jenniwren

for about a week or more my fully cycled tank has been green and cloudy. i do regular 25% water changes per week. and did a 30-40% change a few days ago to see if it would help. it did nothing to improve the water. it is my 30gallon and i am at a loss at what to do. ive cut back on feeding and turned off the light. anything would help.

Sarcastic

I'm just throwing around some ideas, here, as the 25% every other day water change method is likely the best thing to do.

Maybe you need to increase your filtration, or clean/replace your filter media? What size & type of filter are you using? When cleaning/replacing filter media, its best to do 1 layer at a time and wait a couple of days before doing the next layer.

What are your nitrate levels? Perhaps you need to "vacuum" the gravel more thoroughly to get the nitrates down. Don't replace the gravel or anything that drastic, you'll disturb the biofilter.

What do you use for water changes? Maybe there's a high level of phosphor or sulphur (I have this problem) in the water you are using.

Butterfly

check this out and see which algae you have - http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9
Does the tank get any sunlight?
Carol

jenniwren

okay.. so i have a fluval 204 external filter. i checked it to see if it was a problem with it. but nothing. nothing clogged and everything is working fine. i have an air stone and the nitrates are 10 or below. i do a 25 percent water change every week. it is close to a window, but lately ( over about a month) have always closed the curtains and the past few days have left the tank light off. thanks for the help and quick response.

Butterfly

The green cloudy water is an algae bloom, if it gets any sunlight at all that could be the cause.
do a latge water change, cut down of feeding the fish and black it out for threee to four days. By black it out I mean cover it so absolutely no light gets in , don't turn the tank lights on either. This will not hurt your fish or plants. At the end of that time do about a 30 -40% water change to get the dead algae out. You may have to do this twice to get rid of the algae. but I'm afraid as long as it gets any sunlight its going to come back. Hope that helps
Carol