# Please help...we're at the end of our rope!!



## hdg (Jun 23, 2012)

We have had and enjoyed freshwater aquariums for around 18 years now. We started out with a 10 gallon and as our love of aquariums grew we now have a 55 gallon tank. We have never had any real problems in the past years until about 4 months ago. We have had this 55 gallon tank for around a year and a half and the first several months it looked great! About 5 months ago we noticed it was cloudy and started to have a green hue about it. We have done everything suggested to clean it! We have done partial water changes, put liquid in that should combat algae, we have stripped the entire thing down (thinking maybe some stubborn algae was on the decorations) and replaced the decorations and rocks. It would look clear for a day or two and then came the hue. The aquarium is not in the sunlight but I even wrapped it for a few days and nothing changed. After full water changes, partial water changes, leaving the light off, wrapping it we finally got desperate and purchased a pricey diatom filter that we were sure would be the answer. It looked nice the night it ran but now 2 days later back to the same old cloudy water. The fish tank doesn't look too bad from the front but looks terrible from the side. I even bought test strips and it showed good levels (although we do have hard water we've put this same hard water in the tank for years with great results). We have about 10 fish along with 1 small algae eater and 2 small chinese algae eaters. The part we don't understand is having replaced everything about a month or so ago and then super cleaning the tank with the diatom filter what the problem is? We love having an aquarium but are about ready to close up shop if we can't get it looking good. Would love any input or suggestions you guys have. I'll try to figure out how to attach a picture of the front and side of the tank in my gallery. Thanks in advance!!


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## Unearthed (May 7, 2012)

What type of lighting?


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## hdg (Jun 23, 2012)

Fluorescent aquarium bulbs


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## serpico2 (Jun 23, 2012)

The first thing I would look at is light. How much and how long and even what color. I had an actinic blue light for the longest time causing algae until I read that it was terrible for freshwater. How much do you feed them? Overfeeding can lead to nutrient spikes causing algae blooms. The best piece of advice I can give you is have some patience. If everything else seems to check out ok try leaving it alone for a while. Algae feeds on nutrients in the water column, doing large and/or frequent water changes will replenish the supply of nutrients (unless you use RO water or some other sort of purified water) therefore encouraging algae growth. When it runs out of nutrients it will die off on it's own. From my experience cleaning will not get rid of algae. Unless you bleach or boil everything in the tank you will never kill it that way. Also algae control chemicals do just that, control it, they prevent the spread of algae but they won't kill it, as soon as you stop using it the algae will take off again, plus many of them are hard on fish. Hope that helps.


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## hdg (Jun 23, 2012)

Thanks for the advice! Before all of this began we did probably overfeed them, 2x a day but a few months ago after we changed out everything I cut way back and now only feed them once every other day. Did you happen to see my picture I posted on my member gallery of the side of the aquarium? Just curious whether you think it looks like an algae bloom or something else. Thanks again!


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## serpico2 (Jun 23, 2012)

Based on what I see in the pictures it's definately an algae bloom, microscopic algae suspended in the water. Looking at your setup it looks like you have the standard lights that come with the tank? They do a good job of lighting the tank but they are cheap bulbs and are not ideal. Take a look at these bulbs.

Aqueon® T5 Fluorescent 6.7K Lamp - Lighting & Hoods - Fish - PetSmart

They offer the proper light temperature for freshwater tanks. If you need to read up on lighting this site is awesome, although it may be a tad bit technical.

Aquarium Lighting; Reef, Planted Light Information. PAR, Bulb, Watt, Kelvin, Nanometers, MH, LED.

Another suggestion would be to get some inexpensive live plants. You can get some at your local pet store. They will out-compete the algae for nutrients and likely fix your problem. I know you just dropped a bundle on a filter but the purchase of good quality bulbs and cheap plants cured my algae problems within a few days.


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## serpico2 (Jun 23, 2012)

By the way, I would not consider feeding twice a day overfeeding, as long as they consume all the food within 2 to 3 minutes.


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## jasonmk1j (Jun 19, 2012)

Could it be the decorations or gravel leeching something into the water? couldn't hurt to test each item in a bucket for a few days to see if the same thing happens in there.

If its the new tank algae bloom thing, I've managed to get mine under much better control using live daphnia which are excellent algae eaters, unfortunately also very tasty to fish but I got round that by putting a small aquatic plant pot inside the foot of a new pair of stockings, dropping a load of daphnia in and closing it up with a cable tie, then dropping it in my tankl near the filter outlet. the pot gives them a little room to swim around while the stocking allows the water to flow through. I noticed a big difference overnight.


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

That should be easy to get under control.

To begin, I see no goldfish - thank goodness. They are algae machines. But I also see no plants. Nutrients are going in, too many, and the algae is feeding on them. Drop back to feeding once a day, six days a week.
Aquarium store plants rarely survive, but if you can, get some Hygrophilia, Vallisneria, Sagittaria, Anubias or java ferns (an online search would be better than what you get in stores). I'd send you some but I'm not in the USA. 
Your tank will be prettier, they are lower maintenance easy plants and they will outcompete algae. 
Algae eating fish scrape algae off plants. They don't filter feed the free floating stuff you have. It would be wise to get rid of the Chinese Algae Eaters, since they are falsely labelled - they don't eat much algae and they get large and very nasty.

I would also change the bulbs, once you have plants in there. Use a timer, set it for 12-14 hours of lighting and watch how good it will look (if you stay with the plants suggested - a lot of store plants are cutting from plants that need intense light, and they are hard to make a go of in home aquariums).

Go with regular weekly 50% water changes, and as the algae bloom fades, drop back to weekly 25-30% and it will be fine. It'll take a few weeks to get under control, but it'll be good quickly enough.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

It also helps to get the lights on a timer and have them on for a set time period.Eight hours is a good starting point,and will help to starve the algae of some of the light.Also mentioned is live plants.If you dont mind online shopping that is your best bet for finding plants at cheap decent prices.Several members here would be willing to ship some plants too,so go check out the freshwater fish and plants for sale section.


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## jccaclimber2 (May 6, 2012)

You have suspended algae. A blackout will remove it, but without fixing the root cause it will return. You have either low but consistent ammonia levels, or just a ton of organics in your water (overfeeding/not enough water changes, or a new/crashed filter). 
I would cut the feeding to once daily or every other day. 
Change 50% of the water weekly.
Put the light on an 8-10 hour timer. You can start the timer any time of day, and even split it if you want. I know people that have their tanks on from 7-9 AM and then 5-11 PM.
Put in some weeds. I'll skip plants on the federal noxious weed list but rotala rotundifolia (often mislabeled as indica), java fern, floaters like duckweed (you'll never remove it all), egeria (anacharis), jungle val, an easy crypt, or a hygro should all work.


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