green water

[mle421]

ok, so ive had this 29 gallon set up for 4 months now, i cycled it and everything was great for 3 months, but last month my tank started to go downhill. all my parameters were fine, but my water was starting to turn greenish, i do 30% water changes every week, but i've been upping it to 60% a week, and still no change, the water looks green, and cloudy, and you can see it swirling around in the tank. some sticks to the glass and the rocks but most is just hanging out in the water colomn. what can i do about this algae?

 

[Blucat]

ok first tell us how much you feed your fish, what your lighting is, what kind of fish you have and your ammonoia, nitrate and ph. currently im battling green water myself, so maybe i can help.

 

[mattrox]

How long is your light on each day for and how many watts is you light?

You might be better off doing 30% pwc twice a week.

I would be also interested in your nitrate levels.

 

[Big C]

I just become a big fan of UV filters to fix green water. After weeks and weeks of fighting it and following all the great advice from AA experts, I finally bought a UV filter and the green water was gone in less than 3 days! But I wouldn't rush to buy one, because they are expensive and there might be easier/cheaper solutions.

All I can say is it worked in my case, but I would try to go through all the other checks and steps these guys will tell you about first. And then if nothing else works go for it!!!!

UV RULES!!!!!!!

 

[gfink]

What finally fixed greenwater for me was the phosphate to nitrate ratio. My tap water has phosphate in it, so by doing partial water changes to lower my nitrates I was actually hurting myself.

Keep phosphate to nitrate ratio 1:10-1:20
Phospahet test kits are harder to find, but less than $10.

for example I was 1ppm phophate:5 ppm nitrate and people kept suggesting that I remove "nutrients"(refering to nitrates)


by changing water I got closer to 1.5ppm phosphate:5 ppm nitrate

By stopping the partial water changes for while I let my ratios go up to 1:10 and things cleared up.

Plants can also help.

 

[mle421]

i have a phosphate kit, i did the test and that was the problem, my water changes are hurting rather then helping, thanks guys!

 

[fearlessfisch]

Umm...you dropped a beer bottle in your aquarium.

 

[gfink]

i have a phosphate kit, i did the test and that was the problem, my water changes are hurting rather then helping, thanks guys!

What are your phosphate and nitrate levels?