Ive been working at a small lfs for almost a year now, and my least favorite questioin has become "my water keeps turning green, and it wont go away". Of course, almost all of the people who ask say the tank isnt by sunlight, and the nitrates arent high. People say they will change most of the water and it will just come back. I myself have never had a green algea bloom, but other than suggesting they try an algea killing product, what else is there? What can cause green algea blooms (green water), and whats the best way to get rid of it?
Advice to give on algea blooms?
- Thread starter nvan2
- Start date
Consistant maintenance! The nitrates won'tbe high, simply because all the algae is sucking them up. Maintaining the tank consistantly, rather than uge dramatic measures when something goes terribly wrong, will go a long way in preventing an algae bloom in the first place.
ammonia
It might be ammonia, not nitrates.
Several possibilities;
1) Filtration -- pads or media too dirty, they have not cleaned the impeller or tubing so flow is restricted, or the filter is too small for tank or for the current bioload as fish have spawned and/or grown.
You need to quiz them on the tank, the bioload, and their filtration and cleaning methods. Sell them a set of filter cleaning brushes, a bigger filter, or a new tank to house baby fish. Perhaps they want less expensive cartridges, some HOB filters can be converted to sponge or pads rather than expensive cartridges.
2) Ammonia is from their water supply -- have them test for chloramines. Take a gallon of tap water in a jug, test for ammonia, should be zero. Treat with their water conditioner per directions, test for ammonia again. If they see any ammonia, then the condtioner is breaking chloramine into ammonia and chlorine, but ammonia is not treated and so is there to grow algae.
You need to sell them an ammonia test kit or Ammonia Alert to see if ammonia is an issue, maybe a new water conditioner.
3) Ammonia from excess feeding -- if excess food hits the gravel and is not gone in a few minutes they are feeding too much. Likely that the gravel is packed with rotting food and feces. Feed fish only as much as one fish eyeball per fish per day, no food on one day a week. Food may be fouling and fish may not be eating it, food older than 6 months has lost nutrients.
Sell them a gravel vac system to use weekly, and a fresh small container of food, have them date it with a marker when they get home so it is tossed out in 6 months if not consumed.
4) Ammonia is from rotting plants -- many of the plants sold in pet stores are not actually aquatic plants and they will slowly decay in the tank. In addition, any aquatic plant will slowly decay if lighting is inadaquate or if there is no fertilization when lighting is good. Some bulbs may be rotting in the tank if they are not growing well.
Ask about the plants they have, if they are growing, if they have good lighting, correct fertilizers. They may need more lights or different plants. They may need to add CO2 to help plants cope with high light.
5) Alage requires light -- have them turn the tank lights off when they are not there to enjoy the tank. Close the window shades to reduce lighting during the day. Sell them a light timer, set on 6 hours or less, when they are home.
6) Nitrates -- they may say nitrates are "OK" but do they know? Dip strips are often inaccurate. Nitrates ought to be below 20 ppm. Water changes are the best way to reduce nitrates. Sell them a good test kit and a Python water change kits so they can do larger water changes more often and more easily.
7)Overcrowding and over feeding -- too many people look at the tanks in the fish store and think that is a proper stocking density. They do not realize how many hundreds of gallons of water are behind the wall in that central filtration system, and how large the fiter is. Nor do they understand the death rates that the store experiences daily.
You need to explain about proper stocking levels, 1" of fish per gallon is only a starting point. Many other things need to be taken into account, ask the details and advise them. If you overstock you MUST also overfilter and overdo waterchanges. An overstocked tank is more unstable, any small thing (power failure, missed cleaning, accidental overfeeding) is likely to lead to disease and death -- Mother Nature will unstock the tank if the owner will not.
Offer to buy back baby fish, or sell them another tank.
8) Medications may have hurt biofiltration -- ask if they have used chemicals in the tank. If they have used medications, they may end up totally recycling. They will need to moniter tests and change water until that reestablishes.
It might be ammonia, not nitrates.
Several possibilities;
1) Filtration -- pads or media too dirty, they have not cleaned the impeller or tubing so flow is restricted, or the filter is too small for tank or for the current bioload as fish have spawned and/or grown.
