Overstocked, wronglystocked, cloudy?

Question

Okay so my friend was going in to her art room to work on some stuff after school ,a ndI was following her. She was workin on her art and im just looking around, then I see this aquarium with the water like neon green! Im like "uhh...why is the aquarium green" and the teacher like "cause there are 2 many fish"
So I go up I look at it, theres maybe aobut 6 guppies, 1 albino cory, and a mickey mouse platy(not sur eon numbers cause u couldnt see further than an inch back, but she said she had aobut 8 fish)
So anyway, I asked about her maintenence. She said she clean the tank(gravel vac) aobut twice a week, and changes the filter every other week. So I advised her to just rinse the filter in tank water during a water change and not dispose of it untill she had 2. I also told her that cories need groups. As far as the algae, all ive said so far is that soem live plants will help and I can give her a bit of hornwort and possibly wisteria if I can spare some.

Ill probably also ask her how often she feeds.
So what else should I offer for advice. I know light off more probably.
What aobut the cory, is it a better idea to get him a few buddies and make the tank more overstocked, or leave him 2 frolic with the guppys(which he seemed fine doing)

The tank is a ten gallon

Answer 1

Feeding less will be a good start. If she really is cleaning the tank 2 times a week with a gravel siphon, she can't be removing that much water or this problem would clear up. It sounds like to me that your friend's teacher may be misremembering how often she cleans her tank or isn't cleaning the gravel properly. Also keeping the light off except when she's in there would be a good idea. One or two more corys wouldn't be a problem for the tank once the water is cleaned up.

MM

Answer 2

if the water is bright green, it sounds like she needs to turn the lights off at night, possibly feed a bit less, and leave the water alone for a while.

How big of an aquarium is it? When I worked with fish, the rule of thumb was (and probably still is) 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. So if she has a 2 gallon tank, she has WAY too many fish. But if it is a 10 gallon tank, she's fine.

My cory fish were okay in singles, but if she's not over the limit she could possibly add a second.

She might also think about adding an Otocinclus (algae eater) to help control algae production.

Answer 3

Your friend has a 10 gallon tank that is slightly overstocked and contains cloudy water. The best thing to do is ask your friend to show you how she cleans it the next time she does. Also, is the tank exposed to direct sunlight. There are a few ways you can go about to find the problem
1-find out how much ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are present in the tank and give us the details.
2-Is the tank cloudy white or cloudy green
3-Put a background on the tank to see if the light was the problem
4-do a 40 percent water change (seems extreme but necessary)

Now, if you tank is murky white colored its because you have too much ammonia in your tank and their is a bacterial outbreak. This probably means your tank is not cycled yet or you just washed off your gravel/changed too much water. when the water is cloudy it means that the beneficial bacterial bed that converts ammonia to nitrite is not present and the bacteria that feed off your ammonia and cloud the tank are present in high amounts. The best thing you can do is buy a solution that contains the beneficial bacteria in it and apply it to your tank all at one time. Also try doing a 30 percent water change and make sure your tank is dechlorinated and conditions because beneficial bacteria cannot grow in a tank with chlorine.


If the tank is green it is a algae problem. Block off all light to it and add algae fix. Also do a 30 percent water change.