Even though the fish tank is regularly cleaned, the water still goes green; how can this be prevented?

Answer 1

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

the green cloudy water tells you that it is algae except that it's free floating algae which is why the water has a green coloration.

Algae is usually caused by 1)overfeeding and 2) too much light. Light and food are two things algae needs to grow.

to remedy this I would suggest that you cut down feeding the fish to one time a day and only feed a pinch of food. Also don't turn on the lights for any unnecessary reasons. Only turn on the lights when you are viewing or interacting with the fish / fish tank. the only exception to this rule would be if there are live plants in the tank as it would then be necessary to keep the lights on for a minimum of 8-10 hours.

when you do the water changes it's important that you vacuum the gravel or bottom of the tank with a siphon hose as this will clean up a lot of uneaten food and fish waste.

Also try to keep the water changes to a 20%-25% maximum as too big and too frequent water changes will cause the tank to re-cycle which will cause a big headache.

Answer 3

Don't leave the light on for more than eight hours a day less if the tank sits in direct sunlight for some of the day. Get a plec of some sort but they aren't miracle workers. Do a quarter water change once a week using suitable treatment to remove algae/greeness in the water as well as water purfier. Don't over feed what goes in comes out putting strain on your filter. Test your water every so often if the problem isn't going away to check the levels of nitrate and ammonia. You can buy a special pad that removes algae off the sides of fish tanks, get a gravel cleaner to remove fish waste from your stones. Good luck!

Answer 4

That is either cyanobacteria (green bacteria that photosynthesizes) or algae. In either case, you need to keep your tank from receiving any light for 4 days and feed the fish half the amount of food you normally would. This will reduce nutrients that the bacteria or algae feed on. Make sure you vacuum your gravel once every two weeks to keep the tank clean (changing the water is fairly useless unless you vacuum the gravel also). Use an aquarium vacuum (siphon) to suck waste into a bucket from the tank. Stop adding algae treatment chemicals, that is just going to mess with your water more and create a chemical imbalance. Good luck!

Nosoop4u

Answer 5

If I knew that keeping fish was as much work as some these answers I would never have bothered for the last 20 years, if you have green water it's because you have too much direct sunlight, I have never used chemicals in any of my tanks, if you plant your tank with enough plants the fish are happier and it keeps the water fresh, I only ever top up my tank when evaporation takes the level down, as for feeding, tropicals are voracious in their eating but seconds is not long enough and don't forget that some species are bottom feeders, it depends on the number of fish and their size as to how much you feed, just keep a clean bottom and nature will do the rest.

Answer 6

The water is turning green because
1. the pH is not right
2. you need to put in a algae cleaner every 4-6 weeks.
3. get gold fish and catfish they will help keep the tank clean.
4. change 30% of the water every 4-6 weeks.
5. make shure your filter is working.
6. clean your tank walls regulary

Answer 7

If this is a new tank then leave it for 7-9 weeks.This time will be sufficent enough to let the good bacteria grow strong enough to balance out the algea.You can speed it up by buying something like safewater which is what i use (it contains good bacteria and is used to start bio fillters when they are a bit low).

Answer 8

do you leave the light on??
I found in our tank if i left the light on too much the water would turn a funky colour!
also buy one of those algae eaters i think you can get them from any pet store that sells fish
hop on down to wilkinsons or something and get some stuff you can put in the water after youve cleaned it out, that should get rid of the nasties if there is anythin in there
good luck x

Answer 9

Do you have your fish tank in direct sunlight/near a window if you do you may need to move it or cover the places it reaches the sunlight causes major algae growth in fish tanks.

Answer 10

make sure there are no dead plants or fish. Sometimes, algae sticks to the pebbles or rocks and glass make sure you clean them out before putting water. Get some ghost shrimps to eat algae too. Oh and get blackwater treatment (if tropical) for spawning and water treatment.