New tank, pea soup green algae bloom

[shmoomou]

Hi All,

I've had a 20 gallon Eclipse tank for 6 weeks with The Amphibious Five (3 zebra danios & 2 platys). All was going well untill 2 weeks ago, when brown spots of algae started growing on the walls, ceramics and fake rocks 'n' plants. At water changes I'd take all the decorations out and scrub and microwave in water.

I've been changing 20% water every 2 weeks and the ammonia/nitrite world is happily 0, the ph is 7.0, temp is 80. Hardness is 6. (My inner chemist made me get a water tester kit).

After a couple of days, I've got nearly impenetrable green soup water. I changed the Eclipse filter and started reading up on algae. Sweet Young Thing at the lfs suggested I keep the flourescent light off for a couple days and do 10% changes every day.

Of course I want to call out the border patrol and order a protein skimmer and a UV sterilizer, but in FreshwaterLand I've seen very little mention of these devices. I found a post somewhere on this forum that UV sterilizers are "good for discus's", but not other fish.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for clarifying my tank? I sure miss watching my new friends swim!

Thanks in advance,
ShmooMou

 

[Changes-In-Latitude]

The best way I've ever cleared up greenwater is by using daphnia but unfortunatley fish love to eat daphnia.
Any chance you could get a test for nitrates and phosphates? If one or both of these are high then keeping them in check will go along way towards an algae free tank.

 

[Jen]

I've never had green water, but I have encountered cloudy water. You might want to try awater treatment for clearing up cloudy water. I use soemthing called brite 'n' clear - cant remember a brand name. It clumps together floating particles that are too small for your filter to hold on to. It makes them large enough to get stuck in a carbon/sleeve filter, but I would imagine it would work for other kinds of filters as well. When I use it, I rinse out the filter every day. Normally in a week the water is crystal clear!

Hope that helps!

 

[shmoomou]

Hey --

thanks for the suggestions! (daphnia brings me back to grammar school!)

Shmoomou

 

[JamesTasker]

When I had green water, i used an algeacide in a sort of teabag, stopped using my plant food, and left the lights off for a couple of days, then gradually introduced them again starting with 2 hours a day for a few days. I didn't change my water change routine because other sources seemed at disagreement as to whether or not to change water. It cleared up in about 10 days.

 

[thecichlidaddict]

Hey shmoomou

Does the tank tank get any sunlight?

I don't recommend using chemicals if you can help it. Instead, do a water change of 25% and then cover the tank completely with hthe lights off for 3 days. Don't feed the fish during this time.

Protein skimmers are a waste of money in the fresh water world, and UV almost as much. If you are going to spend money on equipment to help this type of problem, you need to look into a diatom filter. Befor you spend the money though, keep in mind that they are a pain to maintain, and pretty useless on a healthy tank.

Meanwhile it's a good idea to try to figure out why this has happened. If the tank is not in sunlight, then checking for nitrates and phospates is a good start.

 

[susangc]

It's amazing how quickly your tank can change from the barest green (gee, is that algae?) to total soup

My daughter's 29-gallon stayed soupy through several cleanings and many severe water changes. The only reason we didn't panic is that the fish didn't seem to mind

Ultimately, my daughter rebuilt the tank -- which slowed it down but didn't eliminate it! After that, we did a 75% water change, shut the lights off, and gave the rebuilt tank a one-time dose with algae-killer. Neither the fish (several catfish) nor the plants (two Java ferns) seemed to mind. She's a lot more careful about the lights now.

Susan