Are they sick

Question
QUESTION: I have a pink gourami and a tiger barb and a needle fish and some small cat fish, and two of the bigger catfish, and one sucker fish. they have all lived in the tank together and have been doing fine for almost a year, however just out of the blue my tank turned green over night, and it took changing the whole filter system and cleaning the tank to get rid of it and I had to add some of the algea cleaner to help clear the tank, after I did this it took all of an hour and the tank was so clear like it had just been set up, crystal clear. However now that I cleaned the tank the fish are not eating, the kissing gourami is not kissing anymore, and the red tail barb was floating upside down and acting crazy like it was dying, however it didnt die, and i cant get any of them to eat, the needle fish is rather large is is used to eating 3 rosies a day, and he wont eat any of them.  Can you tell me what I did wrong or do they have a disease or am I gonna lose all my fish?

ANSWER: April,\
seems like you essentially restarted your tank and have to go thru the entire cycle again.
firstly, green water is not BAD, in fact its good for the fish, bad for the viewer.
there are only a few reasons why that would happen, one, too much light from either an outside source, window or running the light too long. Could be the spectrum in the bulb has shifted and that happens about 12 months on the same tube.
An abundance of organic material, too much food, waste etc.
Phosphates in the water supply.
Algae was introduced on a decoration or plant from annother tank or system.
what did you use to clear algae? if it was a copper based treatment it can be adding to your trouble.
Also there could be several things going on at once, PH changes, water parameter changes, temp, etc etc...
lets take the easy way first, lets control the light, cut your tank light to 6hrs daily, if there is light coming in a window, stop that either with blinds or throw a towel over the tank.
set the temp to 76-80 somewhere in there is good, PH should be6.8-7.4 somewhere in there.
watch the food imput, and if the fish that are stressed do not seem to come around if you have annother established tank you could move them to it.
It won;t hurt to add some Stress Coat to the tank while this is going on.
Give me the specs I asked for and we can narrow it down even more if the above does not work for you.
If you have further questions, just ask

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: At first we cleaned the tank with a vaccum just like we always do every week, and changed the filter, then when that didnt work, the tank got greener, and you could hardly see the fish.  after that we took the filter off and put a new one on.  a double filter.  for a 40 gallon tank, then added the algae destroyer advanced and it was crystal clear with in an hour, it was amazing but it was then that I noticed the fish were not acting right, I thought maybe I put to much algae stuff in there but I measured it correctly, I will tell you that I just added the red tail barb while the tank was green, we had one a long time ago but it died.  the tank is clean is there such a thing as too clean?  I thought maybe we had to big of a filter on there, it said 30-60 gallon tanks, we have a 40 gallon tank.  Is stress zyme the same thing as stress coat?  I will try to keep them alive. I would love to keep them alive.
Thank you

April

Answer
April,
there has to be a cause somewhere, are you on a well?
is there a water softener in your house?
I would not be changing the filter everyweek unless you have a really large tank load.
If you have a double filter, change one pad one week the other the next that way you don;t disrupt the biofilter.
Lets get the light under control as a place to start.
no such thing as a too big filter, only makes things better.
There is such a thing as too clean, its a fish tank not an operating room, so some "stuff" is ok.
Stress Zyme is a bacterial additive to assist in cycleing the tank, Stress coat is essentially "aloe" for fish.
Since you have them both, use them, you really can;t hurt anything with them and they do help.
Let me know how  you make out.