Algae or bacterial bloom?

[dmk]

When I went to work yesterday, my 55gal tank was clear. I came home nine hours later and it's so cloudy I can't see the middle.

Tank Conditions:
New Goldfish tank, two large cannister filters, two airstones, less than a month in operation, never cycled. The fish showed evidence of Velvet(Oodinium) parasites in the first week, treated with Coppersafe, then one of the fish got some kind of infection so I treated with Maracyn and Maracyn 2 antibiotics for a week (just gave them final dose last night). Ammonia's been under 1ppm the whole time, Nitrites and Nitrates = 0, PH has been around 7.2. I do 20% water changes with Prime, vacuuming the gravel every other day. Temp has been between 68 and 74 degrees, between 68 and 70 in the last week. I've had the tank lights off and the tank shaded for the last two weeks to try to kill the Oodinuim parasites.

When I do water changes, the waste water has had a slightly green tint for the last couple days, but I'm still thinking it's a bacterial bloom due to the medications. It looks like white fog in the tank. Any thoughts?

 

[amhodge]

It's probably the Maracyn. That's been clouding my tank this week as well. I'm hoping a water change this evening will clear it up. I also have the same green tint.

 

[Mabel]

I have been having a white cloud to my tank. I just did a water change (35 gallon tank) took out 5 gallons. I also changed the rear tank filter hoping things would clear up. The water I took out last week (Saturday) and today has a greenish tint to it. What should I use in my tank to help with this? I am new to all the chemicals that are out there. Please post back what treatment to get with brand name and or name brand. Thanks.:help:

 

[hitman12131976]

The water you take out should have a tint to it. Not major tint, but maybe a yellowish tint. I think this happens because of the Prime or dechlorinator that you can add to the water or any other type of treatment that you can put in there. You can always add some sort of water clarifier (i.e. AquaClear by Tetra) but I hear that those clarifier actually stick to the carbon in the filters.

 

[Mabel]

The Water Saturday was really darish brown green and the water today was a more army green color.

 

[hitman12131976]

Hm, seeing as I haven't experienced this (yet), I'm not sure how you would clear that. Water changes will clear it up, but it keeps coming back. Maybe doing a bigger amount of water when you do a water change; like 50%

 

[dmk]

It's probably the Maracyn. That's been clouding my tank this week as well. I'm hoping a water change this evening will clear it up. I also have the same green tint.

Hmm, it probably is. The fish seem to unaffected, from what I can see of them. They are swimming in and out of the haze.

Just did another water test: Ammonia's real low, .25, PH is 7.1-7.2, Nitrates and Nitrites are still 0.

I'll give it a few days, just do my normal water changes and then try some charcoal in the filter if it doesn't clear up by then.

 

[J double R]

if it's green, it's algae. if it's algae, carbon won't fix it. carbon absorbs chemicals and liquid waste, not living organisms.

cut back on lighting, keep up the SMALL water changes daily.. do plenty of gravel vacs, and do NOT overfeed.

 

[dmk]

cut back on lighting, keep up the SMALL water changes daily.. do plenty of gravel vacs,

That's the weird thing. The tank has been almost dark for two weeks. The shades are drawn in the room, the tank lights out except for maybe a half hour a day when I feed them and vacuum the gravel. I do a 20% PWC and gravel vac every other day. I don't think I'm overfeeding them. Just a pinch in the morning and one when I get home from work.

Could the green tint be from the Maracyn? It started right after I started medicating them. Previously the waste water was crystal clear.

 

[amhodge]

Could the green tint be from the Maracyn? It started right after I started medicating them. Previously the waste water was crystal clear.

I shouldn't have said "probably" before (but I didn't want to sound too sure), because I'm certain the discoloration is caused by the Maracyn as I've had an identical experience to yours. I never had any tint to my water, then I medicated with Maracyn for the recommended five days, during which the powder was causing a white cloudiness, and about a day after I stopped using the Maracyn, my water took on a green tint. The tint has not gotten worse since I first noticed it and I think it would have if it was algae because it appeared so suddenly (so, it would have kept growing and gotten worse, right?).

I suspect something like that is going to take several water changes to finally get rid of but I figure it's safe to do a 50% change, then follow up with 10-20% every few days (or less) since I'm trying to eradicate the infected water anyhow. Somebody can feel free to correct me on that since I don't know anything about whether frequent water changes are harmful beyond any stress the fish experience, which is hopefully less harmful than the infected water.