basically my fish's water is green and nothing i've done affects it for more than 24 hours. Please Help!

Question

I have a black mor coy and 2 plecosthumus' in a 10 gallon tank. i just recently got them back from an extended visit with a family member and the water quality was terrible. Also the Dmetri, the coy, had a bad case of ick and fungus, both! I treated the water for the ick, following the basic rules concerning water changes and charcoal filtration. That treatment is over and now i am doing a backup treatment for his fungus to prevent secondary infections. same rules apply with water changes and filtration. Dmetri looks tremendously better, with only a little fungus left on his pectoral fins, and the plecosthumus are very active now.
PROBLEM IS: that the water stays a bright green murky color. this changes a little bit after a water change, but does not last past 24 hours. there is not any algea growth on the glass, rocks, or filter. how do i change the color? I can't see the back of the tank!

Answer 1

wait, what do you have in this tank?

a black moor and a "coy" by which I assume you mean koi. or a black moor koi? because there is no such thing. and 2 plecos?!

well there is your problem. a black moor gets to be fairly big and need 20gallons to itself. a koi, if that is what you mean, should only be in a POND because they get HUGE. and plecos need at least 15 gallons, which is bare minimum. they get to be 18" long.

your tank is for small fish and you have a bunch of large fish.

Answer 2

Your problem is you are seriously overcrowded. For a 10 gallon tank, the only thing you should have in there is the one black moor. That's it. 10 gallons of water minimum per 1 goldfish. This is the rule. And koi do not belong in an aquarium. Period. For one koi, you need at least 40 gallons of water if it's only around 4 inches and it will get as big as 3 feet some day and you are going to need a 300 gallon aquarium for this. You can't have that koi in this tank. Also, 2 plecos are way overdoing it in this tank. You need a 30 gallon tank immediately and take back the koi, or all of these fish are going to die. And in a few years, you are going to need to at least double the size of the tank. At least. These fish are already showing signs of sicknesses as a result of this. Once you get the right size tank for the amount of fish you have and get it cycled so that the water is in the correct parameters, you will find the water looking a whole lot better just as a matter of course.

Answer 3

With bad quality and a recent change in ownership, your answer is an algae bloom.

The easiest and least expensive fix is the blackout. You cover the tank for four days; I used a blanket around mine and just tucked it against the wall, leaving only the filter open to the air. So, no light whatsoever for four days -- your fish will be fine without food.

Do a good-sized water change -- 30-50% -- right before you start the blackout and another big one as soon as it's done. The dead algae will create even more ammonia in your water, so you need to test your water diligently (for ammonia and nitrites if you put them in a new tank, and ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates if they're in their old tank) every other day or so and keep doing water changes until the water quality is good. That means 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and nitrates less than 40ppm or 12.5mg/l.

Also, this is probably not what you want to hear right now, but those fish are very overcrowded in that 10 gallon tank. Black moors can grow as long as 10" -- with a round body at that size! -- and each common pleco should be able to achieve 2 feet in a big enough tank. Kois have even more potential than that. I just want you to know that they're doomed to short lives full of illness in that 10 gallon no matter how well you take care of them, and if you want to do your best by them you need to find them a new home, or buy them a much larger tank. You can't wait for them to 'outgrow' their tank. They'll just be stunted by then.

Good luck, and thank you for taking those poor fish! Whatever you decide, it's obvious they're better off now than they were before.

Answer 4

NEVER use soap on a fishtank, or any items that will go into a fish tank. The phosphates in teh soap can kill or seriously maim your fish for life (bent-spine etc) The tank is really way to small for the stock. If the moor is under 5-6 inches he would do alright alone in that tank for a year or two but would soon need an upgrade to a 30-50 gal tank before it was full grown. The Koi NEED a pond to thrive. They literally need hundreds of gallons of water to keep them healthy. Pleco's get HUGE and also need a large tank enviornment(20-50 gal), they are also terrible tank mates for goldfish because when they get bigger they will attach themselves to the side of the goldfish & kill them.

