Water borne algae

Question
Hi - I've been trying to establish plants in my 65 gallon aquarium for a month or two.  It was doing fairly well and then I began to lose some of my plants.  The water went cloudy and my fish exhibited signs of being in water with high nitrates.  I eventually lost three of my compresiceps. I tested and the nitrate level was normal.  My water went from cloudy to green.  I did two 50% water changes but each time, the green came back. It took a water sample to my local pet store and the quality tested normal. I'm at a loss now.  Do I need to do a complete water change? I'm concerned that the remaining three fish won't be able to stand the stress of such a severe water change, but yet I'm worried about the quality of the water they are in now.  I've since cleared out all plants that were not doing well and replaced them with a type that seems to be establishing itself very well in hopes that it will improve my water quality. Any suggestions?

Answer
Hey Jim,

Seems you'v ran into a pretty common situation with begginer plant hobbiests.. the dreaded green water and clody water. Cloudy water usually is in newly established tanks.. which in your case is the situation, initially it does not always show itself. More often then not cloudy water apprears... days weeks if not months after. It's cause your tanks still going through it's initial cycle and you have not had a chance to build up the beneficial bacteria to beat it off. Regular water changes.. weekly at 50% would help fight if off but usually it just goes away on it's own.

Now the green water issue... lol we call this pea soup (understand why :) ) type of algae that grows so fast that it turns the water green... neat eh.  Usually these little algae guys thrive on organic material in the water often elevated by high nitrate levels.

Common causes:
Overfeeding - Most aquarium flake food is high in phosphates and as the food decays these phosphates are released.
Infrequent filter changes - Decaying material in the filter can also cause increased nitrate and phosphates.
Infrequent water changes - Water changes is the method used to control nitrate and phosphate levels in your aquarium.  Phosphates can also be controlled through the use of phosphate pillows available at your local aquarium store.
Excessive light - not only aquarium lighting but also might be intense room lighting or direct sunlight


You have to figure out what you are doing wrong.. because obviously these symptoms are telling us the water quality isnt sufficient.

What i'd try and do... is doing a 50% water change every 5 days... to see if that helps out.. after 2 weeks.

But remember we gotta try and find out what your doing wrong.. In a 65 gallon aquarium i'm hoping that you have a canister filter... those are essential for that type of aquarium.. and your plants are dying just because you are inexperienced with plants... (we all started somewhere) they need more then light and. water changes.. they need to be fed... and they need proper lighting..  there is so much more to plants then most people realize. I suggest going to www.fishforums.net it's a online forum.. i am always in there helping out even asking questions of my own.. and it's all plant related in the section i go to...

I hope i helped a bit... it does sound like your tank's still going throuh it's inital cycle right now.. But those water changes.. closely monitor the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and do water changes when they spike, get a canister filter if you dont have one already.. learn about how to keep plants... (what type of lighting they need, what foods they need, remember they need co2 aswell )  :0

that's a good start at least :)