You need to quiz them on the tank, the bioload, and their filtration and cleaning methods. Sell them a set of filter cleaning brushes, a bigger filter, or a new tank to house baby fish. Perhaps they want less expensive cartridges, some HOB filters can be converted to sponge or pads rather than expensive cartridges.
2) Ammonia is from their water supply -- have them test for chloramines. Take a gallon of tap water in a jug, test for ammonia, should be zero. Treat with their water conditioner per directions, test for ammonia again. If they see any ammonia, then the condtioner is breaking chloramine into ammonia and chlorine, but ammonia is not treated and so is there to grow algae.
You need to sell them an ammonia test kit or Ammonia Alert to see if ammonia is an issue, maybe a new water conditioner.
3) Ammonia from excess feeding -- if excess food hits the gravel and is not gone in a few minutes they are feeding too much. Likely that the gravel is packed with rotting food and feces. Feed fish only as much as one fish eyeball per fish per day, no food on one day a week. Food may be fouling and fish may not be eating it, food older than 6 months has lost nutrients.
Sell them a gravel vac system to use weekly, and a fresh small container of food, have them date it with a marker when they get home so it is tossed out in 6 months if not consumed.
4) Ammonia is from rotting plants -- many of the plants sold in pet stores are not actually aquatic plants and they will slowly decay in the tank. In addition, any aquatic plant will slowly decay if lighting is inadaquate or if there is no fertilization when lighting is good. Some bulbs may be rotting in the tank if they are not growing well.
Ask about the plants they have, if they are growing, if they have good lighting, correct fertilizers. They may need more lights or different plants. They may need to add CO2 to help plants cope with high light.
5) Alage requires light -- have them turn the tank lights off when they are not there to enjoy the tank. Close the window shades to reduce lighting during the day. Sell them a light timer, set on 6 hours or less, when they are home.
6) Nitrates -- they may say nitrates are "OK" but do they know? Dip strips are often inaccurate. Nitrates ought to be below 20 ppm. Water changes are the best way to reduce nitrates. Sell them a good test kit and a Python water change kits so they can do larger water changes more often and more easily.
7)Overcrowding and over feeding -- too many people look at the tanks in the fish store and think that is a proper stocking density. They do not realize how many hundreds of gallons of water are behind the wall in that central filtration system, and how large the fiter is. Nor do they understand the death rates that the store experiences daily.
You need to explain about proper stocking levels, 1" of fish per gallon is only a starting point. Many other things need to be taken into account, ask the details and advise them. If you overstock you MUST also overfilter and overdo waterchanges. An overstocked tank is more unstable, any small thing (power failure, missed cleaning, accidental overfeeding) is likely to lead to disease and death -- Mother Nature will unstock the tank if the owner will not.
Offer to buy back baby fish, or sell them another tank.
8) Medications may have hurt biofiltration -- ask if they have used chemicals in the tank. If they have used medications, they may end up totally recycling. They will need to moniter tests and change water until that reestablishes.
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Yes. Everything I have read recently points to ammonia. According to Tom Barr NH4 specifically. The algae seems to 'fix' the problem, if you are lucky I guess. So there are no tests that will find the problem when the algae is present, if that makes sense.
I take that to be the reason people can live with green water for extended periods of time and really have no problems. Everything seems fine except that the water is green.
People who do 'proper' maintenance only seem to have this problem when something goes a little astray, then just doing 'proper' maintenance seems to make it all go away.
Whatever the immediate cause is, and there seem to be many, the answer seems to lie in dealing with the ammonia whether that be by adding more bio filtration, or just generally keeping the tank cleaner.
I take that to be the reason people can live with green water for extended periods of time and really have no problems. Everything seems fine except that the water is green.
People who do 'proper' maintenance only seem to have this problem when something goes a little astray, then just doing 'proper' maintenance seems to make it all go away.
Whatever the immediate cause is, and there seem to be many, the answer seems to lie in dealing with the ammonia whether that be by adding more bio filtration, or just generally keeping the tank cleaner.