Ridiculous Algae Bloom!

[Jay-93]

Basically my 55g setup has a crazy amount of algae bloom. I gave the tank roughly a 70% water change early last week, the water now has got to the point where I can't see a fish 8 inches away from the front. It's not exactly in direct sunlight, I'm not over feeding, very little/no waste on the substrate. Have 2 plants, sand, about 5 pieces of bogwood (this isn't tannins, its bright green!)

Any advice other than regular water changes, feed less and reduced light times? Its getting annoying now..

 

[Jay-93]

Anyone?

 

[delta]

Hi there,

I'm no expert but I think I remember reading once that algae blooms can sometimes happen after a large water change if there are more than the usual amount of nitrates present in your tap water.

 

[Jay-93]

Thanks for the help. That could be a possibility.

This tank is much bigger than my last one, and a lot of work was getting done to the house at the time, so I had no time to be able to cycle it properly. About 80% of the water was new originally. The water started getting hazy then, but much whiter, so I thought it was just a bacterial bloom. But now its just green. Like, Apple Sourz green, haha!

I have Discus in this tank so I'm just concerned that my water isn't really clear, the way I'd like it to be

 

[daz4321]

info from the net

GREEN WATER

Description

This is a unicellular algae. Water goes cloudy. Sometimes just a green tint, other times it can look like pea soup.



Cause

Ammonia is often the main cause green water. There may have been an ammonia spike that isn't detected with test kits. Other possible causes are an imbalance of nutrients and/or low CO2 levels.



Removal

Large water changes do not seem to always help. If there is an imbalance in nutrients then fixing it will sometimes make it go away by itself after a while. A three day blackout followed by a large water change will hit it hard and sometimes may clear it. A UV steriliser/clarifier or diatom filter will clear it up very quickly and is often the only way to clear it.
A new method is to use freshly cut 1-2 year old willow branches about 0.5-1cm in width. Place these in your tank vertically so they go from the substrate to a few centimetres above the water's surface. After a few days they will start to grow roots and the green water should start to clear. When cleared remove the branches from the water.
Don't confuse this with a bacterial bloom which gives the water a white haze.

 

[justin85]

UV sterlizer will clear that up in no time, but it's not a cheap option.

 

[Ruthc1985]

There is an "algae away" solution that interpet do but it depends on if you want to put chemicals in your tank. I used it when I had a bloom a few years back, and only used it the once and it worked wonders. Not had a bloom since.

But word of warning if you use this solution - it binds to the algae and turns it brown, making your tank resemble dirty pond water for a while. I thought I had done my tank serious damage initially, but it was all good! This then sinks to the bottom of the tank and sits on the gravel/substrate and can be removed by vacuuming with a siphon.

 

[alan3513]

I had this problem a couple of years ago and was advised to do a complete black out for three days. Turn off your tank lights and cover the glass completely with towels so that no light penetrates the tank and don't feed the fish. After three days take the towels away,the algae will have died off, do a 90% water change and your good to go. I've done it on two different tanks and it worked both times with no harm to the fish.

 

[DrRob]

As has been said, it's a simple mixture of nutrients (probably a mini-spike from the move) and light. The fastest multiplying organism to take advantage of it was the unicellular algae. Often fast enough to give you negatives on test strips as it eats the ammonia before your test strip can see it.

Cutting the lights will kill it off, but please be aware that there is a fair amount of biological material there.

Water changes will remove it, but not completely.

Removing the nutrients with willow or such like will starve it out, heavy planting would have the same effect but would need the light to achieve this, which won't happen with cloudy water. Emmersed plants would work but aren't practical in a lot of set ups.

UV generally makes the algae cells stick together and the filter will pick them up.

However you choose to kill it, remember that it was probably a mini-spike and the water changes will be needed to clear the excess nitrogenous stuff that will inevitably be kicking around.

 

[Jay-93]

Thanks for the help guys! I can't afford to get a UV steriliser and don't have a clue where to get willow from.

So my best bet is to keep the tank lights off and not feed the fish for the next 3 days? I may have to go out and get some kind of medication on thursday when my LFS is open

 

[alan3513]

What i'm suggesting might not work for you but it costs nothing and is worth a try and you will find out in three days. If it works great but if not then try one of the other suggestions. Let us know how you get on.

 

[MBOU]

Buy some Rowaphos filter media (assuming you have an external filter which with discus, you ought to.

Its a bit like Carbon, in fact, you can use it instead of carbon but it also removes phosphates and silicates which along with nitrates is what feeds the algae. They arent bad nutrients, you just have them in excessof what you need.

 

[Jay-93]

Buy some Rowaphos filter media (assuming you have an external filter which with discus, you ought to.

Its a bit like Carbon, in fact, you can use it instead of carbon but it also removes phosphates and silicates which along with nitrates is what feeds the algae. They arent bad nutrients, you just have them in excessof what you need.

I'll keep that in mind! Thanks. Yeah I do have an external filter

 

[Jay-93]

What i'm suggesting might not work for you but it costs nothing and is worth a try and you will find out in three days. If it works great but if not then try one of the other suggestions. Let us know how you get on.

It's worth a shot!