mack Posted June 19, 2007 Report Share Posted June 19, 2007 Hello Fellow Members: I need all the help and advice I can get. I am trying to operate a 20 gallon freshwater tank dating back to early March 2007, and have not been able to get rid of a green shade of cloudy water. Until 6 or 7 weeks ago I had crystal clear water. Originally I changed the water (6 or 7 gallons) once a week. Since this cloudy stuff began I have changed the water (10 gallons) as much as 3 times a week. My last water change included changing the filter, vacuuming the gravel and cleaning the glass and filters, as I usually do. That evening the water was almost clear and looking good. The next morning it was already turning green and cloudy. The water samples (taken twice weekly) are consistently in the 6.8 to 7.2 range and the nitrates are at 0.0. Currently there are 4 adult guppies, 5 neons, 2 corydoras, one octoinclus, 1 molly and 4 fry. The plants are mostly plastic as I haven't had much luck getting the real ones to root; however, there are 2 small live stocks which are healthy and growing. My filter is a Whisper 20 Power filter which uses Imagine B103 filters. It has been suggested that I change and improve the whole system but, of course, I would prefer not to if at all possible. I would truly appreciate any advice that anyone out there would like to share. Without help the only cure I know of is a hand grenade in the tank; it's the only humane thing I can think of for both the fish and myself! Mack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JORG Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 Get a small U V sterilizer they cost 70 bucks at golds (in Calgary) and you will never have green water again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 Here's a great article on Aquarium Algae. Under the 'Green Water - Algae Bloom' heading there are 5 methods for dealing with it. Fortunately, hand grenades aren't one of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mack Posted June 20, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 Here's a great article on Aquarium Algae. Under the 'Green Water - Algae Bloom' heading there are 5 methods for dealing with it. Fortunately, hand grenades aren't one of them Thanks so much for the articles!! I'm sure one of these methods will work and will try the garbage bags first. I do have one concern about feeding the fish while they're so tightly wrapped out of sight. Do they go hungry for 4 days or do I feed them at 3:00 a.m. by the light of a flashlight? And I guess I can put away the grenade now.... Mack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted June 20, 2007 Report Share Posted June 20, 2007 The fish should be fine without food for 4 days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mack Posted June 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 Get a small U V sterilizer they cost 70 bucks at golds (in Calgary) and you will never have green water again Thanks Jorg, we'll look into that. It's nice to hear first hand that the sterilizer works well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mack Posted June 21, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 The fish should be fine without food for 4 days. Thanks again Werner; I'll wrap up the tank today. Mack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigA Posted June 21, 2007 Report Share Posted June 21, 2007 I have another possibility. I had the same issue in my 65 gal tank about a month ago. Very cloudy water. Kinda greenish tinge. I was doing 20-30 gal water changes once a week, and the tank had been up since february. XP2 filter. I found out that my tank had not yet completed cycling, and as I was changing almost half of the water once a week, I was slowing the cycle down immensely. I fixed it by not doing a water change for about 3 weeks. This allowed the nitrifying bacteria to build up to a point where they could handle the bioload. Once the water cleared itself up, I resumed my water changes again. I'm sure that the options that were proposed by werner and jorg will work as well, as the same solutions were suggested in my thread, but I found that had the same reservations about those methods. The UV sterilizer is on the expensive side and was not sure about wrapping the tank in plastic. Anyway, just food for thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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