Best Way To Fix & Prevent Green Tinge To Water?

[branjie]

Hi all, My aquarium is around two months old, and I've noticed that it is starting to get a green tinge to the water. It just looks like the common green algae tinge you see in a lot of aquariums, but it bugs me. I want my water to be crystal clean. I have my fluoro lights on for 8 hours a day, as I have read that the fish need this to maintain their health and colour. Is 8 hours too much? The tank is not in direct sunlight, but gets some sunlight from the windows in the room. I have had three live plants in the tank, but took one out today because it looked like it was breaking down. This problem started before I added the plants, but has definitely got worse since.

Now I have this problem, do I keep doing small water changes each day to get rid of it, or should I keep the tank dark for a day or two? I have 20 small fish in the aquarium at the moment, and they can't be moved out to replace all of the water.

How do I fix this, and stop it from happening again? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[afishdude]

fish dont need light..... live plants do.
i have my lights on for 12-15hrs a day.

put carbon in your filter to remove color/ oder from water, works everytime

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

First thing I would do is give the 'ole nitrates level a good checking. If they are higher than normal keep up the water changes to help remove the food source for the algae. If/when those are fairly low then...

Black out the tank for 3-4 days (I've heard of going for longer). Completely, not even peaking in to feed the fish.

Carbon is a chemical filter...and thus would imagine it would have a very limited effect on green uni-cellular algae. I don't run activated carbon in my filter, I do leave the lights on for 10-12 hours a day, and I don't have green water.

 

[branjie]

I don't have anything to test the nitrates. Perhaps it might work if I had the lights on less, kept the blinds closed for a couple of days and changed 20% of the water each day for 3 days or so??? I'll ask the LFS about carbon next time I go there.

 

[afishdude]

my tanks gets green water about every week. i just put a crap load of carbon in the filters every water change and it works great. and carbon is dirt cheap.

 

[smurfyy_2k3]

fish dont need light..... live plants do.
i have my lights on for 12-15hrs a day.

put carbon in your filter to remove color/ oder from water, works everytime

fish need light as much as humans do, its how they make vitamin d

 

[afishdude]

no smurfy what i ment by it is that they dont need absolutly need it. they wont die if its not on all day every day.

 

[branjie]

Thanks guys. I'm too scared to put my fish in the dark for 2 or 3 days, and certainly wouldn't want to have to do it on a regular basis. I'm going to see if I can get some carbon. I assume you just shove it in with the filter sponge?

 

[2day]

if you really don't like the water becoming green, its just a suggestion, but maybe get a uv steriliser thing?

 

[branjie]

2day I don't know what that is, I'll go do a google search.....

 

[smurfyy_2k3]

Thanks guys. I'm too scared to put my fish in the dark for 2 or 3 days, and certainly wouldn't want to have to do it on a regular basis. I'm going to see if I can get some carbon. I assume you just shove it in with the filter sponge?

it 2 or 3 days without light will do absolutely no harm at all and will easily remove the greenwater i was saying great lengths of time will

 

[2day]

Branjie, its like a piece of techno thingi which apparently kills the algae or something off... A couple of threads were on here...

Here
Another
And Another
One More

I hope this helps...

Or, if you are worried, try putting the tank in total darkness for a few days... It shouldn't hard your fish, but it will most probably remove your algae issues temporarily

 

[nukeonekitty]

Someone made a post on UV stabilizers on ebay for dirt cheap.

 

[branjie]

Thanks for your replies everyone. Wouldn't it be easy to just use a bit of carbon in the filter? I have seen some on the net for $1.65.

 

[2day]

I guess you could try and use some carbon, if your not really willing to buy a sterilizer... Give it a go, and see whether it fixes the problem. If it doesn't, maybe buy a uv?