Hi my fish tank water seems to be a little gren barely noticable to me but my bro always says it lookes green.I it a little green but i dont know why but how can i make it crystal clear again. Water change maybe?
Thanks
Mat
Thanks
Mat
My Water Is Coloured
- Thread starter fi$hys
- Start date
Fishkeeper2004
Fish Addict
Do you have bogwood in your tank? If yes, that will be whats colouring your water and it will need numerous water changes to become clear. If you arent using bogwood, just do a 50% water change and everything should be OK.
Inchworm
Li'l Ole Fish Lady
Hi fi$hys 
Is your tank fully cycled and are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings normal? How long do you leave the light on over your tank?
Do you do water changes and vacuum the bottom weekly?
Is your tank fully cycled and are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings normal? How long do you leave the light on over your tank?
Do you do water changes and vacuum the bottom weekly?
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
Check out the pinned articles in this link ;
http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=88643
When you first set up a tank it has no beneficial bacteria that resides in the filter sponge that can break down harmful toxins in the water like ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, and make the tank healthy for fish to live in all the time- the process of growing your beneficial bacteria and getting it stabled is called "cycling". Cycling your tank and getting your fish through the cycle is important as fish pee and poop ammonia, and without your beneficial bacteria the ammonia would just build up and kill the fish or make them sick.
To cycle a tank you need to use dechlorinator in the water and to have your filter running 24/7 at all times with some sort of ammonia source to keep the bacteria alive, there are numerous ways to cycle a tank- some things can cause your tank to mini cycle though which is bad, but thats the jist of cycling.
Cleaning and maintaining your tank correctly is very important to keeping it cycled
.
Anyways...The green water is probably an algae bloom, how often do you feed yoru fish and how much, how long do you leave your tank lights on every day and how do you go about keeping your tank clean and how often ?
;http
/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=88643When you first set up a tank it has no beneficial bacteria that resides in the filter sponge that can break down harmful toxins in the water like ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, and make the tank healthy for fish to live in all the time- the process of growing your beneficial bacteria and getting it stabled is called "cycling". Cycling your tank and getting your fish through the cycle is important as fish pee and poop ammonia, and without your beneficial bacteria the ammonia would just build up and kill the fish or make them sick.
To cycle a tank you need to use dechlorinator in the water and to have your filter running 24/7 at all times with some sort of ammonia source to keep the bacteria alive, there are numerous ways to cycle a tank- some things can cause your tank to mini cycle though which is bad, but thats the jist of cycling.
Cleaning and maintaining your tank correctly is very important to keeping it cycled
.Anyways...The green water is probably an algae bloom, how often do you feed yoru fish and how much, how long do you leave your tank lights on every day and how do you go about keeping your tank clean and how often
?rite thx for that i set up the tank abou year ago and had it fishless for a week then i got 3 little flagtails and had them for 2 months then i added them.I have a fluval 1 and it is always on 24/7 no matter what and i have 2 corys they clean it and about 25 malaysian trupmet snails.I also use 1 of them magnetic cleaner thing but thats rarely.What is algea bloom then and how do i get rid of it.
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
You need to ask the other questions first before we can tell whats causing the algae .
How often do you do water changes and clean your substrate etc?
What and how much do you feed your fish on average?
How long do you leave your tanl lights on a day?
.How often do you do water changes and clean your substrate etc?
What and how much do you feed your fish on average?
How long do you leave your tanl lights on a day?
Inchworm
Li'l Ole Fish Lady
Hi fi$hys
I'm glad you asked that question!
There's a little bit of science you need to learn to keep fish successfully, but it's not too hard. At 12 years of age you will be able to understand it easily.
Basically, a tank is said to be cycled when there are enough of the right kind of bacteria in it to consume all the ammonia that the fish produce from their wastes and turn it into nitrItes, which is another chemical. There will also be enough of another kind of bacteria that will eat all the nitrItes and turn them into nitrAtes.
Both ammonia and nitrItes are harmful to the fish, but nitrAtes are not harmful unless there is a whole lot of it in the water. NitrAtes can be easily removed when you do your weekly water changes and tank cleanings.
The bacteria I mentioned can come from the air and will start growing in your tank as soon as the fish are added, so you already have some of them growing in your filter and on your gravel. They will be reproducing as fast as they can because they have lots of food, and you will eventually have enough of them to do the job.
If you know someone who has an established tank, you could ask them for some of their filter material (which will have lots of these Beneficial Bacteria on it) and put it right into your filter to give you a head start and hurry the process. If not, you will just have to do a lot of water changes to keep the harmful chemicals at a minimum. That will keep your fish healthy and safe until your own bacteria grow.
What you are doing is called, "Cycling With Fish." It's called that because when the fish eat, they produce their own ammonia which feeds the bacteria. It's natural and the way many fishkeepers cycle their tanks. I did my original tanks that way too. These days many people add ammonia from a bottle to their tanks and cycle it before they get their fish. This is called, "Fishless Cycling." In the end both ways do the same thing.
