Green Water Battle

[tmurphy171]

My Goldfish tank has been suffering green water. My schedule has not permitted me to really attack it until this week. 30gal 10 month old tank,, Emperor 400 planted three inch gravel bottom. This week I've done 30% to 50% water changes daily and limited the light to an hour a day. The tank is much improved but still isn't perfect. When I vacuum the gravel I'm pulling bright green water from it. I've done the bottom three times this week and I believe I have gotten all of it up now. It was pretty bad. Water parameters are perfect with all the water changes this week.

Anyone have any advice? How long should I continue this routine? Thanks in advance!

[xxmoorishmanxx]

what is ur source of new water

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

Does your tank see daylight? if it does then you should have the tank covered (blanket) and try limiting the light on the tank to 1/2 hour, or use a smaller incandescent light to reduce the algae growth.. it took my tank 5 days with very little light to clear up a lot (i can see through it end to end.)

Edit, also slow down with the water changes, if your tap contains high phosphates then you could be feeding it more then controlling it.

watch you nitrate/ammonia and nitrite levels and only change the water if they get up in range.

also, try to add an air stone, it will help remove CO2 which can build up with a massive die off of algae.

[tmurphy171]

Today is the first day in a long time where it was sunny and I was home during the day. The sun angle is now lighting up the tank for hours. I'll cover it until the angle changes. I ordered a test kit to check my water for phosphates Thanks for the input.

[lyquidphyre]

I had this problem in my 75gal tank and the best thing I did was this-
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=13431
Minus the diatom powder

I had one in my garage, so I don't know how much they cost... but it was well worth it. My tank (which I couldn't even see the back of) cleared up in a matter of two days

I tried the blanket thing and water changes and it didn't help all that much.
So, if you can invest in a magnum filter like that... just hook it up for a day or two... and watch ur water clear up =o)