# Came home to Green Water!



## bribri (Jul 4, 2006)

I went out of town for a week that turned into 12 days to return and find the water in my tank as bright green! The friend who fed my fish didnt say anything about it so it was a complete surprise to me!

I know its obviously algae, but I had no algae before I left and for it to happen like this is crazy!

What should I do to fix this? complete water change and clean the glass? I did a 50% water change last night and its no better. The lights are off but I want this fixed!

Thanks for the help!

Brian


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## 2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY (Nov 1, 2005)

get "Algae Destroy" from petstore or walmart it work really well....

i would do 30% water change every day untill the algae are gone..50% are to much you might end up killing your fish.


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## boontje (Mar 27, 2005)

I wouldn't use any chemicals.

Lot's of water changes sound like a better idea


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## Fresh2salt (Jul 16, 2004)

scrub the wall of the tank them do a 50% water chang every other day intill it gone


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## taylorhedrich (Mar 2, 2005)

Algae feeds on nitrates. I would scrub off all of the existing algae, and then keep the nitrates as low as possible (via waterchanges) to keep the algae from forming again. You will also want to make sure that the tank is not placed in direct or general sunlight.
~Taylor~

_*Topic Moved to Water Chemistry Forum*_


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## MONGO  (Feb 7, 2006)

wrong thread sorry


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## Hater (Apr 21, 2006)

What you have my friend is a alage bloom and I just finished a battle with it 3 weeks ago.



2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY said:


> get "Algae Destroy" from petstore or walmart it work really well....
> 
> i would do 30% water change every day untill the algae are gone..50% are to much you might end up killing your fish.


This will not help. It will kill the algae temporarely but it will come back.



> I wouldn't use any chemicals.
> 
> Lot's of water changes sound like a better idea


This will not help either. Everytime you change the water, it will immedeatly turn green.



> scrub the wall of the tank them do a 50% water chang every other day intill it gone


This will not help. Like I said before, everytime you change the water, it will immediatly turn green.



> Algae feeds on nitrates. I would scrub off all of the existing algae, and then keep the nitrates as low as possible (via waterchanges) to keep the algae from forming again. You will also want to make sure that the tank is not placed in direct or general sunlight.
> ~Taylor~


Taylor is right but again, his solution will not help your problem.

There are 3 solutions to an algae bloom(green water).

1-Blackout. Cover your tank with a black plastic bag and turn the light off for 3-4 days until the green water is done. I don't recomend this. The green water might come back.

2-Willow tree branch-Get a piece of willow tree and put it in the tank. The willow tree will suck out all the nutrients in the tank untill the green water is gone. This method might take 2-3 weeks but it will clear your water up for free.

3-Get a UV sterilizer. This is how I got rid of my green water. Run the UV with a pump for a week or 2 and you will never have to worry about green water again. UV also kill harmfull backteria.

Hoep that helped.

Hater


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## doctorvtec (May 15, 2004)

2PiRaNhA~2FuRrY said:


> i would do 30% water change every day untill the algae are gone..*50% are to much you might end up killing your fish.*


You are a funny guy. Like that extra 20% is going to magically kill a fish...


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## boontje (Mar 27, 2005)

Hater said:


> get "Algae Destroy" from petstore or walmart it work really well....
> 
> i would do 30% water change every day untill the algae are gone..50% are to much you might end up killing your fish.


This will not help. It will kill the algae temporarely but it will come back.



> I wouldn't use any chemicals.
> 
> Lot's of water changes sound like a better idea


This will not help either. Everytime you change the water, it will immedeatly turn green.



> scrub the wall of the tank them do a 50% water chang every other day intill it gone


This will not help. Like I said before, everytime you change the water, it will immediatly turn green.



> Algae feeds on nitrates. I would scrub off all of the existing algae, and then keep the nitrates as low as possible (via waterchanges) to keep the algae from forming again. You will also want to make sure that the tank is not placed in direct or general sunlight.
> ~Taylor~


Taylor is right but again, his solution will not help your problem.

There are 3 solutions to an algae bloom(green water).

1-Blackout. Cover your tank with a black plastic bag and turn the light off for 3-4 days until the green water is done. I don't recomend this. The green water might come back.

2-Willow tree branch-Get a piece of willow tree and put it in the tank. The willow tree will suck out all the nutrients in the tank untill the green water is gone. This method might take 2-3 weeks but it will clear your water up for free.

3-Get a UV sterilizer. This is how I got rid of my green water. Run the UV with a pump for a week or 2 and you will never have to worry about green water again. UV also kill harmfull backteria.

Hoep that helped.

Hater
[/quote]
According to me a blackout or UV sterilizer has exactly the same problem as what you mentioned for the chemical solution: it's just tackling the symptoms, not the root cause.
Water changes will remove nutritients from the water, which will take away the cause of the algae problem.


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Running a U/V filter for a few days or a week will clear that up no problem

I've never seen a GW breakout that cleared up with water changes, personally

And I have even dosed nitrates and phosphates in high quantities during the U/V process with absolutely no ill effects on the clearing process


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## nemo the piranha (Sep 29, 2006)

how do they occur


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## Hater (Apr 21, 2006)

> According to me a blackout or UV sterilizer has exactly the same problem as what you mentioned for the chemical solution: it's just tackling the symptoms, not the root cause.
> Water changes will remove nutritients from the water, which will take away the cause of the algae problem.


Boontle you are right about the black out, that is why I didn't recomend it. The UV on the other hand will kill the green water and if you keep runing it, it will never come back again.

The best solution to his problem is UV sterilizer, not chemicals that might harm your fishes.



> how do they occur


High ammonia, over fertiziling, stiring up a large amount of substrate and there might be more reasons, maybe Dippy can fill you in on this. Post a thread on the Plant Forum.

Hater


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## Dr. Giggles (Oct 18, 2003)

Green water is usually caused by high nitrates and phosphates fed by light. Get rid of them and you get rid of the green water.


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## 1edyson (Oct 31, 2003)

same treatment for a smaller 2.5 gallon tank? I had an algae bloom in my little betta tank. So willow tree...wll try


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## mulrooneyryan (Aug 13, 2006)

I had the exact same problem about 3 weeks ago. what you have is suspended algea in your water. to get rid of it, take the following action:

-buy a bottle of P Clear and follow direction on the bottle (particle water clarifier)(it makes minute suspended particles in your water heavy so that it all falls on the substrate or makes it big enough so that your filter can catch it)

-do a 25-30% water change each day

-only leave the lights on for approx. 5 hours a day and sheild from any natural light thereafter (the blackout isnt practicle, your fish do need some light during the day)

Nothing worked for me except this, i had the problem for about 2 weeks and nothing worked until i follow these steps. follow these steps each day until the problem is gone.( it took my tank about 1 week to completly clear)
Also remember to completly clean you filters and tubes, and change any media you have once the problem is gone, because the majority of the once suspended algea will now be in your filter and all over your media.
Hope this helps


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## watermonst3rs (Feb 15, 2004)

NEVER use algae destroyer. it takes oxygen out of the water which could harm your fish. you can clear it up chemical free the natural way. Only thing i would ever use is clear up, or any type of particle clarifier. (which clumps free floating particles together so your filter media catches it) other than that never use chemical algae fixes.


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## Malok (Mar 26, 2006)

i think blackout and continued cleaning is the cheap souloution but uv is probally most effective


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## mulrooneyryan (Aug 13, 2006)

a bottle of particle clarifier is $5-8


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Boil the water.

Nahh just kidding. UV filter it along with a 2 day blackout. 
And get your nitrates in check or it will return.

But you already knew that since this is like a 4 month old post.


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