Tropical Fish Forums

[Fish4fun]

I think I gave myself an algae bloom.

My planted 55g has been running very smoothly since the beginning of October. On 15 November I added DIY CO2 and a light upgrade to 130w instead of 30w. Plants began to really grow. So did the green spot algae.

On 16 December I did a major plant pruning; I trimmed back almost two-thirds/three-quarters of the Ambulia and one-third of the green cabomba. (I didn't touch the Amazon sword, Hygrophila, crypt, Lotus or Ludwigia)

The water has since become quite cloudy. There are noticeable bits of algae on the plant surfaces and the Otos are becoming obese.

There is plenty of information on how to combat this problem, but I was hoping that someone may be able to confirm my suspicion that the heavy plant pruning was the final contribution needed to set off an algae bloom. Suddenly allowing all that extra light into the tank by removing most of the shade giving Ambulia was possibly not the best idea?

[utah2bearsplaying]

There are not enough beneficial bacteria to keep up with the amount of fish or fish related waste currently. This is either a newly setup aquarium with too many or too large of fish or it is one that was overcleaned.
Hope this helps, I am sure it will after 32 years of fish keeping here.

[heinkok]

Hey,

It sounds like you didn't clean your gravel and rocks well enough. Cloudy/milky water usually means that (1) the substrate is dirty and (2) that you didn't run the tank in long enough.

Visit my tropical fish blog at: http://thetropicalfishblog.blogspot.com/
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[Johnny Relentless]

I came home from work and saw a white cloudy tank. I thought it was a bacterial bloom. But looking closer, it looks kinda greenish.

My tank is 29 days old today. Yesterday I did a water change (awkwardly, as usual) and I kicked up a some gravel and spooked my Tetras. Gotta use a smaller container to refill with, I think.

I added some CSM (trace minerals) and some potassium sulfate, but otherwise didn't add any ferts, because nitrates and phosphates were pretty high before the water change, and were just at the minimum recommended (for a planted tank) levels afterward.

Today, after finding the bloom, I tested and found nitrates to be at 15PPM, and phosphates at 2. These numbers are within recommended levels for a planted tank.

I have quite a few fast-growing stem plants (Wisteria) and few other types of plants.

I guess I need to do a black-out, huh? For how many days is it done? Three? Four?
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Johnny Relentless, Sunrise, FL

29 gallon tank, 65 watts of lighting at 6700k, fluorite substrate, many plants, a few guppies.

[Austinv]

I had a similar problem. If you have wood in the tank, take it out and boil it. Do a water change and reduce the feeding. Reduce the light and make sure there is no direct sunlight. I did all of these and my cloudy/green water disappeared.
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Austin V
1 gallon Crab tank
5.5 Gallon Planted
10 gallon breeding
20 gallon planted

aquahobby.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=49075

[RevZ]

I had green water as well.. and it was literally GREEN!, so green and hazy that I couldn't see the otherside (side to side, as well as front to back). The only thing I could see from the other side was light coming from there.

so anyway, I went to some asian fish shop, where they were selling these awsome corner filters for $2.50. so I got one, put it in, (but instead of putting the carbon in the filter, I put the bacteria noodles) and its been 2 days, and the tank is clean, and it looks like its HD TV!!

so yeah, you could using a corner filter on your tank, but remember! Use the bacteria noodles.

GoodLuck!

[toah]

You said you just added a few more fish to your 55 gal?...What are the current inhabitants?...The coloudy water could just be that your overstocking your tank...a bigger filter or an extra filter would help in this case but if its over stocked you would be stunting your fish growth which will result in dead fishys, eek...

If your tank isnt overstocked, is it a relativey new setup?...it might not have cycled properly, in this case its a bacterial imbalance. This can be easily fixed with buying somesort of biological liquid which contains live bacteria.

Bright'n'clear by Mardel should help as well as bi-weekly gravel vacs with your waterchanges.
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.::Vikki::.

[russetxwolf]

Hello! I got a 10 Gallon Fish Tank Starter Kit about three or four days ago. I let the fiter and such run for two days without my common goldfish in it,and on the second day it became cloudy. The water has cleared up,but is it safe? I got my one-eyed fish at the fair about a year ago,and I don't want him to die because of my lack of fish knowlegde. ^^'

[macika]

[rewbear97]

I bought some flair fin(?) gold fish 3 all together one is a beautiful gold color and the other two are very uniquely patterned calicos. I have had them for almost 2 months. Today, when I went to feed them, they were acting very strange. The two calicos are chasing the goldfish for lack of a better description it looks like they are aggressively trying to sniff her butt. they also will push into the sides of the gold fish when she stops for a break and squish her between them. What are they doing? I have never seen this behavior before so I am stumped. I thought maybe breeding but I've never bred fish so I don't know. The water was hazy as well and I wondered if this had anything to do with it although I did a water change cleaned and changed the filter and vacuumed the bottom.
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