Green water and I can't get rid of it!!!!!!!?

Question

Hi. I've never had this problem before but I have green water that keeps coming back. Water changes, algae chemicals, ph chemicals.....what am I doing wrong? There was a white film inside on the glass a couple of weeks ago that I wiped off. This was probably from the chemicals I'm assuming. I do the test strips and the nitrates are in the higher range and the water is hard but everything else seems to be ok. I can't get my 60 gal. tank clear again!!! Please help. Should I start from the ground up as if it was a new tank. This is soooo aggravating. Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

DONT USE SOAP!!!

the high nitrates are probably feeding the algae, i would do a 25-50% water change and add a few plants to eat up the excess nitrates, your next problem is to figure out why your nitrate levels are so high! is your filter blocked? have you recently cleaned your filter or tank - if so your tank may be going through a mini nitrogen cycle.

Answer 2

scurb it with an old tooth brush and soap.

Answer 3

Go with Pee Tee's advice.  The only chemicals you should be adding is in the form of a water conditioner to your replacement water to remove the chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals.

Algae needs light and nutrients (nitrates), remove those things and it will die off.  Doing small 10% daily water changes is the perfect way to gradually lower the level of nitrates.  Also cut back on the amount of food you are feeding and keep the tank light off for 16-18 hours a day.

You shouldn't have to start from the ground up, just spend 7-10 days doing daily water changes and your green water should clear right up.

Answer 4

Algae requires light and nutrients to grow. You should begin doing 10% water changes every day until the situation clears up. Clean aquarium water doesn't have enough nutrients to support algae. Don't do massive water changes,it will risk killing the fish, especially with the high pH. Generally speaking, high pH is a good thing, however, it can cause the ammonia to remain in a more toxic form (NO3) as opposed to NO4. Be careful,and be patient and keep the water changes frequent and small.

Answer 5

stop with the chemicals!

Test your tap water for nitrates.  Hopefully it's 0.

The best thing for you to do is perform water changes.  This will lower the amount of waste that the algae feeds on, and will starve it to death.

Other things to try:

1) leave the lights off and cover the tank for a few days to kill off the algae - fish are fine in the dark

2) get a UV filter

3) add plants to your tank

Answer 6

As you've investigated (hopefully thoroughly and tried more than one product) algal problems, it is known (less common) for bacterium to cause green bloom.

If you've fully investigated algae as the culprit, thoroughly clean out your filter with a N E W toothbrush (don't ever ever ever ever ever use one you've put in your mouth!!! ARGH some people's kids >_>) I think you probably know that though by your post... Thorough cleaning of the filter, no toothbrush is really necessary, I tear up old T-shirts and use them for rags... Replace all of your filter media, especially your ceramic components if you use a multistage filter, they  will be housing the majority of the bacteria, should it be a bacterial bloom. 2 25% water changes over 2 days, see if that clears it up.

If you keep very sensitive fish such as discus, reduce the water changes to some combination of 50% of your tanks capacity over a week instead of 2 days, and clean the filter before you do this, and start immediately after cleaning out your filter to avoid it colonizing in your new ceramic pieces.

Sand Substrate can hold even more germs, and so if you have sand, removing a fair amount and wrinsing it with treated water may be in order.

More details should help find a solution, but do not under any circumstances treat an established aquarium like a new one. Let me know how it works out, and what steps you choose to take, I wont be offended if you dont take mine, but I'd like to see your tank recover.

Cheers,

Slurik

Answer 7

all I do is remove all the water and let all the decor soke in clean water, and thoroughly rinse out the gravel and aquarium.  after that fill it back up with water at the tempature it was last, redocorate, and put in any necasary chemicals.

( i think i spell ed necesary wrong)