Green Water!!!

We have a terrible alege problem in our tank. I don't get it. We no longer over feed, our filter isn't backed up, the tank isn't in direct sun light.

Ammonia is .5 (much better than the 4 it was a few weeks ago)
Nitite is 0
Nitrate is between 5 and 10, so 7ish

I don't get it. We only have five fish in our 29 gallon. They are all small (see sig.- don't worry, the dogs and rat don't live in the tank! lol!) ;D

So why is our water still green??
Help please!
~J~

 

Alege will do that, just show up all of a sudden. Try doing 50% water changes every ther day or so and cleaning off the inside of the glass, the rock, plant ect. what ever you have in your tank and it should clear up in no time. It may not be in direct sunlight but how long do you leave your tank lights on for every day? That light will cause the same problem as day light.

 

Is your tank light left on all the time? Is your tank close to a window and getting a lot of sunlight? Here's a great article that might help you out:

 

We left it on over night on accident about three days ago. We've been keeping it off since then.

Can alege kill fish? day before yesterday, our fish seemed fine. Yesterday, all three remaining danios were stuck to the filter intake tube, dead. Why would they all die like that? I'm about ready to cry over this whole mess. We finnaly get the ammonia down and then they die? I really don't understand. Our emrald cories seem fine right now, but I'm worried about them. I'm asuming the danios got some disease from the poor water quality, and I don't want the cories to die too.
~J~ :'(

 

the green water is the alege problem I have... It doesn't seem to be growing on anything, it's just in the water, turning it cloudy at first and then green.

 

Your tank is going through a minI cycle. Your ammonia is down, but because you have ammonia at all is an indication your tank is out of balance. The algae is probably secondary. Extra water changes will not hurt your tank right now for the fishies sake.

 

Thank you for the advice. I know the tank is not balanced, but it is the best it's been in months. We did a lot of things wrong when we were getting started... put fish in right away, used chemicals and ammonia filters to take ammonia out instead of letting it cycle, rinsed the filter in tap water, put too many fish in at a time, used distilled water, used water that wasn't room temp... the list goes on and on.

Over the last month and a half, however, the tank has been cycling. We did daily water changes for about two weeks, and then droped to every other day for two weeks, now, we're at about every three days. Because of the alege and the fish dying, we're going to have to bump it back up though. I'm thinking 25% daily? I'm not a big fan of the 50% water change, I feel that it shocks the tank and the fish in it. We've done it before and lost fish.

I thank everyone who has given advice so far in this and other posts. I really appreciate the support and I have learned alot. It's frustrating though. I feel like we are finnally doing things right, and NOW three fish die in one day!

~J~

 

25% sounds good. Have you ever checked the ph straight from the tap to see if there is a big difference than the ph in your tank? If you are losing fish after large water changes, it might be because of the ph difference. Any sudden change in ph over .2 can make your fish very sick or even kill them. Some folks have to let their water "gas out" overnight by putting it in a bucket or barrel and using a powerhead or strong air stone to aerate the water.