aquarium problem,,,,need help....?

Question

my aquarium is located outside the house, sunlight can reach, i use deep well water in the aquarium, fish is a flowerhorn..my question is why is the water turning green? i change water regularly, i mean almost everyday, a put new water very small amount.. what should i do?

enlighten me...thanks

Answer 1

It's getting too much sunlight and too much nutrients, which are causing an algae outbreak. Here is a quick article I wrote on cloudy water.

Cloudy water is one of two things.

If the water is green then it is an algae bloom. Algae blooms are caused by too much light and too many nutrients in the water. They are relatively easily cleared up by reducing the lighting, especially direct sunlight, and by lower the nutrients in the water. Reducing the lighting is easy. Simply shut off the light on the tank and only run it for 8-10 hours a day. You should also ensure that your tank isn't getting any direct sunlight as this will cause you algae problems, either as a green bloom or simply algae on the tank and ornaments. You lower the nutrients by doing more frequent and larger water changes and by feeding less. Fish should be fed only what they can eat entirely in 5-10 seconds. Any uneaten food should be netted out of the tank to prevent it from breaking down.

If the water is white then it is a bacterial bloom. These are caused exclusively by too many nutrients in the tank. To clear the water you will need to increase the frequency and size of your water changes, and decrease the feeding. Fish should be fed only what they can eat entirely in 5-10 seconds. Any uneaten food should be netted out of the tank to prevent it from breaking down.

Neither cloudy water situation is particularly harmful to your fish but are a symptom of a greater underlying problem that must be resolved.

One way to clear the cloudy water immediately is through the use of a micron or diatom filter. This will pull out the particles that cause the cloudiness, but it WILL NOT resolve the problem that caused the particles to be there. This is a short term fix and needs to be used in conjuction with the above fixes.

Answer 2

Cece is correct about the sunlight - this is causing part of the problem, and you need to remove water (it contains wastes from the fish which act as a fertilizer to the algae) not just top the water off as it evaporates. Unfortunately, none of the algae eaters (fish, snails, shrimps, etc.) will probably be safe with your flowerhorn.

I would suggest scraping as much algae as possible from the surfaces inside the tank and using a siphon to immediately get it out of the tank. If you have a gravel substrate, you'll need to keep it stirred so that wastes don't accumulate in the rock. You should increase the water changes to 20% each day until you can get the nutrients in the tank under control. I would suggest a few larger changes initially, but I don't know what capabilities you have to store water, and I imagine if it's from a deep well, it's colder that the FH will like.

You could test your water for nitrate and keep the level as low as possible, preferably under 10ppm, but that will require a lot of changes, considering the eating habits of cichlids. You may also be introducing nitrate and phosphate (another plant fertilizer) with your well water, if you haven't had it tested. At least be sure you aren't overfeeding him. There are also nitrate and phosphate absorbing pads you can get for your filter.

Since light is needed by algae to grow (photosynthesis), shading as much of the tank as possible would be another option. I'm not certain how you're managing to keep the temperature stable with an outdoor tank, as any direct light would heat the water in the tank.

Your FH would probably tear up any rooted plants, but you might try some floating types like water sprite if you can find them. They're good at competing with algae for nutrients, and will shade the tank from above.

Good luck with this. Having an outdoor tank and a flowerhorn will present some unique challenges for keeping the tank algae-free.

Answer 3

Regular sunlight is going to cause algae no matter how often you change the water. (By the way, adding new water isn't the same as changing the water. To change the water, you have to remove some old and then add new.)

To get rid of the algae, you either have to eliminate the sunlight or try adding a combination of live plants and algae eaters to the tank. Live plants will compete with the algae for nutrients in the water while using the same sunlight to fuel their growth; good algae eaters (like shrimp, snails, and otos NOT plecos or even Siamese/Chinese algae eaters which do well when they're young but stop eating algae when they mature) will control what still manages to grow.

Or yeah, you could buy an algae scrubber. ;)

Answer 4

Light causes algae to grow, so its the suns fault, i would consider buying a large pleco that is heavily plated so your flower horn doesn't eat it. Also this could go in vain since adult plecos stop eating algae. Worth a shot.

Or buy an algae scrubber at a LFS

Answer 5

The sunlight causes algae to grow, that's the reason you have to change it every day
Find a shady spot for your tank, and you're going to be fine

Hope that helped
Good luck


EB

Answer 6

algae is a good thing in moderation. but too much can kill the balance of your water. you should try getting some algae eaters or you can get some algae killer to clean the tank once in awhile.

Answer 7

algae are contained within the water... well it does means yur tank water is good enough to live in... try to put algae eaters like plecos, or some plants that consumes lots of nitrates...
it'll work... good luck!

Answer 8

Forget the plecos ... mine stopped eathing algae from the tank, and now I have to buy them algae chips. You can buy algaecide from your fish store.

Answer 9

its outside in the sun...getting a lot of light...its algae