Ishkabod Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 For some reason my Cichlid tank since just days before Christmas has developed a horrid Pea soup algae that i can't seem to be rid of. I need to do 50% water changes every few days to be able to distinguish a darker 1 inch fish against my light blue background. I've been using Aqua Giant's Algae remover and it's not seeming to work. I've reduced the time the lights are on and added some duckweed(that miraculously managed not to get shredded... yet.) Any tips or tricks? I've searched but can only find info on Algae in Ponds with pondfish. Thanks again L Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happeboy Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 (edited) only way I have gotten rid of really bad alga is total blackout (ZERO light) for 3-4 days. this should kill the alga (it doesnt have a large energy store) (other plants should be fine) its just a matter of doing a big water change and filtering the dead alga out. Though I didn't try to many chemicals as I was told they were fairly useless and quite harmful. Edited January 13, 2009 by happeboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JORG Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 If you can --invest in a small uv sterilizer the one I bought was around 65 bucks at Golds It will take care of the bloom in no time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devocole Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 I had green water for weeks. Figured it was due to poor filtration. Put a canister filter on and no more green water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parachromis1 Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Black your tank out, 0 light is the only thing that'll actually 100% work besides a UV filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
werner Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 There's a good article on green water here: Aquarium Algae which describes several methods to get rid of it. Blackout is by far the easiest and cheapest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darcy Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 For some reason my Cichlid tank since just days before Christmas has developed a horrid Pea soup algae that i can't seem to be rid of. I need to do 50% water changes every few days to be able to distinguish a darker 1 inch fish against my light blue background. I've been using Aqua Giant's Algae remover and it's not seeming to work. I've reduced the time the lights are on and added some duckweed(that miraculously managed not to get shredded... yet.) Any tips or tricks? I've searched but can only find info on Algae in Ponds with pondfish. Thanks again L The cheapest way is like they said turn off the lights for a few days or you can try a chemical that is used in ponds called clear fast made by laguna works great but it will turn the water white for a day and then the bottom of the tank will have white sludge from the dead algae so make sure you have good filtration if use and it is highly consitrated to so you do not need much of it read directions closly on bottle if you use it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 Green water sucks. I tried the lights out idea and nothing came of it. the algae just kept reproducing. I tried W/C every 3 days at about 50% still no luck but more algea. I had a canister filter on mine and I had to turn down the flow rate which helped a bit. I also tried a kent product that has helped others with green water, no luck with me. LIghts out again still no luck. i ended up getting a UV steralizer from a friend....Works great CAUTION..... green water can be transfered between tanks days before it cleared up in my 67G I got it in my 112. This rapidly took over my tank within a week there were no fish to be seen. THIS TIME I did a 20% W/C everyday for a month. One morning I woke up and all of it was gone. The daily W/C work because you end up removing the nutrients from the water that the algae needs to thrive. getting rid of it varies from tank to tank Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 I tried the lights out idea and nothing came of it. the algae just kept reproducing. Did you just turn the lights out or did you cover the tank to completely black it out for a few days? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PiscesGirl Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 I've had this twice and in my experience: 1st time was my first tank and I was very "green" myself, so I listened to everything and anything I was told.. I was advised to do 50% WC everyday to "thin" the water and (as mentioned above) kill the nutrients.. problem was, ended up killing enough nutrients to kill all the fish!! 2nd time, was more relaxed, knew what NOT to do, read up a bit and went with a clumping solution. Thickens and clumps the bloom enough to be filtered. This worked like a charm!! 55g cleared in 2 days. Only thing, was I had to change filter inserts 3 times in those 2 days. Afterwards found out better to substitute inserts with open cell sponges that can be rinsed out and re-used while treating... next time Let us know how you decided to go! Good Luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishkabod Posted January 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 I've had this twice and in my experience:1st time was my first tank and I was very "green" myself, so I listened to everything and anything I was told.. I was advised to do 50% WC everyday to "thin" the water and (as mentioned above) kill the nutrients.. problem was, ended up killing enough nutrients to kill all the fish!! 2nd time, was more relaxed, knew what NOT to do, read up a bit and went with a clumping solution. Thickens and clumps the bloom enough to be filtered. This worked like a charm!! 55g cleared in 2 days. Only thing, was I had to change filter inserts 3 times in those 2 days. Afterwards found out better to substitute inserts with open cell sponges that can be rinsed out and re-used while treating... next time Let us know how you decided to go! Good Luck! Thanks for all the very helpful advice everyone. I think i'm going to try the blackout method with water changes. Not allot of water changes but more than usual. I'll see what i can do about another filter in the tank but that would depend on my budget. I tried the clumping clearing methond and no luck with that. I don't think i'll do the whole four days with complete blackout but the reduction i have made in the amount of time the light is on has stopped the algae from getting worse so a few more hours off and the odd day here and there after a water change and i think that would be safest. Thanks soooo much Lisa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Callie Posted January 15, 2009 Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 I tried the lights out idea and nothing came of it. the algae just kept reproducing. Did you just turn the lights out or did you cover the tank to completely black it out for a few days? No I just turned out the lights. The clumping method didnt work for me either. I was told 50% daily as well.....I didnt trust that so I did about 20% Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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