29 gall tank w Greeny water, gold algae eater with tetra/danio/glassfish

Question
Have had this tank for about 3 months, and the water still goes green.  10%
weekly water changes haven't helped,  so this weekend we replaced 90% and
got one gold algae eater.  ALL our fish are about 1 to 1.5 inches long.  2
tetras, 1 glassfish, 4 zebra danios remain, plus the Gold Chinese Algae Eater
that I added yesterday.  Water still looks cloudy.  pH was high 8.0, alkalinity
high 250, nitrite less than 0.5, nitrate less than 20, zero chlorine.  I don't
have anything to test ammonia.

1. What food do I get for Goldie, so it will still eat algae but not bite other
fish.  I drop a fat pinch of Hikari Micropellets in twice a day.

2. How do I keep the water from going green, or do you think Goldie will do
the trick?

Answer
Hi Arti
Golden algae eaters are the golden variety of a Chinese algae eater. Not a good fish, especially in a community set up.  They grow rather large, and as they get older tend to stop eating the algae and start becoming aggressive to the other fish.  Might be best off returning it and going with a different algae eater, like 2-3 oto cats, a pleco that stays small(rubber lip, bristlenose, clown), or a few snails.  And, no algae eater will take care of the algae you're describing :)

The algae that turns the water green is free floating algae.  The algae eaters will generally eat the algae off the decorations, gravel, glass, but not floating around the water.

First, you should up your water changes to a minimum of 25% a week, and also be sure you're vacuuming the gravel weekly also.  But, you have nitrites present, so do daily water changes of about 10-20% until those go to 0 ppm.  Then go on the weekly water change schedule.

How long do you leave the light on in the tank for?  With no live plants and fish only, it's recommended no more then 8 hours.  With live plants that require high lighting, about 12 hours is sufficient.

Is the tank near a window, getting direct sunlight?  If so, then consider moving the tank, or covering the window so no sunlight comes in.  Algae loves light, from the tank or sunlight.

What kind of filter(name and model) is on the tank? Inadequate filtration can cause the water to kind of go stagnant.  Do you fill the tank up to the bottom of the filter?  If so, start keeping it down a bit so the water agitates at the surface, usually about an inch or so down below the filter output area.  This also helps to add oxygen into the water from the surface agitation.

How often are you feeding the fish?  Only feed once a day, what the fish will eat in about 5 minutes.  Net out any uneaten food.  Left over food can contribute to algae problems as well.

Try those suggestions, if they apply, and give it a week or two and see if there's any improvement.  If not, let me know and I"ll explain a little bit more drastic measure to try out, but you'll still need to apply all the above as well.  And also, the algae water isn't hurting them, they probably love it, it's really more of a nuisance for us because we can't see the fish lol....

Let me know how it goes!

Christy