10 Gallon tank water keeps turning Green...

[MichaelsLilGray]

All parameters are normal.. its a 10g tank... 5ppm nitrites due to plants in the tank.. temperature is 82 (coming down from a 86* spike from bad petsmart brand heater..

I just changed the water yesterday.. and its already green again.. when i say green.. i mean algea green. and i cant figure it out... any clues?

 

[beglely]

try a blackout on the tank for a few days, and then do a big water change. I had something similar to that and it took a week of no light to clear the tank up--looks great now tho. Im not sure what causes it. If im correct you have pea soup by what your describing. I would do huge water changes every day or two and it still wouldnt go away.

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

the lights only on 8 hours a day.. thats why i wasnt thinking it was lighting issue.. that and i have a common pleco, and a rubberlip pleco in that tank... still though.. guess ill try the blackout.. thanks beglely

 

[SWerner13]

the amount time is still relevant to how much light you have over the tank. I have a 40watt light over my 10 gallon tank and untill I started adding ferts and co2 I had to knock it down to around 5 1/2 hours a day before I had the algae under control.

 

[ellisb1]

I would try a blackout for a few days. Have you thought about purchasing a cheap UV filtration system. I saw them at petsmart for about 30 bucks.

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

Uv never even crossed my mind to be honest with you.

 

[ellisb1]

I would try the UV last. I think a few days of darkness and a good water change will get you working again. Probably should change filter cartridges and clean the pipes too. Green water and algae are such a pain!!! I am fighting a small case of thread algae at the moment. Got it from dwarf hair grass from ebay

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

well its just strange.. i have 4 tanks in my house... and the 5.5 is fine.. the 10 is green.. the 55 is great except for a little red algea(saltwater).. and the 125 is pristine... so i dunno lol out of all the tanks.. the 10 gallon has more algae eaters in it than the others do. its all in the water though.. like the algae is a tannin or something.

 

[beglely]

actually i would use algaecides last and the UV filter before that. Try a blackout and see what happens. I read that algae problems arise from excess nutrients in an aquarium, which isnt a bad thing but lets algae thrive when plants arent around to suck up the nutrients. And the common pleco and rubberlip will eat solid algae...however pea soup is microparticles of algae (its simplest form essentially) and for fish to eat it they would have to drink massive amounts of water to consume it since the particles are so small.

 

[SWerner13]

how much and what kind of light do you have over it? compared to the other tanks?

 

[beglely]

yeah my 20g long and 2.5 gal are algae free, but the 10gallon had it bad for about a month until i knocked it out with a blackout. No peeking tho

 

[kangster]

i also have green water in my tank (i noticed the water is green when i pour out the water after PWC)
other than ruining the visiual aspects of the tank, is it in any way harmful to my fish?
i dont mind my water not being super clear but i am concerned about the health of my fish

 

[MichaelsLilGray]

fish seem to be fine.. the lighting is just 2 true day light(6500k) around 15w worth per.. but its a one of the energy saving ones.. i have live plants in the tank.. about 5 of them actually... hence the lighting.

 

[ellisb1]

Yeah, algaecides are never a good idea. I don't even include them in my possible solutions.

 

[beglely]

i dont believe its harmful to fish in small amounts, but if it gets bad enough you should probably find a way to get rid of it.

 

[ellisb1]

I have never really found an algaecide that actually works on algae. LOL. I just got tired of wasting my money on it. I noticed some effects to zebra danios in one of my tanks though. After adding some liquid to a tank, they would start swimming around like mad, then slam into the tank glass and eventually all of them would lay on the bottom. Now, with a little experience, I have done pretty well about not getting much algae.