Neon Green Water

[dolphinsfan]

I am having a problem with a 20 gallon tank. The water is neon green and you cannot see through the water. This has been happening for about a month. About 3 weeks ago, I started doing daily 5 gallon water changes and it got much better. I had Nitrates down to 10ppm and it was clearing up. I was unable to do any changes for about 3 days and now it is back and as bad as ever.

I read that this was caused by an algae bloom which is caused by excess lights and nutrients. I've cut the lights down to 5 hrs per day and haven't added anything to promote growth. What should I do?

[OrionGirl]

What's in the tank, how often and how much are you feeding, water parameters?

[dolphinsfan]

It is a tank with about 8 adult guppies and probably a dozen babies, and 2 clown loachs. Tank has live plants and had a lot of snails. I got the 2 loachs to take care of snail problem (plants were getting mauled and lots of debris all over). Right after is when it started to clean up.

Last test had ph about 6.8 and nitrates around 10ppm. I feed flake mostly.

[OrionGirl]

Look at your food--many foods include a lot of phosphates, and this will encourage algae growth. Adding more plants may help, but not with only 5 hours of light--the algae can benefit more from this than can the plants. I would do several large water changes, and see if you can get some mulm from a healthy planted aquarium to introduce more of the critters that will consume the green water.

On the plus side, I bet your baby guppies are fat and happy! You could probably go 2-3 days without feeding, and the babies willbe fine. Might help clear up the green water as well.

[Fresh04]

GO PHINS! :D

[dolphinsfan]

How can you tell which foods have more or less phosphates?