Green Water

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jcmonkeygirl

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Jun 18, 2003
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In December I bought a new Penguin filter for my 55 gallon because my old filter passed away. This new filter never seemed to keep my tank clean. It was always just yucky looking. So i just bought a new Whisper 60 for my tank. When i put the new filter on, I went ahead and did a water change(25%). The water I pulled out was GREEN. The next day I did another water change (50%) and the water was still green but not as bad. You can not see through the length of the tank. It looks like a big green cloud. I went to Petsmart and bought Clarity which is made by SeaChem. I used one dose of it ( the bottle says it will get real cloudy but then clear up in 1-2 hours). 10 hours later the water looks worse. So i put another dose in (up to 3 doses are safe). The water still looks bad, but instead of being green the water is cloudy green. What should i do, what caused this, how can i prevent it? I love my fish! I even have a new little nemo fish (he is a riot platty that i found one day doing a water change, i didn't even know his mom gave birth). Anyways nemo is my buddy he comes up to the top every day to eat. I don't want him to die or my pleco that i have had forever. Can i test my water or will the cloudiness mess that up??
Someone please help me.
thanks
 

Max

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Jan 26, 2004
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algae

I'd test my water for sure! You probably have a high nutrient load or excess trace materials in your water "phosphate, nitrate etc". It would really help if you could provided some of your tank parameters size, fishes, how long it's been set up etc. Also how much light is your tank getting is in front of a window etc. I may be well off base I keep mostly s.w. and just lurk here from time to time. I would imagine it's a nutrient overload cause by either too many fish or too much food.
hth
chris
 

daveedka

Purple is the color of Royalty
Jan 30, 2004
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I love my fish!
Don't panic (as it says on the front of the hitchhikers guide)
Green water usually won't hurt your fish, At least I've never known fish to mind it. I don't reccomend any kind of chemical fix the reason is that it isn't necessary to kill the algea, but may cause other problems.

To kill the algea, simply block out all light to the tank for several days (Blanket, poterboard, black plastic etc., I reccomend daily water changes during this time, but please understand the water changes won't help get rid of the algea, in fact they may slow the process a little. Without water changes I worry about other problems occuring as outlined below.

The reason for the water changes is two fold:
#1. Algea blooms are typically caused by an imbalance or excess of nutrients in the tank. combine this with light and the result is green water. Frequent, big water changes will help bring the nutrient level under control while the algea is being killed. Vaccum well (fairly deeply) if you don't have a planted tank

#2. The algea you are killing will become additional waste product which converts to nutrients as well. So removing much of this each day will help fix the problem.

As long as you have enough nutrients to feed the algea, you will contine to have problems so vaccuming is essential to keep things in check. If you do have plants they will compete with alge, and make things easier for you.

You will probably need to rinse out your filter media frequently during this process. If you replace it be carefull to not replace too much at once, in order to help preserve your bio-filtration.

In December I bought a new Penguin filter for my 55 gallon because my old filter passed away
IMO amd I know many will dis-agree, you need at least 400 gph through a good quality filter for a 55. I always run at least 9 times my tank volume per hour. I may be mistaken but believe the big penguin is a 370 and I don't think it would be enough by itself long term. Unless your fish load is very light. When I ran 55's with Emporer 400's, I had to do weekly 40% changes with vaccuming to keep things in check.
 

Richer

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Once you get GW, you're stuck with it... water changes will not stop GW once its established in your tanks, and I'm strongely against using chemicals to rid yourself of it... and as you can see, it doesn't really work.

Clean out all your mechanical filters, and do a 50% water change. Put in airstones, raise the spraybars of your filters, etc. to increase the surface aggitation of your tank. Cover your tank with heavy blankets, or black garbage bags, or whatever you can get your hands on... as long as those things can completely block out light. Make sure no light can get into your tank. Leave your tank covered for 2-3 days in this pitch darkness. Afterwards, remove all of the coverings, lower your spraybars, remove your airstones, etc. do another 50% water change and clean out your mechanical filters again. Your GW should be gone, now all you need to do is prevent it from reoccuring, and you'll be in great shape! =)

I forgot to mention... don't feed your fish during this time, they'll do just fine.

HTH
-Richer
 

jcmonkeygirl

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so the green water is algae? There isn't any algae on the sides or plants or decorations? I dont' feed my fish that much, not even every day.
My fish:
2 black tetras ( i can't remember their real name)
1 silvertip tetra (the other 2 died like 6 months ago)
3 tetras
1- (7 inch) pleco
3 cories
and nemo

( i can't remember any of the fish species, i have had them for soo long)

the tank has been set up for over a year
i have kept the blinds closed so not much light gets to it.

i will test my water tonight.
I just put a brand new filter on it last week.

I have never had green water or algae for that matter, Plecy the Pleco does a good job keeping his house clean.

thanks for the ideas.
 

got_nailed

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I have heard of using a micro filter. I’ve heard this will filter it out in a day but you’ll have to clean the filter a lot in this time. And they do say to use it for a few days to make sure it won’t come right back.
 

daveedka

Purple is the color of Royalty
Jan 30, 2004
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I've heard this as well, I believe there was a thread about using a 350 magnum cartridge for this, you will of course still need to eliminate the cause to prevent it from returning quickly.
 

got_nailed

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Right it will come back if you don’t fix the problem. I’m thinking of using 350 magnum in series on my 75 gall tank soon. The first whit just mead the second with a micro filter.
 
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