Green water problem

chllngr528

I have a ten gallon tank with 3 platys and a very small pleco. My tank parameters are ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates .25 ph 7.0. For the past 2-3 weeks the light has only been on a few hours a day, 3-5 and the tank gets limited natural sunlight. I also do 20% water changes weekly and scrub the sides and substrate.

Now my problem. I seem to have alot of algea. Somtimes I can't even see the fish in the tank the water is so green. I have been limiting the light and scrubing it off the fake plants, filter, heater and sides of the tank. I don't really no what else to do. Will it hurt my fish if I completley cover the tank for a few days? I don't really want to use chems if I can help it but at this point I just want it gone. Any advice is appreciated.

Byron

All algae (except diatoms) is caused by light with nutrients present. I'm assuming there are no live plants in this tank; they would significantly help in keeping algae within reasonable limits, because they out-compete it for light and nutrients.

A blackout will do no harm; it could only be detrimental to live plants that need light. But understand that once the light returns, so will algae since the nutrients will be there and nothing will be around to deal with them. A better method is to eliminate or in this case reduce the cause. I do not recommend any chemical preparations; these can cause more trouble than the algae is because any chemical will have a detrimental impact on fish. In a closed system like an aquarium, substances should never be introduced unless absolutely needed such as to treat disease. The fish cannot escape from anything that enters the water, so the less that does, the better.

You mentioned "green water" which is one specific issue, and you also mention scraping algae from items, which suggests another very different type of algae. The cause is really the same, nutrients in the presence of light.

I would increase the volume of your water changes. Livebearers produce quite an impact on the bioload, and plecos are notorious for doing this big time. In a 10g tank there is not much space and the water will readily become saturated. A 50% water change weekly will do no harm, it should help to reduce the organics. You have already reduced the light, but even less won't hurt. Fish don't need lights at all, the daylight in the room is sufficient for them, so using the tank light when you are most likely to view the aquarium is OK. Always make sure there is good light in the room when the tank light comes on and goes off, to avoid shocking the fish with sudden light changes that can be very stressful.

Chickenfoot87

You can use an algae removing chemical, but if you dont want to do that you can just get a bunch of anacharis and put it in there. It will clear up the water in a day or two if you put enough (about 20 stems) your fish will like it too. It can just float around in there or you can weight it down with something, they need light to stay alive though so make sure they get some light so they dont die and dirty up your tank.

Anacharis did wonders for my pond, if you want to take a look at my album pictures. You can see before and after pictures
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/m...rel-pond-1597/

keilatan

What would you use to weigh the plants down?

Chickenfoot87

They sell weights at pet stores to do it but you can use gravel or small rocks or something like that.

chllngr528

The tank has been covered for two days and it looks like it has gotten worse. I did a 50% water change The day I covered the tank. I dunno whats going on now.

Chickenfoot87

You might have changed too much water and caused the water to get cloudy

chllngr528

Ok well the black out failed. I did the blackout for 3 days and lost my pleco and one sunburst platy and did not get rid of the green water. I don't know if my black out caused the deaths or not but I finally got the tank clear after doing daily 20 precent w/c. I now am going to do 40% w/c weekly and see how it goes.

Chickenfoot87

I'm telling you man anacharis will solve that problem for you with out all that work. Plus I really dont think 40%changes every week will be good for your tank. You might just start it cycling again and make things worse.

If you really dont want to try it no big deal but why not give this a try? What do you have to lose?

All u have to do is put 10 or so anacharis stems in your tank and they should take crae of the algae in the water. The anacharis out compete the algae so they can't grow and muck up your water. They need light to stay alive like any plant, but if you're getting that much algae bloom than I'm sure you're getting enough light to keep them alive. I even have some anacharis in my betta bowls ad my white cloud bowl to keep them fresh looking and to give the bettas and white clouds somewhere to chill out. Here are some pictures so you can see the difference.

The day I added the anacharis



The next day


That was seriously one day difference and the water is noticeably clearer. And this pond is outside! Where its gets 4 hours of partial sunlight and 3 1/2 hours of full sunlight a day.

chllngr528

I would love to put live plant in my aquarium. I have been toying with the idea for awhile now but I know nothing about taking care of plants
Is the anacharis super easy to take care of? .
Do I need to fertilize?
Do I need to remove the carbon from my filter?