Green water, Algae bloom?? Help

[MHussnatter]

My water has turned very cloudy and light green. I think I have an algae bloom. Here is the deal, I have a 30 g. tank with a whisper filter, heater at (81), had three live plants and one totally deteriorated the other two are turning a little brown and losing some of their color in spots (turning almost translucent) I have two tiger barbs about an inch big, Three bala sharks about two inches each and one angel about 1 1/2 to 2 inches big. My tank has been up and running for about 6 wks. and a day or two the water started getting cloudy and then turned greenish. I noticed that one of the plants had rotted away pretty bad. The fish seem to be doing okay and still eating and acting normal. I did not realize that live plants need a lot of attention etc. I think what I have is an algae bloom. I keep the light on all day and just turn it out at night when I go to sleep. The room that the tank is in faces south and there is a lot of direct sun light during the day that is why I think this may be an algae bloom.

Here is what I did, I changed 50 % of the water, took out the deteriorating plant, changed the bag in my filter, checked the water and the amonia was a little high so I treated with amquil.

Any ideas on what to do? What do I need to do in order to have live plants and keep them from dying off. What type of plants does everyone reccomend and what do I need to add for them, or how should I plant them etc. Any thing else I need to do to the water? It is still cloudy but I figured I would give it a day and see what happens. How often do I need to do water changes and how much at a time? What should I do to avoid algae blooms? I have been using store bought drinking water (Not distilled, Drinking water) but will soon be switching to using tap, what should I get to add to the tap water before putting it in the tank and how long does it need to sit out before putting it in? Sorry for all the questions but I am new to all this and this was a present for my 2 1/2 year old for Christmas, he absolutely loves fish and was thrilled. The first thing he does every morning since christmas is come get me to go see them and feed them. Oh, yeah btw I feed just once a day in the a.m. and only enough that will get eaten within a couple of minutes. Using flakes and every once in a while give them blood worms as well. Thank you in advance for any help, I desperately need it.

Mike

 

[Obsidian]

Your tank is definitely getting too much light. The light should be on no more than 12 hours per day. And keep it shaded from direct sunlight.

You could try getting an algae killer that is safe for fish and plants. Do another water change, say 35-50%... get something like Novaqua or Stress coat, and follow the directions for how much to add to the tap water.

After you get this under control, do weekly water changes of 15-20% at minimum. (although there are lots of opinions about how often to change water)

For the lighting, get a light timer, a very simple device... you can get them at any hardware store. They usually have a dial on them with little buttons that you can set so that your light comes on at a certain time in the morning and shuts off 12 hours later. You just plug your light into that, and plug the timer into the outlet.

As for the plants, it depends on how much light you have... how many watts total are your tubes, assuming you have fluorescent tubes. You are going to need no less than 30 watts. More would be preferable. Also, the regular purplish aquarium lights are not sufficient for keeping plants... you need at least daylight spectrum bulbs.

Try sword plants or crypts, hornwort, banana plants. They do not need bright light.

If you are really serious about aquarium plants, well that is a whole separate thing. The aquatic plant forum is a good place to go for that.

 

[Vyper]

Obsidian offered some great advice, but I just wanted to add you can also buy products which you can add to your water which clumps the free floating algae together so that your filter can more easily filter it out, that might be worth a try. But most of all you need to get your tank out of direct sunlight I feel that this combined with your light probably being on a bit too long is causing the algae bloom, water changes will help but wont stop algae reforming unless you do something about the light levels and duration.

 

[Jason01]

Algea blooms in planted tanks are fun......

What we have here is an imbalance in the water. You have too much of one nutrient available. Combine that with the sunlight, and *poof* green water! My 29 gal. get sunlight for ~5 hours a day. No algea. I have to dose potassium to make up for the extra phosphorus that comes with my tap water. It's all a matter of balance.
You said that the ammonia was a little high. To me, a little high is the test reading any. How high was it? Do you have any other tests that you can do? Nitrates? Nitrites? Poshphates? All these help.

This may sound strange, but the algea bloom may be because of the ammonia. Ammonia is a nutrient that plants use, and if in abundance, with the extra light, it(the algea) will thrive. I wouldn't try to add chemicals to kill the algea, as the dead and decomposing algea may create another problem. What I would do is find out what you can test for, test it, tell us what the tests were, and we go from there. I am going to guess that when you fix the problem with the ammonia, you will fix the algea.