# Green water



## mike63 (Mar 18, 2011)

Hello everyone! I do a 1 gal. w/c every day, still have green water? Algae not bad, Tests are good, fish are happy:fish10: snail loves it! I'm new to this, did a lot of research,What can I do that wont harm fish,plants,water Q.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Green water is algae. You need to do a water change of about 30% cover the tank entirely for 3 to 4 days. Don't even open to feed. Fish will be fine for that time. After 3 or 4 days uncover and do a 50% water change.


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

Do you have any logs or wood in there? If so, those could be causing the water discoloration. if you remove them and boil them for about 10 min, they wont fog your water. Happened to a 2.5 gallon of a friend's when we didnt know to boil them.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

But was the water green. Green water is a floating algae, not caused by wood. The wood will make it tea colored if not boiled enough.


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

Tannins from wood will stain the water an amber tinge, if its green it is algae, I agree. Though if its a massive bloom of the stuff in the water you can easily kill it by covering the tank entirely, but consider that the algae you kill, will die, and dead organisms decay which will degrade water quality. You still have a few solutions, only 1 which really will work for you.

Heavy water changes to remove the algae, coupled with addressing the cause of the problem.

10 gallons makes this easy to do! You'll remove the algae manually, replacing it with clean water. In the mean time your tank is receiving too many of 2 factors. Light and food. Algae needs both to grow, but can grow even with less of 1 and more of the other, it doesnt need a very special "balance" and is not very fragile. You are likely overfeeding your tank, researching how much food to feed will fix this up lickity split. I feed my freshwater tank 6 times a week, thats once a day, and one day i skip, minimal amounts, with wide variety of meaty and dried foods.

The next factor being light, make sure this tank is not struck by sunlight. The sun is a gross and powerful force compared to any lighting on the market, if anything will grow algaes, its the sun. But even beyond growing algaes, small tanks will experience massive temperature fluxuations being exposed to sunlight moving across it during only certain times of the day, and the key to success is a clean, consistent environment, so this conflicts with the paradigm.

On the very poor off chance this doesnt work, it will then lie with your quality of tap water that you are using, you may wish to evaluate this first, or after depending on your situation and ideas ie.. well water vs municipal supplies, was your tank getting hit by sunlight vs. already in a dark place.


To sum it up, relocating the tank to a place which receives no sun during the day, and proper feeding will fix this for good.

EDIT: Aquatic plants will also combat algaes for nutrients, this will not stop algae growing as they have different uptake rates of different compounds, but it will slow the progress down as they will compete for the same foods, remember its a robust feeding process that is able to adapt.


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## mike63 (Mar 18, 2011)

No wood, Just green water.Going to do the W/C, cover for 3 days. Can't feed them? that will be hard for me, Ha-ha!


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## NeonShark666 (Dec 13, 2010)

Green water is a strange animal, when you want it it doesn't appear, when you don't want it, there it is! It is usually a combination of too much light (green water likes sunlight) and too many nutrients. I have never had it inside but I set a tank up outside once and it went crazy with Green Water. I would recommend you make a partial water change (1-2 gallons) every few day with bottled distilled water, you may have nutrients in your tap water. If your ph is low, add some crushed coral or a few seashells. Cutting down on your tank light input will help.


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## mike63 (Mar 18, 2011)

OK, Wow, you guys are good.All this is right. Tank is by a window.I do over feed.Will do the W/C, lessen the light. & NOT OVER FEED! They all ways seem hungry. I also use Tetras* Easy Balance, Plus. Is this a factor? Thank you so much! Love my fish, wont to do all I can for them.


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

mike63 said:


> OK, Wow, you guys are good.All this is right. Tank is by a window.I do over feed.Will do the W/C, lessen the light. & NOT OVER FEED! They all ways seem hungry. I also use Tetras* Easy Balance, Plus. Is this a factor? Thank you so much! Love my fish, wont to do all I can for them.


You will enjoy your fish so much more when a stable feeding regimen is put into place. To them, you're the magic flake faerie, they just need to do this lil shindig when you come in the room annnnd.. See stan, I told you flakes magically fall from the sky!

Your fish should feed rather viciously, they wont eat everyday in the wild, they're for the most part oppertunistic feeders, and even predators need to spend a lot of energy capturing prey, it boils down to irregular, infrequent, small feedings. Your fish will behave >>closer<< to how they would in nature because of this.

Your flakes are not a problem, any high quality flake will have approximately the same amount of pollutants and waste in them, check the label for percentages, I personally use nutrifin because they're enhanced with multivitamins and have a wide array of foods for special circumstances. I feed my German rams their micro sinking pellets, my marine system their spirulina flakes etc. Ultimately though, any big brand will be fine food for your animals, unless you want to get into the nitty gritty numbers.


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## BETTABOUTIQUE (Jan 16, 2011)

mike63 said:


> Hello everyone! I do a 1 gal. w/c every day, still have green water? Algae not bad, Tests are good, fish are happy:fish10: snail loves it! I'm new to this, did a lot of research,What can I do that wont harm fish,plants,water Q.


I'd get a UV sterilizer and get it on the tank. I had a guy come in the other day at my shop and said his tank was green and cloudy. We sold him a UV sterilizer and twenty four hours later he said his tank was crystal clear. We use these on the tanks at my shop for the same type of problems. Hope that helps. Melissa


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

mike63 said:


> OK, Wow, you guys are good.All this is right. Tank is by a window.I do over feed.Will do the W/C, lessen the light. & NOT OVER FEED! They all ways seem hungry. I also use Tetras* Easy Balance, Plus. Is this a factor? Thank you so much! Love my fish, wont to do all I can for them.


Bingo!!!! (I guess)

kill the lights and stop adding food for a few days and the water should clear up.

In extreme cases it can take up to a week.

And if the window light is bright enough, then you may have to shade the tank as well but not usually.


If you add lotsa fast growing plants like anacharis/vals and so on they will also help. Plus the tank will be balanced out and stabilized as well.


my .02


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## bmoore09 (Nov 20, 2010)

I had green cloudy water for about a month. My ammonia/nitrite tests came out fine. I tried a week-long blackout, chemicals (sometimes made it worse), and a couple other things.
Only thing that worked: A UV Sterilizer
After 2 days it was crystal clear. Even clearer then before the green algae came.
A lot of people on here will tell you that you're just hiding the real problem, but I tried everything. All my tests were fine, and the fish were doing great.
UV Sterilizers can be really expensive if you get them from your LFS. They were $120 at mine. I went on ebay and bought a 9W one for $30 and it worked great. I only turn it on every once and a while now...it really clears that stuff up.


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