Green Water Came Back. Argh.

[tamara]

Well i had green water for about 3 months and i was about to buy a uv sterilizer because i tried everything except chemicals [i don't think they're needed to acheive a good tank] But then the clerk at my lfs said to try to clean everything out even if that means requiring another cycling [i wasn't to worried about a second cycle.. i would prefer that to green water] well i never got the cycle, and my tank stayed sparkling clean for about a month, then i had a horrible accident, my heater broke and fried most the fish at 100 degrees farenheight except for a few guppies..mostly the younger guppies, [i only had guppies..lots and 2 cories] So i only had about 5 guppies left so i deceided to fix that up wait for a while and about 2 to 3 weeks later when all was fine i decided to buy 2 angel fish [they were on sale for 8$ CAD.. for both!] and 5 cories for 20$ CAD for all so i deceided to get those 7 fish plunk em in my 20 gallon tank. The angels are about an inch large and when thy grow to 3 inches i will buy a larger tank for them so that they have space. Anyways the next day or two i noticed the water was getting cloudy, so i did a water change of about 10-20% didn't help, the next day i did it again didn't help... and now it's almost completly green again. It's probably because of the amount of fish that i put in all at the same time? I've got about 5 guppies they're fry or teenagers not even close to full grown, 2angels an inch large, and 5cories. I know it's a few fish over the limit but i was hoping the angels would munch on the guppies which so far...sadly they haven't. Well anyways, What should i do about it? I really don't want to spend the money on buying a uv sterilizer, so should i just clean everything out like last time hoping that it won't doing another mini cycle ?

sorry about the long paragraph, and thanks a ton !!
tamara

 

[mark.w.jones]

Your green water is purely and simply down to over stocking and fluctuating ammonia levels and will continue to keep coming back if you don't make some adjustments. Guppies breed like anything and will soon over run a small tank like yours. You need to get more ruthless with culling fry or consider keeping all males or all females. Again the Angels are really not suitable for that tank and bought as a impulse buy rather than with proper planning.

You need to have a rethink. If it was me I would return the Angels and go for all male guppies if you like them. Either that or consider keeping something other than livebearers. Good options for a small tank are danios, rasboras, tetras, corys, shrimp. Unless you change you stocking then the algae bloom is very likely to return.

To get rid of the green water once you have thought about your stocking try a 3 day blackout with a few towels followed by a large water change.

Incidently what are your levels for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, temp. + how long are lights on for, what are you feeding + how much and what is your maintainance schedule?

 

[tamara]

Your green water is purely and simply down to over stocking and fluctuating ammonia levels and will continue to keep coming back if you don't make some adjustments. Guppies breed like anything and will soon over run a small tank like yours. You need to get more ruthless with culling fry or consider keeping all males or all females. Again the Angels are really not suitable for that tank and bought as a impulse buy rather than with proper planning.

You need to have a rethink. If it was me I would return the Angels and go for all male guppies if you like them. Either that or consider keeping something other than livebearers. Good options for a small tank are danios, rasboras, tetras, corys, shrimp. Unless you change you stocking then the algae bloom is very likely to return.

To get rid of the green water once you have thought about your stocking try a 3 day blackout with a few towels followed by a large water change.

Incidently what are your levels for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, temp. + how long are lights on for, what are you feeding + how much and what is your maintainance schedule?

They are all male guppies due to when they got fried, all the females died. And i'll cull them all out when i get home in a few days.
They don't let people return fish at any of my lfss.
I've already tried 3day blackouts, actually, mine was a 4 day- did absolutly nothing.
ammonia = 0.1, nitrites = 0, temperature=80 [angels like warmer so a site said],
since i noticed the water going cloudy/green i only turn it on to check to see that all the fish are healthy etc.
and i feed them flakes & shrimp pellets during the day when it's light enough for them to see he food without having the lights on
Lately i've been doing water changes quite often because of the green water
But other than that, i do maybe 30% weekly, also abbout two inches gets ..i forgot the word.. disstergrated? haha i forget the word lol weekly.

 

[tamara]

well if i get rid of all the guppies and just have the 2angels, and 5cories then the tank will be alright.
I asked in another thread if that was alright, and two people said it's fine.

 

[mark.w.jones]

I would disagree with them I'm afraid. Most people quote around 10 gallons of water per Angel although in actual fact you can get away with less gallons if you are prepared to do more water changes and overfilter. However, you also need an 18" high tank which I doubt very much your 20 gallon is. And...you are fully stocked with just Angels I'm afraid. They will also eat your guppies when they get a little bigger and will soon outgrow your tank height wise as they get taller than they do long. I personally feel they need a much bigger tank to be kept well, really a 3ft, 18" high tank. So yes, you can keep them but be prepared for upgrading your tank soon, as they are gonna get too big, poop out more than your filter can deal with, which will potentially cause an ammonia spike and more green water.

Unless you are prepared to change your stock to something suitable then the green water won't go away. All I can suggest to help is planting fast growing plants on 50% of your gravel. Thai Onions, Dwarf Ambulia, horwort, crypts and java ferns are all good options.

 

[tamara]

I would disagree with them I'm afraid. Most people quote around 10 gallons of water per Angel although in actual fact you can get away with less gallons if you are prepared to do more water changes and overfilter. However, you also need an 18" high tank which I doubt very much your 20 gallon is. And...you are fully stocked with just Angels I'm afraid. They will also eat your guppies when they get a little bigger and will soon outgrow your tank height wise as they get taller than they do long. I personally feel they need a much bigger tank to be kept well, really a 3ft, 18" high tank. So yes, you can keep them but be prepared for upgrading your tank soon, as they are gonna get too big, poop out more than your filter can deal with, which will potentially cause an ammonia spike and more green water.

