Cloudy Green Water

[Pough]

Hey everyone. I know it has something to do with algae, but I only keep the lights on for 6 hours a day, and make sure to not overfeed them. I have two gold fish and one dojo loach. They all get along and for months The water has been clear and lovely, until maybe about a month ago, it seemed just overnight it got really green and cloudy to the point I can't even see them swimming around until they come really close to the glass.

I normally only do about a %50 water change every second week, cleaning the glass with an algae pad and siphoning the water with a gravel vaccuum. I have a Whisper 20i filter and a 20 gallon aquarium. Feeding them standard goldfish food. I've been researching stuff about this sort of issue and someone had said to cover the aquarium with towels and leave the lights off for 4 days, feeding them only once every other day. I've done this and cleaned the water as I normally would, and it's still cloudy and green. I'll provide pictures at the end of this post.

Before I go out and potentially waste money on buying Acurel-F and/or a UV Sterilizer, I wanted your suggestions on what I could try that has no chance at harming the fish. I don't have any live plants but other people claiming to have "fixed" the cloudy green water issue have claimed they help. Thank you in advance for your replies.

Imgur Picture Album of the water: imgur: the simple image sharer

 

[ArtistGardener]

Have you tested your water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels? Two goldfish and a dojo is an awful lot for one 20 gallon tank with only a 20 rated filter. How long has the tank been running and how big are the fish?

You need to get a bigger aquarium (see the posts about goldfish in the coldwater forum) as soon as you can. In the meantime, you should add another filter or replace the one you have with a larger one like an Aquaclear 50. With goldfish, even in larger tanks, a 50% water change is recommended every week. Every other week is not often enough for goldies as they produce copious amounts of waste. Your algae bloom is caused by too much waste in the water. Another help is to throw in some floating plants like hornwort which can get by with just 8 hours of normal fluorescent lights. It will use up quite a bit of nitrate in the water, but you still will need to upgrade your tank fairly soon.

 

[jwh0818]

Can you test for phosphate and nitrates please?

 

[tomtom14]

I think you have an algae disease called green water. This makes the water very green and reduces visibility massively. This could have been caused by high lighting, high ammonia, high nutrient levels, disturbance of the substrate. This can be cured by using a uv light filter. This is the fastest way but the most expensive. A blackout for 4 days could work as well but it seems like you did that. This is where you cover the whole tank and turn the light of for 4 whole days. The final cure is using willow branches. Do this by placing the willow branches upright in the tank not in the gravel after 10 days roots will appear and these roots will suck up all the nutrients/ green water. I would try the blackout then the willow branches and if they fail the uv filter will certainly work. So to say so much hope this helps.

 

[libertybelle]

I think you have an algae disease called green water. This makes the water very green and reduces visibility massively. This could have been caused by high lighting, high ammonia, high nutrient levels, disturbance of the substrate. This can be cured by using a uv light filter. This is the fastest way but the most expensive. A blackout for 4 days could work as well but it seems like you did that. This is where you cover the whole tank and turn the light of for 4 whole days. The final cure is using willow branches. Do this by placing the willow branches upright in the tank not in the gravel after 10 days roots will appear and these roots will suck up all the nutrients/ green water. I would try the blackout then the willow branches and if they fail the uv filter will certainly work. So to say so much hope this helps.

Would probably work temporarily but what the other poster said is true. With that much stock and that little filtration there are plenty of nutrients around and it will just come back again until the root is dealt with.

Easy fast growing stem plants can help compete with the algae too. Things like java moss or water wisteria etc...