Was the treatment that you used for the fungus made with malachite green? That could be the reason for the color change in the tank.

The water quality will be contiually poor untill the fish are in an enviornment big enough to handle the bio-load, so you will have to do constant water changes, you may also suffer frequent outbreaks of disease such as ich, fungus, columnaris, even septicemia, as a result of the poor water quality. You might want to pick up some maracyn2 just to have on hand to treat the tank should these serious ilnesses appaer in your tank.

The water may be green as a result of the medication, it may be green due to "cloud algae" which is caused by many factors, direct sunlight, unestablished bio-filter, or high nitrates. You could try "blacking out" the tank for 3 days by keeping the lights off, and covering the tank in towels or a blanket, keep up with the water changes, they will be a daily necessity untill you can find these guys a bigger home. Test for ammonia, nitrates & nitrites. Ammonia & nitrites should be at 0 ppm nitrates should be kept under 40 ppm.

get these guys a bigger tank as soon as you can, then you can enjoy your fish more than you have to work to maintain thier enviornment. good luck!

Answer 5

What you are seeing is green water, or free floating algae. The best cure for it is to starve it to death. It needs two things; light and nutrients. Make sure the tank gets no direct sunlight. If it is, cover that side of the tank. Keep your light on as little as possible maybe only in the evening when you are around to see the fish or something.

Also, do daily big water changes for a few days. Be sure to use a gravel siphon and remove as much gunk from the gravel as possible. Watch closely how much you are feeding the fish, they should only get as much as they will eat in about 4-5 minutes. If you see left over food after that, you're giving them too much and the extra is feeding the green water.

BTW, you already know you need to ditch the two plecos...right? ;)

This will do it given a little time.

MM

Answer 6

It sounds like you may be having an algae bloom. The best way to take care of this is water changes, water changes, water changes! 50% every day until you see an improvement...after that 50% per week. However, I think the bulk of your problem is the combination of fish you have in a ten gallon tank. Koi are coldwater fish and best suited for a pond...they can grow to over a foot. Plecos are tropical fish that won't thrive unless they have a heated tank. They can also grow larger than a foot. Your 10 gallon tank is not large enough for even one of these fish. It will stunt their growth, which will lead to disease and eventually death (although their bodies may stop growing, their internal organs will continue to grow and develop, putting a lot of strain on the fish and eventually killing them.) Please consider taking your fish back to the store and buying something that is appropriate for a ten gallon...research any species you are interested in before you buy it!!

Answer 7

The ick chemical maybe still present in your water you need to learn about PH and get a test kit (this kit will explain pH in detail and how to correct it) You need to drain your water and refill the tank, make sure you use Start Right Chlorine remover made by JUNGLE and treat the new water you put in your tank with the Start Right. If you don't do this you can kill your fish (Chlorine)

Make sure you get a pH kit with PH down, and UP solution bottles in the kit

The best thing I discovered, on my own, for ick, is to stay away from the chemical solutions they sell. The best remedy I have come across is to add a little bit of Coral Calcium to the water every 4-6 months 1/10 of a teaspoon


Good luck

RD

Answer 8

well i think you should take out all the fishes you have in there and put them into a large bowls or put them in something that has clean water to stay alive. then you should try youre best to clean and wash the inside of the tank to take off the green stuffs that is on the tank .and you should take out the plants and rocks and go out side and wash them with soaps like dish washer soap are good to use for like that and should use the hose water turn on too. i once had big tank with alot different fishes and the tank was green the way youre story is about .

well how do you change back to the clear water by takeing out the dirty green water and pour clean fresh water useing the outside water inside . i would just use a a emplty jar or bowl to pour into the tank with the clear and clean water . well i think there are some thing that you can go get form the pet shop that use for fish tanks to make the color change .

