Help

[MickysGirl]

Hi everyone,

I'm Sharon. We have a 180 litre tropical tank with bristle nose plecs, sailfin plecs and a few tetra's in it. Not many fish at all and we've had the tank for around 4 years now, so its well established, but for the past couple of months the water has become cloudy, we've tried everything to clear it, the only thing that works is green-away, but that only clears it for 2-3 days then it goes cloudy again. The fish are perfectly happy, the Bristle nose plec have just bred again and everything is feeding normally.
It is a green cloudy colour, Ph level is fine.

HELP I want to see my fish again!!

Sharon

 

[pippoodle]

hi hun just a few questions

when did you last rinse the filter sponges in tank water
how often do you do water changes / gravel vacs
what are the ammonia , nitrite and nitrate readings
do you have any live plants

sounds like an algae bloom

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like you have a nice healthy case of green water algae. The key ingredients for green water seem to be nitrogen and light. If your nitrates are allowed to build up, they will provide the nitrogen and if the tank lights are on too much that will be the light.
I just set up a pond / tub 2 weeks ago and wanted green water for the fish so I added some ammonia and of course it is getting sunshine. Today I am going to put the fish into it and the water is pea-soup green. For my livebearers, that water is a health tonic but I also prefer clear water in my indoor tanks.