Green water.

[Ryanstobbs]

Does anybody know what could have happened to my water it has gone very green and dark

 

[matthew_raw]

Alage bloom, id say get a uv serylizer but wait till one of the pros chime in

 

[freckles]

This exact thing happened to my tank when I had to let someone else take care of it for four months and they didn't do a single water change. That caused the nitrates to build up, and nitrates are essentially algae fertilizer!

I drained the tank and filled with new water. My tank, however, was understocked; it may be a better idea for you to up your water changes and reduce how long you keep your light on until the problem goes away.

 

[Ryanstobbs]

Thanks for the ideas. How often should we be doing water changes

 

[Mattyfelts]

Thanks for the ideas. How often should we be doing water changes

If i were you id be doing daily to every other day until you see some results, i would also probably do at least a 24 hour aquarium light blackout.

 

[Ryanstobbs]

I've just done a water change. I will try leaving light off for 24 hours see if anything changes

 

[Rivercats]

That is a pretty serious green water algae bloom. Excess lighting left on too long with high nutrients level are just a couple reasons algae blooms can happen. Anyway you have 2 choices. You can first try a 3 day black out. Literally cover the top, bottom, and sides of the tank so no light can penetrate in. No peeking or you break the black out cycle. Open the tank up on day 4 and do at least a 50-60% WC. Only run lighting 6 hours daily for a while and be sure to do weekly 50% WC's to keep nutrient levels in the tank low. If it's near a window getting a lot of sunlight find a way to block it from the tank. This method sometimes work but if all the free floating algae isn't killed it's likely the bloom will return.

The second method which will work is using a UV sterilizer. Many people on this forum have gotten very good results using this... Green Killing Machine Internal UV Sterilizer with Power Head at PETCO. This will kill the free floating algae within a couple days. Afterwards do a large WC to remove dead algae so an ammonia spike doesn't occur in the tank.

 

[Mattyfelts]

That is a pretty serious green water algae bloom. Excess lighting left on too long with high nutrients level are just a couple reasons algae blooms can happen. Anyway you have 2 choices. You can first try a 3 day black out. Literally cover the top, bottom, and sides of the tank so no light can penetrate in. No peeking or you break the black out cycle. Open the tank up on day 4 and do at least a 50-60% WC. Only run lighting 6 hours daily for a while and be sure to do weekly 50% WC's to keep nutrient levels in the tank low. If it's near a window getting a lot of sunlight find a way to block it from the tank. This method sometimes work but if all the free floating algae isn't killed it's likely the bloom will return.

The second method which will work is using a UV sterilizer. Many people on this forum have gotten very good results using this... Green Killing Machine Internal UV Sterilizer with Power Head at PETCO. This will kill the free floating algae within a couple days. Afterwards do a large WC to remove dead algae so an ammonia spike doesn't occur in the tank.

A word of advice for aquarium help is always listen to Rivercats!!

 

[Ryanstobbs]

Thanks for that info. We are

 

[Ryanstobbs]

Thanks for that info. We are going to give the blackout a go and see if it helps