Does this make sense so far? If not, let me know and I will try to explain more. If so, please post how big your tank is and how long it's been running. I'll then explain how you can test the water to tell how far along in the cycle your tank is. 
I'm glad you asked that question!
There's a little bit of science you need to learn to keep fish successfully, but it's not too hard. At 12 years of age you will be able to understand it easily. Basically, a tank is said to be cycled when there are enough of the right kind of bacteria in it to consume all the ammonia that the fish produce from their wastes and turn it into nitrItes, which is another chemical. There will also be enough of another kind of bacteria that will eat all the nitrItes and turn them into nitrAtes.
Both ammonia and nitrItes are harmful to the fish, but nitrAtes are not harmful unless there is a whole lot of it in the water. NitrAtes can be easily removed when you do your weekly water changes and tank cleanings.
The bacteria I mentioned can come from the air and will start growing in your tank as soon as the fish are added, so you already have some of them growing in your filter and on your gravel. They will be reproducing as fast as they can because they have lots of food, and you will eventually have enough of them to do the job.
If you know someone who has an established tank, you could ask them for some of their filter material (which will have lots of these Beneficial Bacteria on it) and put it right into your filter to give you a head start and hurry the process. If not, you will just have to do a lot of water changes to keep the harmful chemicals at a minimum. That will keep your fish healthy and safe until your own bacteria grow.
What you are doing is called, "Cycling With Fish." It's called that because when the fish eat, they produce their own ammonia which feeds the bacteria. It's natural and the way many fishkeepers cycle their tanks. I did my original tanks that way too.
These days many people add ammonia from a bottle to their tanks and cycle it before they get their fish. This is called, "Fishless Cycling." In the end both ways do the same thing. Does this make sense so far?
If not, let me know and I will try to explain more. If so, please post how big your tank is and how long it's been running. I'll then explain how you can test the water to tell how far along in the cycle your tank is.
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
You need to clean your tank much more regually, you have algae because you have an excess of nutrients in the water- most people do a 20-30% water change with dechlorinator along with rough substrate cleaning session and clean the filter sponge in water from water changes once every 2weeks(don't clean it sparkling clean, just remove the worst of the gunk and muck as you don't wanna starve your beneficial bacteria
).To know if you are feeding your fish enough or overfeeding, all food in the tank should be eaten within the first 15mins- if you have excess food floating around after that, it means you are overfeeding- most fish won't touch food after its been in the tank for more than a day as food rots very quickly in tank water, and like people, there aern't really any fish that will willingly eat rotton food.
If you sort out your tank cleaning regime, there should not be enough excess nutrients in the water for the algae to live off
. Do you have any live aquarium plants in the tank?
Inchworm
Li'l Ole Fish Lady
Hi fi$hys
I'm glad to see that you posted while I was writing my post to you. If you have had your tank for a year already, it's cycled and the beneficial bacteria are doing their jobs.
But you do have to clean it more often to remove the nitrAtes I mentioned. That's probably a good part of the reason why your tank water is going greenish. A good program to maintain a tank is to remove about 20% of the water every week and vacuum the bottom with a siphon hose. This will keep the nitrAtes at a safe level and keep the other chemicals from building up to a level that will provide food for the algae. Algae is a form of plant life, and these things act like fertilizer.
I'm glad to see that you posted while I was writing my post to you. If you have had your tank for a year already, it's cycled and the beneficial bacteria are doing their jobs.
But you do have to clean it more often to remove the nitrAtes I mentioned. That's probably a good part of the reason why your tank water is going greenish. A good program to maintain a tank is to remove about 20% of the water every week and vacuum the bottom with a siphon hose. This will keep the nitrAtes at a safe level and keep the other chemicals from building up to a level that will provide food for the algae. Algae is a form of plant life, and these things act like fertilizer.
18x10x10 and about 1 year.
I kind of understand it but how do i stop this algae bloom.
k thx erm am i doing the right ting buy leaving the water out for a day b4 i put it in the tank is that right.So what you are saying is use the magnet more and do more wter changes.By the way i clean the sponge evey week n half
I kind of understand it but how do i stop this algae bloom.
k thx erm am i doing the right ting buy leaving the water out for a day b4 i put it in the tank is that right.So what you are saying is use the magnet more and do more wter changes.By the way i clean the sponge evey week n half
Tokis-Phoenix
^_^
The important thing is to use dechlorinator on the water before you put it in the tank, do you use dechlorinator at all? If you use dechlorinator on the water(which you can get from yoru local fish store), which has many benefets for fish and the tank, you won't need to leave the water out before adding it to the tank and can add it imediatly to the tank once you have adjusted its temp, Do you clean your filter out in tap water or in water from water changes?
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