Algae causing ph and nitrate problems

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OscarMan0315

Gambusia
MFK Member
Dec 18, 2011
336
1
16
East Coast
Well, I have all this algae growing around my tank. I never thought It was a bad thing. But I did a test on my water 2 days ago and found that my ph was at 6.0 ammonia was at .50ppm and the nitrates were at 160ppm.

Can algae cause this? I did a big water change/ gravel vac an nothing has changed. (I also treated the water with neutral regulator and prime)

I attached a picture of my jag in the tank and you can see the algae in the picture. I have sold all the in that were in the tank and now I only have some 3" grow outs.


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I'm pretty sure brown algae is caused from high nitrates. Green algae is from too much light. I don't think it would effect parameters something must be at work. Change in water quality from the. Tap? Haven't down a water change in a while? Stirred up gravel that hasn't moved in a long time and didn't water change? Dirty filters?

I need to spark up my fish life
 
I'm not sure exactly what is causing it. I will test my tap water when I get home. I do a water change/ gravel vac every 2-3 weeks. I cant see any "crap" on the bottom of my tank when I look from underneath with a flash light.


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Poor water params are the result of poor tank maintainence and/or overstocking. By the looking of your nitrate levels you need to greatly increase the frequancy and volume of your water changes.
 
Honestly I do a water change every 2-3 weeks. I don't know what is causing it. I clean my canister filter very 3-4 weeks. Before I sold all my fish, in the tank I had a tiger Oscar, jaguar, 2 jack dempseys, and a pike.

I did a 50 percent water change and gravel vac after I sold all the fish. Now I have my new fish and the tests still suck. So I did another water change and gravel vac.


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OscarMan0315 said:
Honestly I do a water change every 2-3 weeks. I don't know what is causing it. I clean my canister filter very 3-4 weeks. Before I sold all my fish, in the tank I had a tiger Oscar, jaguar, 2 jack dempseys, and a pike.

I did a 50 percent water change and gravel vac after I sold all the fish. Now I have my new fish and the tests still suck. So I did another water change and gravel vac.
Click to expand...

Try doing 50% W/Cs on a weekly basis for a month. This will drop the nitrate levels, and at that point most likely bring your pH levels up to what ever level your tap water is at. Then you can address the ammonia issue if it still even exists.
 
If anything, the algae is actually helping your parameters as they consume the same things plants and a functioning bio filter do. You need weekly water changes. 160ppm nitrates is high but not as deadly as your ammonia readings. Ammonia and nitrite should be basically zero and nitrates even in a heavily stocked tank should never be above 100ppm


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My tank is a 75 gallon. I will try the 50 percent w/c every week and see if anything changes. Thanks for the help. I'm going to test the water when I get home to see if anything has changed.


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