon swords, ornaments? if so adding them back will just disturb what evers in the gravel even more so and it wont do you any favours.

 

[The-Wolf]

I saw the Interpet Green Water Control the other day, i've also seen the nutrafin clear particulate,

I've used both and I hate to say it Nutrafins is far better than Interpets
another good one, but expensive is Sera aquariclear(sp) but not many places stock that.

 

[MHunt]

Are the amazon swords, ornaments? if so adding them back will just disturb what evers in the gravel even more so and it wont do you any favours.

Not ornaments, real plants. It ties in well, I only really started to notice the green water after i removed one of the plants. That is probably the in-balance in the ecology that GoldLenny was talking about.

 

[Chubbywubs]

or just the boom in oxygen, Alage need light and Oxygen most of all, so removing the plants has created an increased level of oxygen within the tank. So yeah just add them back, or maybe turn down your air filter.

 

[GoldLenny]

It's not Oxygen that grows the algae. It's the increased CO2 levels, light and nutrients. Removing live plants will result in more CO2 and nutrients available for algae but I don't think it would happen overnight.

I would just do daily 25% PWC's and increase the aeration and/or surface agitation in the tank. This allows for better gas exchange at the surface allowing the CO2 to escape from the water. The lower CO2 levels and fresh clean lower-nutrient water would do more than chemicals, IMO. And it's better for your fish too. You could also have an elevated level of detritus in your substrate that is decaying and putting out carbonic acid (& CO2) so you might want to vacuum your substrate wherever you don't have any plants.

Then watch how much you feed your fish and what you feed them. Stick to low phosphates food and have your tap water checked for phosphate levels... or call your utility to see if they have higher nitrates/phosphate levels during the spring and summer due to farm run-off. Many rural communities suffer from this dilemma.