Green Tank

BlankI've not tried this myself, but I've heard that putting a couple of freshwater mussels into a tank will quickly clear up a bad case of algae. Might be worth a try. I'd also cut back on the amount of light you give the tank, 12 hours a day is plenty.

Gingercat

My 15 gallon tank is turning green. This has never happened before. It doesn't seem to be like usual algae as nothing in the tank is coated with algae. I cleaned it and refilled it as always . I do keep the lights on always ,but I always did. It doesn't get sunlight on it,it just turns green! Any help would be appreciated! Thank you.

Unicellular algae blooms (read: pea soup) happens sporadically - I've yet to figure out why that is. Every few months we get customers coming in with it happening - no rhyme or reason to weather patterns or seasons that I've been able to tell. Anyways - your fish need darkness. A day/night cycle is important for any living creature with circadian rhythms (there's at least one typo in that), and fish most certainly need time to 'chill'. A 12/12 cycle is more than sufficient - if it's a hassle, hook up a holiday timer and let it go automatically. I do that with my tank setups and it allows me to come home late or leave for a day or two without having to worry. As for the greenness - if you don't want to wait it out (eventually the algae will have consumed what it really loves in your tank and things will return to normal), you can deal with it enzymatically.. Hagen makes a chemical called P-Clear which is a flocculant that will cause the algae to bind together into clumps. Poly floss added to your filter will pull it all out and you can throw it in the garbage after 5-6 hours. Be careful not to overdose - apparently any more than the suggested dosage and the clumped algae will once again react with the P-Clear and blow it apart again. OR, you could also turn the lights off and throw a towel over the tank for a few days and let the algae starve to death with no light.

On Sun, 18 Jan 2004 23:30:31 -0500, 'Dinah Forbes'

Green water is called an algae bloom and is caused by too much light or direct sunlite. It can be removed with a diatom filter or micron cartridges, killed with an ultraviolet sterilizer or a product called Acurel 'E'.

Water changes won't help........Frank