Actually, my tank is 18"H, 24"L, and 11"W. I made sure that they would have the right height, and i just have about half an inch of rocks. and then plants in the back. I do not care if they eat my guppies, i have had probably over 500 in the span of less than a year, i am more than tired of the guppies. And i'm getting rid of hopefully all of my guppies to my friend and the rest are being culled. I have two filters, one that came with my tank, and the other is one that i bought so that i know it will for sure always be fine with my bioloads. Also i did research the angels, so it wasn't just a random buy. I know quite a bit about them.. and i wouldn't stick them in a tank that i think wouldn't be alright for them, and if they did grow to the height of the tank, i would obviously not be like "hehe that angelfish's fin goes from the lid to the ground hehe" Once i think they're like.. not even a quater of the height i'm buying a new tank.... but they're the size of a canadian loony.

 

[tamara]

Well if i get a plant or two, what do i do? Just stick it in my tank? And let it grow? How do i do it?

 

[tamara]

..hello? anyone? lol

 

[tamara]

...i'm desperate.
I've even asked in the plant section and NO one has replied...

 

[mark.w.jones]

Actually, my tank is 18"H, 24"L, and 11"W. I made sure that they would have the right height, and i just have about half an inch of rocks. and then plants in the back. I do not care if they eat my guppies, i have had probably over 500 in the span of less than a year, i am more than tired of the guppies. And i'm getting rid of hopefully all of my guppies to my friend and the rest are being culled. I have two filters, one that came with my tank, and the other is one that i bought so that i know it will for sure always be fine with my bioloads. Also i did research the angels, so it wasn't just a random buy. I know quite a bit about them.. and i wouldn't stick them in a tank that i think wouldn't be alright for them, and if they did grow to the height of the tank, i would obviously not be like "hehe that angelfish's fin goes from the lid to the ground hehe" Once i think they're like.. not even a quater of the height i'm buying a new tank.... but they're the size of a canadian loony.

Well I take everything back Your tank is just about OK for those 2 Angels at the moment although as I said I would prefer to see them in something bigger. Plant wise you want to go for fast growing easy stuff like thai onions, java ferns tied to wood, Dwarf ambulia, Cryptocoryne wendtii and hornwort. All sponge / pots / weights removed from roots then pushed into gravel and fed a simple liquid plantfood on a regular basis. Seachem plant foods are good. Plants are very, very good at combatting algae problems.

 

[tamara]

Haha that's alright, most people think it is shorter but i always wanted angels so i checked when i bought the tank last year, but i've just gotten around to buying them. So for java ferns, i have rocks in my tank but they're larger.. like each one is 1-2inches large and there are like.. some gaps in between the rocks and everything is that okay for the java ferns? Says that they can be rooted to wood, or bigger rocks. I couldn't find anything on Thai onions but "Crinum thaianum" is that the same? Well they i actually really like, but the only thing is that i have larger rocks, and not gravel for them to be planted in, will that be a problem? The Dwarf ambulia seem to be a very hardy plant..That'd be good for me and it's fast growing as well, so I think so far i like all three of those [ps: i'm researching them while i'm talking here] And i like the Cryptocoryne wendtii plants. So i think i'm going to print off pictures of that plants, draw a box and arrange them in my box [the box is the tank] Before i buy any of them. But The thing was the rocks/gravel, i really don't like gravel because it's so much more cleaning [all the food under] and my larger rocks it has space in between for my cories to get the food, so do the plants need gravel or are my rocks ok?

 

[mark.w.jones]

Plants need a reasonably fine substrate to root in to. Anything from sand to coarse gravel with 5mm pieces. They cant just be tucked between anything bigger than this and will constantly keep floating away if you try. The thai onions Crinum thaianum might be ok as they are a bulb and when you plant them you only push the bottom half of the bulb under the gravel anyway. So you might get away with wedging them between rocks. You might also be able to leave the others growing in their pots, this isn't ideal but you may get away with it. Java ferns are virtually bomb proof and just need tying to wood / large rocks with cotton. Anubias Barteri var. nana can can also be tied to rocks and wood but is too slow growing and would get infested with algae in your current tank. Best to add it while the others are growing on. All the other plants mentioned are relatively fast growing. This is good for combatting algae as they out compete it for micronutrients. As long as you have about 50% coverage you'll be fine.

These websites are useful for plant ID and for picking plants by ease to grow:

http/www.tropica.com/default.asp

http/www.plantgeek.net/plantguide.php

If you can't find those plants at your LFS then just pick a few healthy looking specimins and give them a try, they're not too expensive. Just avoid anything that isn't green, anything that has extremely fine wispy, almost thread like leaves and amazon swords. There may also be an online stockist who posts. This is how I get all my plants.

 

[tamara]

Well my friend has black gravel that looks REALLY good, so maybe i could put some black gravel at the bottom and have the occasional larger rocks that i already have on it?

 

[GuppyDude]

Algae bloom maybe. In which case it'll eventually kill itself off. I know doing water changes makes it worse though. Id run a parameter check to ensure its not something else first.

 

[tamara]

i already have checked the water.
it is fine.