Answer 9

Algae are mostly-photosynthetic organisms that sometimes resemble plants but are not plants, having no true roots, stems or leaves. Algae grow in freshwater and saltwater. Saltwater algae are sometimes referred to as "seaweed." Like plants, algae require light and nutrients to grow. We supply plenty of both in our aquariums, with several hours of aquarium lighting a day and nutrients like nitrates and phosphates from fish waste.

Algae come in many forms. There are microscopic, one-celled algae, filamentous algae that resemble hair, algae that grow in sheets, and macroalgae that look like plants. There are even algae that live inside the outer integument ("skin") or calcium shell of some corals, anemones, and other sessile invertebrates called zooxanthellae. There are slimy-looking algae that are often not algae at all, but a colony of primitive photosynthetic organisms known as cyanobacteria. There are also very hard-to-remove little dots of green that sometimes grow on aquarium panels which also are not algae, but diatom or radiolarian colonies (microscopic, one-celled, animals with hard shells) with algae incorporated in their matrix. With all that said, let us answer some common questions right up front:

Algae growth is inevitable in an aquarium.
Algae consume nutrients in the aquarium that if allowed to accumulate, are harmful to fish. Algae can be a good thing.
The presence of green algae in an aquarium indicates a healthy environment for fish.
There is absolutely no way to completely prevent algae from growing in an aquarium, without killing the other life in the tank.
Chemicals should never be used to control the growth of true algae in an aquarium, and should only be used in rare circumstances to control cyanobacteria.
Correcting a severe algae problem requires time and patience.
Natural methods of controlling algae are the best and most effective.

Algae removal from the tank panels can be done on an as-needed basis, but no more than once a week. Removing algae involves either correcting negative water conditions to control or slow excessive algae growth, or an age-old process known as "elbow grease" (scrubbing it off!). Algae removal in an aquarium should be done only when necessary. We have seen many aquariums where daily removal of algae resulted in fish that were so stressed, most had diseases and were dying. You should never remove all of the algae from your tank. Allowing some algae to grow in the aquarium can be beneficial to the aquatic environment. When algae is removed from aquarium side panels, care should be taken to select an algae scrubber that will not hurt the finish of an aquarium. Be careful not to get gravel caught in an algae scrubbing pad where it can scratch the aquarium. Never use household cleaning pads to remove algae. They contain fungicides that kill fish.

Your first mistake is boiling the water. Boiling water consentrates the nitrates in it causing algae to grow even faster. However, I've never heard of it growing within an hour Wow!

First, test the water you are filling up your tank with. Many public water supplies (our homes) have a concentration of nitrates at around 7ppm or higher. (Bottled water is no better).

This could be the start of your problem.
Be sure your tank is not within direct or indirect lighting such as a window or in a room where the lights are on constantly. Is you tank near a heat source. Sometimes we do not take into consideration a fishtank is near a heat register which can and does add additional temperature changes to your tank.

Did you clean the filter as well? Be sure the entire filter is cleaned and free of algae.

Use a razor or scraper and gently scrape all sides of your tank. Clean your gravel and return it to the tank as well. DO NOT wash the gravel in the tank. The residues of the algae will remain.

Since you have NO FISH I am assuming, use cold water to start your tank. Algae likes heat and light. Using cold water will prohibit growth. Allow your tank to run bringing it to room temperature. Then you can plug in your heater allowing your tank to run.

If you have a stick on thermometer, get yourself a floating one. The stick on thermometers pick up ambient air temperatures from OUTSIDE the tank and can be up to 10 degrees off. DON"T trust them. Try keeping your tank at 72 for a couple of days.

You can also purchase phosphorus pads for around $2.00 at your local pet store. These can be cut to fit with your filter and remove large amounts of phosphorus. These can be reused over and over just remember to rinse them out well when you clean your tank.

Test your water. Since you have not gone thru the cycle process allow your tank to run. This should really help with the algae. If you find your water quality is all your tank isn't near a heat or light source, ok but still getting algae turn the temperature down or off and let it run. You will want to scrape the sides of the tank and do a water change no more than 20% every other day. This should only be done if the algae returns in a heavy form.

If you need any more help, you can im or email me.