Green water!

the water in my fish tank keeps taking on a greeny colour and it only takes a few days after i do a water change for the green colour to reappear. does anyone have any ideas on what this problem is and how i can take action to fix it?

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Permalink Reply by Ryan Medric on February 28, 2012 at 9:16pm

providing some info on your lighting setup (what type of lights ,how many, how many hours per day, etc) would help people give you a better answer.

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Permalink Reply by Paul on February 29, 2012 at 2:27am

More than likely based off what info you provided, you probably have what they call "pea soup" a water borne algae that may be caused by too much light and nutrients, no co2. It's like a competition for nutrients between plants and algae. You're plants will win given the right conditions. It's just a matter of finding the balance for the winning team :)

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on March 4, 2012 at 9:56am

The good news is your tap water contains plenty of plant nutrients. You'll be very grateful someday! (That's why the water changes make the problem worse.) Theoretically, if you never changed your water the algae would use all the nutrients and eventually die off leaving the water clear. But then again, the dead algae would decompose, re-releasing all of the nutrients, and starting the green cycle all over again.

Anyway! Floating plants should lick the problem. They outcompete algae because they have unlimited access to the CO2 in the atmosphere while the algae is limited to the limited amount of C02 in the water. With unlimited C02 the floaters reproduce like crazy and slowly start monopolizing the water's nutrients. and blocking the overhead light from reaching the algae.

Just a note. Of course you want to see your fish and plants but, if it makes you feel any better, green water is by far the healthiest water for fish. I raised goldfish in something that looked like pea soup and when harvesting them in the fall I remember thinking that these lowly 10 cent Comets were the most beautiful fish I have ever seen in my life. I realized then how appropriate the name "Goldfish" was - as opposed to say orange fish or red fish. They indeed looked like they were made of gold.