Is Algae Causing My Water To Turn Green?!?

[BettaAsh]

My fresh water tank has raised my goldfish for years, they are massive and healthy. 3 boys and 1 girl.
Lately, my water is starting to get a green tinge to it... is this caused from Algae or something else?
The fish don't seem to be bothered, but I don't want it to turn into something that may kill them!!

 

 Appreciate any help I can get!
 

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Is it the glass that is green or the actual water?

 

[BettaAsh]

Its the water itself. The tank is in the lounge, it had a few small windows, but nothing direct.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Hmm, I've forgotten the name for it. I think its something like diatoms (?).
I think the easiest way to remove it (I may be wrong) is lots of water changes and having filter floss and carbon (?) in the filter. 

 

[daizeUK]

I've never heard of either filter floss or carbon removing algae before!
Diatoms are a brown algae which tend to stick to surfaces.  Green water is just called green water
Water changes will clear the water short term but it will be back if the cause is not addressed.  Blackout or a UV sterilizer are the accepted methods of dealing with green water.  Anyway it won't hurt your fish.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

I've never heard of either filter floss or carbon removing algae before!

 
Filter floss helped clear my algae, but I wasn't sure about the carbon...
 
 

 Green water is just called green water

 
Really?  I was thinking it was called something else lol.
 
Anyway, thank you for correcting me

 

[BettaAsh]

Thanks

 

[StevenF]

There are species of algae that are microscopic and float in the water. Worst case they can turn the water into a dark green and you might not be able to see clearly through the tank. Quick things that can be done are more frequent and larger water changes and do a deep vacuum with a syphon of the substrate to remove as much organic material as possible from it. These things reduce the nutrient content of the water making it harder for algae to grow. Activated carbon will also reduce nutrient levels in a tank but is is more selective on which ones it removes while the others reduce all nutrient levels.

Filter floss is basically removes very fine particles from the water including bacteria and algae floating in it. A UV sterilizer has a small pump that circulates water slowly past a UVC light. UVC light will kill all bacteria and algae floating in the water. The light is only inside the filter so your fish and plant outside the filter will not be affected by the UV. Floss and UV can rapidly clear the water. However they should be done with other methods to reduce the nutrient load in the water to minimize or slow the growth rate of the algae as much as possible.

 

[jafred]

i doubt you'll want to go through effort of a uv sterilizer for a simple goldfish tank. Do a 70% water change gravel vac thoroughly replace the filter floss and then do another smaller water change tomorrow and next day.
Keep changing that filter floss regularily