gross. its green

x3ph4bambi

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Nov 25, 2007
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ok so i havent had any problems with my tanks but a co-worker of mine has a 10g as well and her water turned green. it was fine one day then the next green. she has a big pleco in it.. why did it do that. id like to make sure i dont do the same. lol. are algae eaters better than plecos if thats what it is?
 
What are the water parameters? What about phosphates? What is her source of lighting? How big is the pleco? Any other fish in it?
 
Chances are that the lights are left on too long and it's an unplanted tank (guessing here). No animal addition should be needed to overcome a tank problem IMO. I'd think about adding live plants, start with low light plants, to utilize the nutrients.
 
green water aka algae bloom.
if you want to kill the algae black the tank out for 3 days.
but you will need to find out what is causing this.
usual culrpits are light and nutrients..too much of either and you get algae blooms.
is the tank subjected to any sunlight?
 
A three day blackout, as stated, will generally take care of this, but it will not prevent it from coming back. If you have algae in a non planted tank, it is because there are nutrients in the tank and light available. If you have a planted tank, what you have is a nutrient imbalance. With nutrients balanced and a proper lighting schedule, plants will be able to uptake the nutrients much faster than algae.
 
my guess is she doesn't do water changes often enough to house a large messy fish like a pleco.. this makes the nitrites build up in the tank which, in combination with the light that she probably leaves on all day long, creates an algea bloom= green water.
 
wow ok thanks. um dont know really what she does but the light is on all day. so turning off the light will kill it but how do you prevent it from coming back. i dont know if its planted or unplanted. but i know that she keeps the light on. Alex told me that she took out the fish all but some tetra and something else and the water is still green. i dont know how else to help her but to ask you guys.
 
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