I have had a problem w/greenish cloudy water for about 4 weeks now and I was told by people at the acquarium store where I do business that it is algae. My tank is 29 gal. and all of the sudden one day I noticed that it was getting cloudy. It is not by a window, but I do leave my tank light on for about 15 hours a day and so maybe that is why the algae started growing. I have two other smaller tanks and I have no problem with them and I don't do anything different w/my 29 gal. Anyway, I was told there is no permanent way to kill this algae. I put "Acurel F" in the tank and it clears for a couple of days and then gets cloudy again. I was told I could rent a filter unit from the acquarium store and that would clear the tank, but that it would be temporary. Is there really nothing out there that I can add to the water to kill this algae off? Today I have started to decreased the amount of time I leave the light on in the tank to about 10 hours a day. Maybe I'll go down to 8 hrs. I also was told that adding these 2 plants, "anacris" and "cabomba", to the tank may help kill the algae because the plants will be using the same nutrients that the algae needs and eventually the nutrients will run out and the algae will die. Does anyone believe this? The only other thing I can think of is emptying my tank and starting all over again, which I will do as a last resort. The acquarium store person also told me that there is stuff you can buy that claim to kill algae, but that they don't really work that well and also they leave bad things in the water (he didn't really say "things" but I forgot the word he used). Thanks for any help you can give me.
greenish cloudy water
- Thread starter spring16
- Start date
You really don't need to leave your lights on for that long during the day. The only good way I've found to get rid of the algae is to do a 50% water change, leave the tank lights off and throw a blanket over the tank for about 3 days. During this time, don't feed your fish or do anything else that might let any light into the tank (i.e., just take a quick peek in or uncover the tank at all). In a few days your algae problem will be solved.
By the way, if you have live plants in your tank, ignore everything I just said.... I have no idea how to rid a planted tank of algae because I've never had the two situations go on at the same time (algae and plants, that is). My first thought would be temporarily move the plants out, and treat as above, but that's probably way off...
Someone else should probably guide you if you have plants....
By the way, if you have live plants in your tank, ignore everything I just said.... I have no idea how to rid a planted tank of algae because I've never had the two situations go on at the same time (algae and plants, that is). My first thought would be temporarily move the plants out, and treat as above, but that's probably way off...
Someone else should probably guide you if you have plants....
15 hours of having the light on is way too much. I myself only keep my lights on for 2 hours. I would just do a water change every couple days until the water stopped being so cloudy.
Agreed. In a non-planted tank, you should only turn on the lights when you are looking at the tank. In a planted tank, a few hours a day should be plenty if you have the right type of light fixtures.
I disagree. This will only solve the problem for a few days, and then the green will be back full-force. I fought the same problem for a month before I got it cleared up trying the just water change method. The water changes didn't even make a dent.
Your problem may be different, but my green water was just a symptom of a larger thing--I was WAY overfeeding my fish and providing them with way too much light.
Thanks to all who responded to my "greenish cloudy water" message. The responses were helpful. -- spring16
