Help me before I give up!

[DCLXVI]

I'm almost to the point of pulling out all the live plants and throwing them in the trash...
So I started with a "normal" tank. I'm using play sand and had some drift wood. I decided I wanted a planted tank. I had plants in the past, never had problems, so i figured why not. So I went out and got lights ( its about 1.5 wpg 6,500k i believe) and some plants (all swords). I started doing some research and decided I needed co2. After much research I went with just using flourish excel. I then also decided i needed firtz. I'm currently using some type (i think its kents?) which is 1-0-0 and root tabs. everything seemed to be ok for a while.
Fast forward a few weeks and bam! this weird slimy green stuff. I find out its BGA. This is about the same point I get 2 new filters (aquaclear 30gallon) for $40. I now have 3 filters running at this point to build up BB in the new ones. looking into the problem more I also notice with the changing season, sunlight now enters the window and hits my tank for a few hours a day.So I fix the light issue. One day I get home from work and I notice my chocolate ghost knife is acting funny...next day he's dead. And every few days I loose another fish (angels). I decide to treat with Maracyn.
I also get sick of having tea colored water and add purigen.
All the BGA dies and my fish stop dieing and.......Green Water!
My tank is no longer a light yellow tint, its now so green I cannot see half way into the tank.
Any help would be so appreciated. Im just getting to the point where I want to start over but I don't really have the time or finances to do so.

P.s. my PH, ammonia, and nitrites all test perfect I always do water changes every few days ect.

 

[Gboy66]

I'm almost to the point of pulling out all the live plants and throwing them in the trash...
So I started with a "normal" tank. I'm using play sand and had some drift wood. I decided I wanted a planted tank. I had plants in the past, never had problems, so i figured why not. So I went out and got lights ( its about 1.5 wpg 6,500k i believe) and some plants (all swords). I started doing some research and decided I needed co2. After much research I went with just using flourish excel. I then also decided i needed firtz. I'm currently using some type (i think its kents?) which is 1-0-0 and root tabs. everything seemed to be ok for a while.
Fast forward a few weeks and bam! this weird slimy green stuff. I find out its BGA. This is about the same point I get 2 new filters (aquaclear 30gallon) for $40. I now have 3 filters running at this point to build up BB in the new ones. looking into the problem more I also notice with the changing season, sunlight now enters the window and hits my tank for a few hours a day.So I fix the light issue. One day I get home from work and I notice my chocolate ghost knife is acting funny...next day he's dead. And every few days I loose another fish (angels). I decide to treat with Maracyn.
I also get sick of having tea colored water and add purigen.
All the BGA dies and my fish stop dieing and.......Green Water!
My tank is no longer a light yellow tint, its now so green I cannot see half way into the tank.
Any help would be so appreciated. Im just getting to the point where I want to start over but I don't really have the time or finances to do so.

P.s. my PH, ammonia, and nitrites all test perfect I always do water changes every few days ect.

Wow this is weird. Ok so you have tannins in the water. Ok whatever right? Tannin is the brown color btw. Then, why did you treat that with meds? Did you soak and boil the drift wood before putting it in the tank? That will get lots of the tannins out. Plus, water changes should clear it up. Could i see a pic of the tank with the "green"? I dont know why thatd happen. I have a planted 40 g also, and i have never gotten the green slime. Just bits of brown hair algea. Did you scrape the slime off? Maybe buy some snails and an algea eater to assist you in the problem?

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Wow this is weird. Ok so you have tannins in the water. Ok whatever right? Tannin is the brown color btw. Then, why did you treat that with meds? Did you soak and boil the drift wood before putting it in the tank? That will get lots of the tannins out. Plus, water changes should clear it up. Could i see a pic of the tank with the "green"? I dont know why thatd happen. I have a planted 40 g also, and i have never gotten the green slime. Just bits of brown hair algea. Did you scrape the slime off? Maybe buy some snails and an algea eater to assist you in the problem?

Don't buy more fish just to preform a job. For algae to grow there has to be an imbalance in the tank. Too much/little light, too many/little nutrients, too much/little co2.

 

[aqua_chem]

BGA is caused by low nitrogen and/or low flow. It's actually a bacteria. Erythromyacin, which is in maracyn, is what killed it. So that's that.

What kind of lights do you have? WPG is an archaic measure that's no longer practical. If you have green water, you might have too much light.

Also, algae eaters won't help BGA nor GW.

 

[aqua_chem]

Don't buy more fish just to preform a job. For algae to grow there has to be an imbalance in the tank. Too much/little light, too many/little nutrients, too much/little co2.

Algae is present in any healthy aquarium. It's just another part of the ecosystem. Algae blooms, on the other hand, is an imbalance of the ecosystem.

 

[DCLXVI]

Wow this is weird. Ok so you have tannins in the water. Ok whatever right? Tannin is the brown color btw. Then, why did you treat that with meds? Did you soak and boil the drift wood before putting it in the tank? That will get lots of the tannins out. Plus, water changes should clear it up. Could i see a pic of the tank with the "green"? I dont know why thatd happen. I have a planted 40 g also, and i have never gotten the green slime. Just bits of brown hair algea. Did you scrape the slime off? Maybe buy some snails and an algea eater to assist you in the problem?

I didnt medicate because of the tannins. I medicated because of the fish deaths and the BGA. I boiled one piece of the wood that was small enough to. The other was way to big. The wood has been in my tank for about 6 months now. I added the purigen because I heard its really good with removing tannins. Also the BGA is now gone. Replaced by super green water.

I would love to post pictures but my Ipod touch is dead....and I'm super lazy after a long day at work lol.

 

[DCLXVI]

BGA is caused by low nitrogen and/or low flow. It's actually a bacteria. Erythromyacin, which is in maracyn, is what killed it. So that's that.

What kind of lights do you have? WPG is an archaic measure that's no longer practical. If you have green water, you might have too much light.

Also, algae eaters won't help BGA nor GW.

Lets see, 2x 32 watt daylight bulbs over a 40g breeder.
turn them on at about 12 noon (when i head to work)
off at about 11-12 every night when i get ready to head to bed
And that's the weird thing, the green water showed up after we lost power and the lights were off for almost 2 days...and after I made sure no sunlight hits it.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Algae is present in any healthy aquarium. It's just another part of the ecosystem. Algae blooms, on the other hand, is an imbalance of the ecosystem.

I am aware of this. The OP is talking about huge amounts of green water/algae bloom. Hence my answer.

 

[BigJim]

I'd blame your liquid fertilizer and leaving the lights on too long for the algae bloom.

When I first tried live plants, I had some cheap fertilizer my brother got a deal on. It seemed to cause an algae bloom every time I used it. I switched to Flourish and the algae problems stopped, as long as I only dose the recommended amount once a week.

I'm now recovering from a greenwater bloom caused by my CO2 regulator plugging up. I stopped dosing the tank with ferts and left the lights off for a couple weeks. You can do it faster by wrapping the tank with a towel to block the light.

Try stopping the fert dosing entirely and putting your lights on a timer for eight hours a day. If you've got root tabs by the swords, they really won't use much from the water column.

 

[BillD]

The good news is the green water is good for the fish. The bad is that it is unsightly. Do a large water change, of 80% or more and stop all the ferts. I wish I could grow green water. Regardless, you have a situation where you have excess nutrients, which the green water algae are using. Remove their food source and they will die off.

 

[DCLXVI]

So I gave in and I got some algae chemicals. Water is almost completely clear. Im going to wait a few hours, add carbon, and do a 20% water change.
Just hoping for the best.