greenwater

Question
QUESTION: About two weeks ago i had an algae bloom it cleared right out and i put in teh meds and filter stuff to get rid of it.
  Now im having another one ...
im not over feeding, water changes 10% twice a week and i have not over stocked with a 20 gallon tank with 3 danios, 2 platies, and one otto algae eater. i have not over lighted it (12-13 hours daily) and i have not added fish for over 4 weeks.

the only diff if seen is that there are greed algae spots on the glass that is hard to get off. would this cause it or what???

help

ANSWER: Hi Crystal. I felt I had to contact you because of the ratings to had given me. In particular the politeness one, where you gave a 5. I was wondering what I said or did that you may have taken offense to?  I am very sorry if I offended you in any way, or if you thought I was rude for any reason. I wanted to apologize (but I'm not sure for what). If you feel like letting me know, that would be great.  Also, I didn't understand the 9 on the timeliness. I answered your question in less then 24 hours. The outlines here say to the person asking the question that if they do not receive an ansewr within 3 days of asking the question that it will be sent to someone else (or something to that effect). You asked the question at 6:15 on the 27th and I answered by 10:10 a.m. on the 28th, but you didn't read it until 5:01 p.m. on the 28th.

I just felt bad that you may have felt I was rude to you, because I certainly in no way meant that. I re-read my answer, and I still couldn't see anything that I thought sounded rude.  But again, I apologize if I came off that way in any part of it, I certainly meant no harm.

Good luck, and if you'd like to consult with me in the future or this problem if you have it again, I'd be happy to try to help you out.

Trish   ;o)



You say you got past your other algae bloom, but I'm not understanding why you are adding chemicals to the water? These chemicals do not help anything, they usually make matters worse because they do not fix they problems, they just mask them.  And then they can cause problems for your fish.  These things CAN be controlled without chemicals and I will try to help you with that.

It would be helpful if you could provide me with your water parameters. Do you have a master test kit? If not (you should, they are important), can you take a sample of water to your pet store and have them test it, and give me the parameters? That would be a good help if you could.

In the meantime though, a few things you can do to try to prevent these outbreaks:

1. Weekly tank maintenance (cleaning gravel, tank walls, etc.) and partial water change of 20-25%, as opposed to 10% 2 times a week (you can purchase a special sponge to scrub the algae off the tank walls, which I would do before I did the cleaning and water change);
2. Avoid direct sunlight on tank if there is;
3. Avoid overfeeding fish (which you say you do);
4. Do not overstock the tank (which you aren't).

As with any algae, keeping the tank clean and performing regular water changes is one of the best preventative measures. Prompt attention to sudden algae growth will prevent more serious problems. Here is a helpful website that you will find soooo much information on about many problems you will face with having a fish tank. This particular article deals with cleaning a tank the correct way. This will be helpful to you. Surf through the site as there is a myriad of info on there, and the person who owns the site is a friend of mine with many many years experience. He has an aquarium care business where he goes to people's homes and takes care of their tanks.  I hope you find his site helpful and informative.

I have 2 oto's in my 20 gallon.....they are so small but so helpful! I love my little guys, lol.

If your water has high phosphate levels, etc., you may not be able to totally escape this problem.

Please let me know how you make out. As I said, the over the counter things you can buy for your tank and it's problems do not fix the problem, they just mask it. You have to get to the root of it to properly fix it.  Chemicals only mess up your tank more.

Good luck!!    ;o)

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

QUESTION: im sorry about the ratings i was at school when you answered it and i did not look at the limeing srry...

and for the politeness i just found that your were telling me to change most of the things that i was doing allready like the water changes etc.

i just felt like you were thinking that i was doing a horible job with my tank.

oh and one of my danios had a fry(just one)!!!!
it died when i put in it a seperate container for the night...
i think it got to cold.
how many and how often do they usualy have fry???

srry bout the ratings

ill improve no them this time  :)

Answer
Hi Crystal.  I'm so sorry, I certainly did not mean to come off as inconsiderate. And no, I do not think for one second that you are taking "horrible care" of your tank. It's just that most people are unaware of the importance of tank maintenance, and the endless amounts of problems that "bad" water quality can actually cause.  You had asked for help, so I was really just trying to give it to you, not trying to make you feel bad :o(  I'm sorry.  

If you do decide to try the maintenance that I suggested, you may find that you like the outcome better. I'm was not saying that your way was wrong.  I was giving you an alternative, and this way has been shown to improve water quality.  And I speak from both knowledge, research and consulting with others who do tank maintenance as a profession.

As far as the fry, are you sure it was Danio fry? Danio's spawn. Therefore, you would have seen eggs and such (although other fish and the danios love to eat the eggs all up). I would lean toward it being Platy fry, since these are livebearers and you have them. I have a sunburst platy who just had 62 fry yesterday. If you do not remove the fry and put them in a breeding net or another tank, they will most definately get eaten by the other fish (if they haven't already). You can get a breeding net at the pet shop, and when you see your platy getting HUGE, you can put her in the net, and then take her out after she has the fry and leave the fry in the net.  That's what I do.  Then I move them to a bigger tank after a week (I breed them so I do things differently). If you don't have room for fry, you can just let nature take it's course and you may have one or two make it. (Survival of the fittest). This is what a majority of people do, because they are prolific breeders. (I now have over 200 fry in a tank in a little over a month).

Let me know if I can help out in any other way. Keep an eye out for more fry too!  Good luck!   ;o)