Question
Aquarium
Hi,
I am having a terrible problem with my aquarium. It's a 29 gallon established aquarium, it's been set up around 4 years. I did have an Iridescent Shark, a large sucker, a collie locha, 2 garromis, a small golden sucker and a blue snail. A few months ago, we started having a problem with black algae. We did the water changes, algae killer and keeping the lights off. After a little while things went to normal. About a week ago, the water started taking on a strange color again. It took on a cloudy look so I went on and vacuumed the gravel and removed about 10 gallons of water. For a day or so, the water looked better. All of the sudden it turned to a horrible greenish cloudy color, it reminds me of pickle juice. I figured the algae must be coming back, so I put a little of the algae killer in it. Before when ever I had used it within about 30 minutes or so, the water would be clear but not this time. Another day or so went by and the water was still bad. I thought, maybe I need to put water clearer in there. I tried it but still nothing was looking better. Tuesday night when I went to feed them (they really aren't eating), I saw that my golden sucker and my snail had died. I am so upset and worried about my other fish but i don't know what else to do. The water is getting worse and worse but I'm scared to do anything else to it. What should I do? This picture isn't very good quality but I'm hoping it will help you see a little bit of what I'm talking about.
AnswerHi Jasmine,
I can fully understand what you are going through with your aquarium's condition. I've dealt with problems just like this in the past. It is due to an overabundance of nutrients in the aquarium water. A combination of both algae and a certain type of bacteria multiply when conditions are favorable and cloud the water to being murky with a tint of green.
Using chemical treatments is often suggested. But I don't really recommend them. They can stress the fish and other aquatic life in the aquarium. And the die-off of the algae or bacteria in the water therefore feeds new growth of the annoying algae/bacterial bloom and keeps the trouble going.
*The number one best thing you can do (And what has never failed me) is to do massive daily water changes. There are no harmful side-effects to this method of treatment and the fish will really appreciate having so much clean water. I've had to do up to 75% water changes everyday on unbalanced cloudy aquariums before but the result is so worth it... Within usually not more than a week, the aquarium's environment will be stabilized and clear.
The key is to keep at the water changes. If you do a big change one day, then wait several days -- The bloom will just take over again. Its important to keep at it to continuously deplete the population until it cannot sustain anymore and dies off.
Keeping check of how much your fish are being fed everyday and perhaps cutting back a little can really help prevent these problems in the future. Perhaps the gravel is not being vacuumed quite thoroughly enough.
Thank you for the picture. I know you can get your aquarium back to looking beautiful again, just don't give up!
Karen~
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