Update on my algae(?) problem - still need help!

[cgcaver]

Here's my original post ----> http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=50542



OK, here's what Ive done:


1) Stopped dosing nutrients

2) Barely feeding at all (maybe 2 pellets every other day)

3) 50% water change every 3 days (treated with stress-coat after)

4) Lights on about 8-10 hours a day


The water is still very cloudy. The water is sort of greenish, but I would really discribe it as a milky white haze. It only looks a little better after I do the water change. Here are my readings over the last few days, they were taken right before doing a water change:


Friday 4/29

pH - 7.6 (has never changed since I've owned my tank)
NH4 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 5.0 ppm
PO4 - .5 ppm



Sunday 5/1

NH4 - 0
NO2 - 0
NO3 - 5.0 ppm
PO4 - 1.0 ppm


Anyone got any ideas? Im so sick of nasty looking water And I think it's really hurting my plants by blocking out the amount of light they can get. It sure looks like the white cloudiness I've seen associated with an Ammonia problem, but as you can see, my levels are literally 0. My tank is starting to look like a sewer and my plants are looking pretty awful too. I could really use some help here guys, this is really starting to get me down

 

[Guest]

Sounds like a perfect situation for a UV. My water looks like I filled the tank with Evian now.

 

[cgcaver]

can you go into a lil more detail? i dunno anything about UV

 

[Guest]

can you go into a lil more detail? i dunno anything about UV

I don't know if you have a canister filter, but I'll assume you do. Otherwise, you need a pump. Anyway, you just hook the UV light up to the output pipe of the canister filter. Its going to kill most of the small organisims in the water, such as bacteria, paracites, and even algea. The one I have (check my sig) is really good, $80 at BigAl's.

 

[Blucat]

my green water is clearing up! Im using Tetra Aqua Easy Bakance. It balances your water, reduces phosphates and stabilizes ph and kh levels. Its really good

 

[Big C]

Lots of threads on green water lately! I'm not expert AT ALL but I got rid of my green water (AND milky water) with a UV filter. I bought an AA brand from China in the lfs. It includes the 9W lamp and the filtration pump. It is completely sealed so it goes inside the tank and it's not too big. I have it hidden behind the plants. I paid CDN$50 for it and it's recommended for up to 53 gal tanks. It comes in 2 other (bigger) sizes.

The only maintenance it needs is to clean the sponge when it gets dirty. I'm not recommending it yet because I'd like to evaluate it in the long term. It looks like to replace the lamp I need to buy the whole cartridge. They couldn't tell me how much is it going to cost because they didn't order the cartidges yet. Although they say that they will be getting them soon I'm a little concerned that it may be hard to get the replacements and that they may be quite expensive. But I do recomend the filtration method.

In the worse case scenario, for 50 bucks now I know that it works and I will gladly invest in a better UV filter, if that's what it takes, to keep the water sparkly clean as it is now!

Just my 5 cents!

 

[TankGirl]

It sounds to me like bacterial bloom that ought to go away in time, but unfortunately that time can vary. Are you still doing huge water changes weekly? I do 50% weekly myself on all my tanks, but in the presence of a whitish cloudy tank and no measurable water quality problems, and NO3 under good control, I'd do 25% weekly, or go 2 weeks without a PWC and see if things settle. Then resume back to a weekly schedule of 25%.

If you are impatient then you can certainly invest in a UV filter - look in our Articles section for some reading on UV filters.