This is RIDICULOUS! HELP PLEASE!

[velanarris]

You have a serious tank maintenance issue.

Start regular water changes to reduce your nitrates and the greenwater will be gone. If water changes aren't doing the trick, test your tapwater for nitrates.

 

[Andrewtfw]

There is no "serious" maintenance issue here. Many tanks have this problem regardless of the frequency of water changes. No one has discussed issues pertaining to light, feeding or the use of tap water. A build up of organics will feed the algae bloom, but won't necessarily be the cause.

Excess phosphates and silicates in the water are often the initial cause. Topping off the tank when it evaporates increases phosphates and silicates. Over time, when combined with excess light (nothing to utilize the light except for algae) and a build up excess nutrients, you find yourself with green water.

Doing frequent water changes alone will not solve this problem. You will not remove all of the filamentous algae this way. Running your lights in this situation will allow the algae to multiply fast. Within days you find yourself with the same colored water.

Make sure the lighting is adequate in terms of quality and quantity. Cut back on the frequency and amount of feedings and increase the amount of water being changed at one time. Top off with distilled or RO water. Then add a product such as All Gone to your filter and see if that does not solve the problem. If this does not result in clear water then you may need to invest in a sterilizer.

 

[eskimo]

just steay calm it just some stupid algea , just do every 3 day's a water chage of 20% and do that for 1or 2 and it wil be fine.

 

[Yanbbrox]

Go dark for 48 hours, completely cover the tank so no light can get in. Then all the algae will die and then you can just water change the dead out.

 

[velanarris]

There is no "serious" maintenance issue here. Many tanks have this problem regardless of the frequency of water changes. No one has discussed issues pertaining to light, feeding or the use of tap water. A build up of organics will feed the algae bloom, but won't necessarily be the cause.

Excess phosphates and silicates in the water are often the initial cause. Topping off the tank when it evaporates increases phosphates and silicates. Over time, when combined with excess light (nothing to utilize the light except for algae) and a build up excess nutrients, you find yourself with green water.

Doing frequent water changes alone will not solve this problem. You will not remove all of the filamentous algae this way. Running your lights in this situation will allow the algae to multiply fast. Within days you find yourself with the same colored water.

Make sure the lighting is adequate in terms of quality and quantity. Cut back on the frequency and amount of feedings and increase the amount of water being changed at one time. Top off with distilled or RO water. Then add a product such as All Gone to your filter and see if that does not solve the problem. If this does not result in clear water then you may need to invest in a sterilizer.

Sorry to poke the bear with sticks here, but all of the above conditions are caused by poor tank maintenance, too much light just adds to the fact there are dissolved organics/silicate/phosphates in his water.

Greenwater won't be caused by silicates, but brown algael outbreaks will.

 

[rnocera]

I'm with Yannbrox. Starve the algae. I black out tanks that have algae problems and it works every time.

I clean aquariums in some nursing homes & such places and most places only want the tanks cleaned once a month. They only get water changes once a month, so they're always nasty with algae. We started adding No More Algae by Jungle Labs, and it seems to help. Dunno how healthy it is for fish, though.

 

[gt1009]

If you decide to use an algicide, make sure to put in extra aeration for your tank. Most of the chemical ones work by using up some of the oxygen in the water, so always add another airstone or hob filter or something whenever using a chemical algicide.

 

[yogurt_21]

Sorry to poke the bear with sticks here, but all of the above conditions are caused by poor tank maintenance, too much light just adds to the fact there are dissolved organics/silicate/phosphates in his water.

Greenwater won't be caused by silicates, but brown algael outbreaks will.

greenwater is flaoting algae, it is not harmful to the fish and does not indicate tank maintainance issues. lighting is a major culpret as well as overfeeding.

and it sounds like you've never kept oscars, they are messy eaters, avoiding uneaten organics in the bottom of the tank is only possible if you don't feed your fish.

a weekly gravel/sand cleaning will grab alot of it but some will always evade you no matter how much you try. this happens to me often and I never have greenwater, so as it goes it takes only one example to disprove a theory and there it was. Also the "exception that proves the rule" doesn't apply in the fish world.

 

[eskimo]

or get yourself some bottom fisch that eat everything like a kind of catfich ...

 

[velanarris]

greenwater is flaoting algae, it is not harmful to the fish and does not indicate tank maintainance issues. lighting is a major culpret as well as overfeeding.

and it sounds like you've never kept oscars, they are messy eaters, avoiding uneaten organics in the bottom of the tank is only possible if you don't feed your fish.

a weekly gravel/sand cleaning will grab alot of it but some will always evade you no matter how much you try. this happens to me often and I never have greenwater, so as it goes it takes only one example to disprove a theory and there it was. Also the "exception that proves the rule" doesn't apply in the fish world.

I've had several, and a gravel vac will typically deal with it, unless you aren't vaccing enough.

It almost always goes back to dissolved organics and too much lighting. I've seen contaminated tapwater being the culprit ONCE, which is why I toss that in there at the end.