Green Water - cant see through the tank

[billeagan]

I have a 75 gallon that has been setup a long time. Its stocked with discus, clown loaches, a couple of cory cats and a stingray.

I have an eheim 2215, penguin 330 and 170 running on it.

The water turned green while I was on vacation. My mother in law said a couple of cory cats died while I was gone.

I can't assume they died due to the water they may have been a snack for the stingray.

All parameters are normal and the fish are all acting normally.

I have been doing 40 - 60 gallon daily water changes.

I have cleaned my filters - I assumed the eheim blew up it was about time to clean it.

I have charcoal running in the water.

Any suggestions - I'm out of ideas.

BTW, I made my own food and it is green. I don't think its the food I had been using it for several weeks and I still use it in my breeder tanks and the water is crystal clear in 3 29's and 1 55g.

[billeagan]

Well, this morning the water did not turn back. Its still a little green. So, the filter must have turned the corner?

I expect that another big water change will do it tonight.

If anyone has any idea of what happened please let me know. It was almost like a bacteria bloom with out the negative impacts.....

[RyanH]

It sounds to me more like an algae bloom. Do your tanks face any windows?

[Kagan]

Hi,

Were the lights on all times? (I agree with Ryan)

Did you mom or someone else did any water changes? Did they feed all times without changing the water?

Overstocking the tank with the above reasons in addition to the dead cory cats could result as green water.

Clean everything, make some water changes and it will be allright.

Kagan

[Carol_Roberts]

I was going to suggest leaving off the lights and putting a blanket on the tank to darken the tank and kill the algae

[billeagan]

It must have been an algae bloom. The tank is near the windows, but the shades are closed so no sunshine really gets to it.

I have my lights on a timer. They come on for about two hours in the morning and then for about 6 hours in the evening.

I've never had that problem before and the tank has been up over two years and had its current stocking level for about 6 months.

Since I didn't see the dead corys I couldn't tell you if it was the tank or if the sting ray decided to have a little snack.

[ChienHsu]

I have similiar problem for last two weeks. Besides cleaning throughly (I hope) with my tank, I have also put a blue transparent wrapping paper in between the light and the hood of the tank. It seems to resolve the algae bloom. You can give a try. Good luck.

Chien

[CliffsDiscus]

I would suggest what Carol recommended black out the tank and also turn
down the temperature.

Cliff

[Steve_Warner]

hi all,
Remember when you black out the tank of light, you will be starving the algae of their necessary power source to survive. This will effectively starve & kill them and stress the bio-load of the tank since there will be dead organic bodies floating 'round the water column. Oxygen usage will go UP bigtime during the breakdown process and lower D.O levels. Keep those Oxy levels up when doing this. Were there any other changes to the tank while you were gone? It sounds to me like nutrient levels went up dramatically and the algae exploded. What is the green component of your food?


Steve

[korbi_doc]

:juggle: I've had the same problem, just recently my UV light went over the peak, & the tank built up lotsa algae; replaced the bulb, this helps.. Also, the HOT Magnum micron filter or the Vortex Diatom filter will clear the tank up overnight, I have both & use'm frequently, especially if there's a problem.... JMO, Dottie :D

[billeagan]

Thanks for the suggestion. I might look into the magnum.

I am starting another algae bloom! I just did a 50% water change to boot...