MY FISH TANK WATER IS GREEN?
1 May 2010
10 Comments
I NEED HELP MY WATER IN MY FISH TANK IS GREEN.I HAVE TROPICAL FISHES WITH REAL LIVE ROCKS SOME CASTLES AND ACCESSORIES I HAVE A THERMAL TO KEEP THE TEMP WARM AND A FLUVA FILTER I JUST CHANGE THE FILTER AND CHANGE THE WATER.WHY IS MY WATER STILL GREEN? AND WHAT CAN I DO TO SOLVE THIS PLEASE HELP I HAVE 10 FISHES AND I DONT WANT THEM TO DIE
This is for a freshwater tank.
If you do not have live plants you do not need your light on. If the tank is getting light from a window then it is getting to much light. If the fish are not in total darkness they can eat with the light off. If you are not fish watching then the light needs to be off. Just turn your light on a couple hours a day or less and watch the fish during that time.
My fish are happier with the light off. Just have it on when you need it on. Like siphon gravel washing once a month.
If it is very green you may want to replace a gallon of water everyday or so until it gets cleared up. Have your filter running so there will be plenty of aeration since algae will be dying. You might want to remove 1 gallon of water per day or every week until it gets cleared up. If it is a fresh water tank add 1 half teaspoon plain salt to each gallon of fresh water added and the same temp as the tank water.
If you are adding water to the tank that has evaporated don’t add salt.
Don’t over feed the fish tank. If any food goes to the bottom stop feeding until you see it is gone. I like to turn off the filter while the fish eat so no food goes into the filter to rot.[I put a switch on mine]
Work to have healthy water. Don’t clean the tank and the filter the same day. wait a week between. You will destroy the bacterial balance that keeps the water clear not cloudy. Green is tiny plants growing in the water.
Hope this helps.
is this salt water?
do you use a gravel vaccum?
do you feed often? overfeed?
If it’s green water, it could be algae. try buying a small bottle of algae remover. that’ll probably help.
You can’t just change water and filter; you also have to clean the algae from the inside of all of the glass and also off of the ornaments and stuff that you have in there. They make some algae destroyer chemicals also that won’t harm the fish that you can buy at the pet store. In the future, when you clean it out… fill your sink about half way with water and put a couple of cups of bleach in it and soak all of your ornaments and then brush them all with a toothbrush and rinse them really good before putting them back in. While they’re soaking, you can clean the inside of the glass (with a scraper – also from the pet store) and change the filter. Only change about 25% of the water during each change and make sure you put chemicals in the water to take out the amonia and chlorine and all that stuff.
yeah that happened to me and i have a fluval but i soon found out it was becuse when i cleaned the rocks i did them all at once and you need to do a little at a time them i emptied the water and cleaned the rocks it was fine or you could just buy new rocks and you are supposed yo every year or so.
oh and whoever said use bleach don’t listen to him you can never ever use any kind of soap or chemical in or on anything in your fish tank.and if you don’t want the fish to die don’t use any soap,cleaners or chemicals
its could be algae. if you want to get it off you could by algae remover.
The green water is a type of algae that lives in the water (as opposed to on surfaces). Like other types of algae, this algae will utilise nitrogenous waste as well as phosphorous from the water. nitrogenous waste includes ammonia/ammonium, nitrite and nitrate, phosphorous is usually in the form of phosphates. nitrogeonous waste is almost impossible to eliminate entirely from the water but can be reduced with regular water changes and filter maintenance. Phosphates can be introduced to the water through a number of sources, uneaten fish food, fish waste, unfiltered tap water, ph buffers (most pH down uses sodium biphosphate), activated carbon among others. The best thing to do would be to first test the phosphate level in your aquarium and if there is phosphate present, find the most likely source. Activated carbon should be replaced after no more than 2 weeks and should not be used all the time. Find pH buffers that are phosphate free (these will usually use sodium bisulphate instead). Reduce the amount of food going into the aquarium, most aquariums are overfed and even if the fish eat all that is put into the aquarium, it is usually more than they need to eat. Test the phosphate level of your tap water, if there is phosphate present, a water filter might be an option, alternatively liquid phosphate treatments can be used when you are doing water changes. There are a number of phosphate redicung filter media available including phosphate absorbing filter pads (least effective), aluminium oxide media (white ceramic looking media) and granular ferric oxide (looks like rusted iron filings) which are the most effective phosphate removing media and can be used long term (several months).
