Green Water, Can't Get rid of it

[Henry1210]

Hi All,

New to the forum, but have had freshwater tanks in the past.

I got my daughter a 10 startup tank. The tank was good for a month or two and now it's green. It's so green you can't even see the fish in the tank.

I tested the water, it looks ok (test results are attached) but i can't seem to get the water clear.

I took out most of the gravel by hand, changed the filter and have been dropping the water to about 20% and refilling with fresh water and still it keeps turning green.

Any advice?

THanks

 

[Autumnsky]

If you don't want to get a UV sterilizer, then you might want to just start over and clean out the tank. Scrape and bleach and use a big bottle of Peroxide to treat the under the edges.

Bleach info for amounts to use
https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/holu/documents/hom-sani.pdf

And if you already changed the filter pads, bleach out the filter as well. Any recently used items in the tank could have algae cells in them.

This green water is awesome food for raising Daphnia... If you happen to have any friends who raise fish they may be interested in it for Daphnia. Really good food for fish.

UV is the better choice for preserving any beneficial bacteria, but It doesn't seem if you changed the filter pads that it is cycled anyway.

I would bleach it out. Everything, including nets and buckets so the little algae cells are destroyed.

Then rinse, rinse and rinse some more including under the rims and then fill and add Prime let sit for a half a day to a day and then start over. If not too inconvenient, let dry in the sun (or pretty much dry it and then let bake in the sun till it is not moist).

Fish can live in a bucket of clean (always use declorinated temperature matched) water after being rinsed in clean water. (that part was more for anyone in the future reading this since you know that having kept fish)

Then you already have some fish.

What kind? and how many?

How much light is the tank getting every day?

 

[Aiken Drum]

Is the tank sat in direct sunlight?

 

[Henry1210]

If you don't want to get a UV sterilizer, then you might want to just start over and clean out the tank. Scrape and bleach and use a big bottle of Peroxide to treat the under the edges.

Bleach info for amounts to use
https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/holu/documents/hom-sani.pdf

And if you already changed the filter pads, bleach out the filter as well. Any recently used items in the tank could have algae cells in them.

This green water is awesome food for raising Daphnia... If you happen to have any friends who raise fish they may be interested in it for Daphnia. Really good food for fish.

UV is the better choice for preserving any beneficial bacteria, but It doesn't seem if you changed the filter pads that it is cycled anyway.

I would bleach it out. Everything, including nets and buckets so the little algae cells are destroyed.

Then rinse, rinse and rinse some more including under the rims and then fill and add Prime let sit for a half a day to a day and then start over. If not too inconvenient, let dry in the sun (or pretty much dry it and then let bake in the sun till it is not moist).

Fish can live in a bucket of clean (always use declorinated temperature matched) water after being rinsed in clean water. (that part was more for anyone in the future reading this since you know that having kept fish)

Then you already have some fish.

What kind? and how many?

How much light is the tank getting every day?

Thank you for all the helpful info.

There are two fish in there. An Angel fish and a platy in there.

I think I'm going to go the bleach route.

I don't have prime, but I do have API tap water conditioner and quick start. Are those good to use in place of prime? if so, which one should I use (tap water conditioner or quick start)

When leaving fish in another (non filtered) bucket/tank etc...should I keep them in their green water for half a day while the new water is running? or should I put them in a bucket with fresh water temp matched with whatever additive you suggest?

Thanks

 

[Autumnsky]

You want to make sure the water conditioner will neutralize heavy metals and generally I would imagine it would be fine. Mainly the rinsing it critical.

So to minimize the chance of algae cells coming to the new environment, I would do a series of water changes, with the fish and get them used to the new water anyway.

Then put them into a new clean bleached and super treated bucket with new water (bucket and net cleaned like the tank, with many rinses water, conditioned water) then finally before going into the new tank, use the new net and lift them out, and just to be on the safest side, I'd rinse them with some treated water and then and into the new tank, not putting in the net, just gently dropping them in.

All the water would be of the similar temp and all new water conditioned like the new tank water.

The goal is to eliminate all little algae cells by the water changes, including any which might be ON the fish.

Then fingers crossed and hope for the best.

You might also want to dose
https://www.seachem.com/flourish-excel.php

This helps keep algae at bay as well so maybe as an extra precaution would help. You can look at it and see of it might be of use to you.