Phosphate Algae Phosphate algae

[vinny]

Hello all. My names Vince and I'm new here, but not necessarily to the aquarium. I have a big problem! I have a new 90 gallon tank that has a 4" Jack, 2 pictus cats 2.5", 1 4.5" Lima shovel nose, 4 giant danios, a striped rapheal cat and a short bodied cat(kinda like a cory). Oh yeah, maybe a 3" banjo cat. My problem is that I have GREEN water. Yeah I know lots of people have green water but bare with me and I will explain. The tank and set up is about 3 months old and about 1 month ago the water starts changing to green. I have changed the water countless amounts of times (never less than 40%) but in a matter of a day or two its back green. I have checked the phosphate and its terrible. I mean the little card in the test kit goes from clear to dark blue. Mine is worse than worst on the chart! So I buy this stuff in a bag the pet store recommended, some kind of granules in a mesh bag that is supposed to absorb phosphate but it is failing badly. This stuff is actually for a outdoor pond but it can't even handle a 90 gallon tank! By the way all the fish seem to be very happy and lively but I am not enjoying my tank right know very much.

Thanks for listening

P.S. The tap water only showes very small traces of phosphate

Vince

 

[steelhealr]

Hi....issues here include:
1)overfeeding...the food can contain phosphates
2)overlighting..how long are your lights on?
3)does your tank get direct light from a window?
4)phosphates
5) do you have any live plants? adding some easy ones could help outcompete the algae for nutrients
Without knowing the answers I would definitely continue a phosphate remover for know. Are you adding anything else to the tank? SH

 

[guppygirl]

Hi vinny, welcome to TFF!!
If your tap water is very low in phosphates, it's something that you're adding to the tank. Do you have charcoal in your filter?
What food do you use, what things do you add to your water, anything.

 

[jimbooo]

remember the phosphate remover is like a chemical sponge. it is designed to keep phosphate low in an average tank.

yours already has a high reading so as soon as you put it in it'll soak up all the phosphate it can up to its saturation limit. at which point you need to throw it out and add another bag.

if say ideal phos is 0.05ppm and you have 50ppm the bag you put in will take it down to 40ppm and then be saturated. without replacing with fresh phosphate remover it'll never absorb any more.

what you need to do is 25% water change (with gravel vac) every other day till you've done about 8 of them.

THEN put the phosphate remover in. you'll probably be down to say 10ppm and at this point it'll be able to cope with the job it's designed for.

when you are down to an acceptable level change the bag one more time with fresh phos remover and it should stay stable for at least 6 months (providing you dont over feed/fish out any dead fish or plants)

i'm not sure which brand your using but i can recommend "Rowaphos" i use it in both my tanks and replace when the readings start to rise. i generally keep it to 0.05ppm without much effort.

hope that makes sence

ps: have you got any non aquatic plants in there. they rot very slowly and give off tons of phosphate in the process??

 

[vinny]

I do have live plants that seem to be doing pretty well but I'm not sure what the names of them are. I know I have a banana plant and a amazon sword plant, also I believe one is a water hysteria(?) and some type of potted grass I just got from Petco. As for the phosphorus remover (bags of grainuals) It said it was good for up to 1500 gallons. I just put it in there about 2 or 3 weeks ago and it was like $20 bucks. I have cut the lights down to 5 to 6 hours a day. I just came home to check on everything and walk the dog when I see that one of my pictus cats is swimming around drunk like and kinda stressed looking (great. another problem) which is drawing the attention of the jack. I just tested for amonia, nitite, and nitrate which all were fine. I don't seem to remember ever having this much trouble out of an aquarium in the past. It there are anymore ideas keep them coming.

Thanks
vince