Also, test your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels as keeping these to a minimum will also help with algae problems.
Ultraviolet sterilisers are not generally useful for small aquariums but they do help in eliminating green water so this could be another option. Keeping good water quality will be a better long term solution though.
Lastly, green water will generally not affect your fish, in fact the algae that causes green water will help to improve water quality. Algae will use oxygen at night though so it is important when there are large amounts of plants of algae in an aquarium to provide sufficient aeration to keep oxygen levels high.
First off, the caps lock key is on the left side of your keyboard! If you press it, you won’t type in all caps any more!
Secondly, your fish won’t die from the green water, unless it gets really bad. So don’t panic yet.
The green water is algae suspended in your water. Your recent filter change may have removed the beneficial bacteria needed for biological filtration, causing ammonia to build up, which the algae thrives on. Thus the algae bloom. When you clean your filter, make sure you leave the biological part of it alone. Read the directions that came with your filter to learn the proper way to clean it.
To get rid of this algae bloom, you’ll need to get rid of the source of it’s nutrients – namely the ammonia. Test for ammonia and use ammo-lock to neutralize any ammonia each time you detect it. Contine to test for ammonia until your filter cycles again. you won’t be able to detect any ammonia again. Do water changes every couple of days to keep the ammonia level down, and remove some of that algae. Your filter could take a month to cycle again. Once it does, the algae (and the green color) should go away by itself.
If after your filter has cycled you still have green water, you’ll need to kill the algae a different way. You could try a complete black-out of the tank for 3 days. Completely cover the tank with a blanket or anything that will completely block out ANY light from the tank. Be sure to turn out the light, of course. Leave it completely dark for 3 days, after which all the algae should have died. Immediately do a water change to remove as much dead algae as possible.
The best way (and the most expensive) to clear up the water is with an ultraviolet (UV) sterilizer. These things are awesome! They basically kill anything floating in the water by passing it through ultraviolet light. Your tank will be crystal clear. This is not a replacement for your regular filter, which provides mechanical, chemical, and biological filtration (the UV sterilizer doesn’t do these things). Here’s a link for a UV sterilizer:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4393+19643&pcatid=19643
Hi L.,
It sounds like an algae bloom. It won’t be harmful to your fish if you leave the filter on to provide oxygen, because at night plants also use oxygen, and algae are simple plants.
If you don’t overfeed, do partial water changes once a week or so, and clean the algae from the filter cartridges using tank water every so often, (I clean the cartridges once a week when I do partial water changes; it only takes a few minutes) the algae bloom will clear up on its own.
Strong lighting or sunlight can also cause algae blooms; if you have strong lighting, try keeping them on for an hour or two less and see if that helps.
Plants (in freshwater aquariums of course) will compete with the algae and reduce the nutrients and so keep algae in check. If yours is a freshwater tank, I’d recommend getting some plants like Amazon sword plants or hygrophila, as they are both easy to grow.
http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/plants/bleheri.php
Good luck,
David
My tank only turn into green when there are lots of live plants on it.
green water won’t hurt your fish. Try using only bottled water as tap water will have phosphates in it that will feed the phytoplankton.
- cut down on what you are feeding your fish, less fish waste, less fertilizer in the tank
- try planting some plants that will out-compete the green water
-change your light bulbs, incandescent (screw ins) every three months and tubes every six months. Old bulbs produce too much red spectrum light which is ideal for lower order plants
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