I am frustrated!

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Brooklynella

Candiru
MFK Member
Dec 13, 2006
587
0
46
LI, NY
I've been on a 3 week mission to clear my 72 bowfront and seem to be getting nowhere.
My tank turned green-completely green-aprox 3 weeks ago. I started doing 50% water changes every other day and it cleared slightly. Last week, I did a 50% change Thursday and left on a business trip. I come home to find the tank all green and murky looking again.
The room is dark and I only provide 3-4 hours of light per day. The fish are fine and the water checks out ok (Though my PH is a tad high at 7.6).
So 2 nights ago I get really pissed and take out 85% of the water. Bingo! The tank is nice and clear. Well, that lasted 48 hours because it's clouding up again.:irked: It's less of a green cloud and more of a milky cloud but i'm convinced it's not a bacterial bloom for 3 reasons:
1-I didn't disturb the fluval at all doing the water changes.
2-I didn't disturb the gravel at all. I just siphoned the water.
3-I have no ammonia or nitrites.
I predict the tank will continue to murk up and look terrible over the next few days.

I honestly have no idea what to do. I've never had a cloudy/murky tank ever.
Advice? Questions?

The tank has a Fluval 303 set up biological and a UGF with powerheads. I have 3 little chocolates, a 3' Severum, 3' Irid and a Bala.

I can pre-answer a few comments i'm sure to get:
Eliminating the 3-4 hours of light really won't make a difference. This small amount of light really can't have this big an effect on the algae bloom.

I don't have a nitrate kit but with all of the water changes i've been doing, I can't fathom having high nitrates.

NO, I don't have a UV but I did diatom the tank for 72 hours. This would have a similiar effect as UV.
 
How long has the under gravel filter been running? It could be that it is leaching dissolved organics into the water column, feeding the algae. Just a thought.
 
You guys are horrible.... the first 2 quetions were answered already in his prompt

and it might be the UGF if you have it running the regular way... hook up your power head as a reverse UGF

you just have an algae bug.. the best way it to nutrify the water with some algae killer and then clean the tank out after that... ushually people will get mild algae blooms and thats that but others will constantly get algae so its best to kill it off from the "root" try hooking up another filter to it .. the fish you have are a tad bit messy
 
:iagree:
 
FishyCreations726;740596; said:
Also is it near a window and how long ar eyou keeping your lights on?



As noted above, lights on 3-4 hours per day. The room gets no direct sunlight. I actually tried no lights for 5 days with no improvement.
 
hillbilly;740615; said:
How long has the under gravel filter been running? It could be that it is leaching dissolved organics into the water column, feeding the algae. Just a thought.

The UG has been running since day one. Interesting theory but the amount of water changes i'm doing would logically remove organic matter before it could build up. Plus, the gravel is very clean.
 
WeeNe858;740622; said:
You guys are horrible.... the first 2 quetions were answered already in his prompt

and it might be the UGF if you have it running the regular way... hook up your power head as a reverse UGF

you just have an algae bug.. the best way it to nutrify the water with some algae killer and then clean the tank out after that... ushually people will get mild algae blooms and thats that but others will constantly get algae so its best to kill it off from the "root" try hooking up another filter to it .. the fish you have are a tad bit messy



I noticed the repeat questions too but was being nice!:D
How would reversing the UG have an effect on algae? My fish are juv and do not disturb the gravel at all.
 
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