# Am I Overstocked? (green water)



## JustAWitness (Jul 16, 2008)

ok so i'm pretty sure i'm over stocked and i think that its making my water turn green the day after i do a 50% water change.

_what do you think?_

my water turning green is the main reason for this post.

why is this happening
how can i solve it?

my friend said it's too many fish and i probably have a lot of nitrates and the only way to solve it is get s UV sterilizer/filter or get rid of fish. plants are not an option cuz my turtle will eat them.

do u think my problem can be solved by simply getting more filtration? i'm running 3 AC 110's aka 500 and have a powerhead. i'm considering getting an XP4 but my buddy said that it wouldnt help my problem.

so please answer my 2 questions.

*why is my water turning green?
how can i solve this without getting rid of fish?*


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## scuba20v (May 28, 2007)

hey man it will be all-right lol. how long have you had the tank set up? what size tank you have? when a tank is new the biological system is not matured in the filtration. this is necessary to support lots of fish. could be your problem. look up tank cycling.


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## ksane (Mar 19, 2008)

And for the record-if your nitrates are "too high" the only way to lower them is through water changes, not a UV light. You'd be money ahead to get a liquid test tube kit and test for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates.


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## JustAWitness (Jul 16, 2008)

scuba20v said:


> hey man it will be all-right lol. how long have you had the tank set up? what size tank you have? when a tank is new the biological system is not matured in the filtration. this is necessary to support lots of fish. could be your problem. look up tank cycling.


135 gallon. it's not new. up for over a year. but added tons of new fish at the same time recently (60 midas)

see my signature.


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## scuba20v (May 28, 2007)

wow do some water testing. as ksane said the nitrates could be to high. if you added that many fish at one time you may have shocked the system. you will have to do some water changes.


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## scuba20v (May 28, 2007)

you have a 135 gallon tank. the typical amount of filtration for a tank is 4 times its volume so you need at LEAST 540galon per hour of filtration. lets put it this way i have a 75 gallon. overstocked and i have about 1000 gallon per hour of filtration. home made sump (700gpa) and a Rena Xp3 (300something gpa) works great


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## scuba20v (May 28, 2007)

you have a 135 gallon tank. the typical amount of filtration for a tank is 4 times its volume so you need at LEAST 540galon per hour of filtration. lets put it this way i have a 75 gallon. overstocked and i have about 1000 gallon per hour of filtration. home made sump (700gph) and a Rena Xp3 (300gph) works great no problems. all i do is a medium water change ones a month :thumb:


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## ksane (Mar 19, 2008)

But Scuba-you can have double-mega-quadruple sized filters on a tank with tons of gph turnover and it's not going to make your 'nitrates' any lower or lesson the time between water changes (since the reason to do water changes is to lower nitrates). I do agree with over-filtering though


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## k19smith (Sep 6, 2005)

I agree with everyone else basically you have caused a cycle from adding so many fish. I would pick up a test kit if you don't already have one and do water changes everyday to every few days, I'm not exactly how often you should be doing them without your parameters. If you keep a close eye on this you should be able to keep it under control if not your gonna have a lot of dead fishies.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> why is my water turning green?


Excess nutrients in the water from fish waste.



> how can i solve this without getting rid of fish?


Some things you can do:

--Reduce feeding, the more you feed, the more waste is produced. Once per day only. Give them 'just enough' and no more.

--Vacuum the substrate while doing frequent massive water changes. Water changes are a type of filtration, one of the best types.

--Change or clean your mechanical filtration pads at least weekly, regardless of the type of filter.

--Reduce the light duration, if possible.

Some things not to bother with:

UV's, they'll only mask the problem of excess nutrients. The green water will be gone, but you'll still have a less than desirable environment for your fish.

Covering the tank or keeping the lights off completely, since it's only a temp fix and doesn't address the issue of excess nutrients.

Adding filtration or moving the water more. Does nothing to address the issue of excess nutrients. Your friend is right, an XP4 isn't the answer.

You said you didn't want to get rid of fish, so I'll suggest getting rid of the turtle.  I hear they can contribute heavily to the waste load on a tank. That alone may solve this.

I don't think you're seeing ammonia or nitrite spikes, or at least they're not the cause of the green water if you are. But I do agree you should get a good liquid test kit and start checking for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite should always be 0. The nitrate tests will tell you how quickly your nitrate is rising and if the water changes, etc are helping things.

So basically, get the uneaten food and fish waste out of the system (tank and filters) and keep it down and you should see the green water go away. Keeping an overloaded tank can be possible, but you may find yourself spending more time doing maintenance than you care to.


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## JustAWitness (Jul 16, 2008)

prov356 said:


> > why is my water turning green?
> 
> 
> Excess nutrients in the water from fish waste.
> ...


wow. thx so much. best post ever. very helpful.

i'm not getting rid of the turtle. i'll do water test and post the numbers. i'll do more frequent 50% water changes. i'll feed as little as possible. i will not change the lighting schedule. i feed the turtle in a bucket outside the tank and if he happends to poo in the tank, he eats it up anyway, but yes, he is a total messy beast. after i feed there's flake food EVERYWHERE but then it magically disapears after. i'm sure the turtle eats it and i'm pretty sure the big pleco eats it up too.

i want to clean my filter media but i don't want to kill benificial bacteria, so do i just clean it in tank water?


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

> i want to clean my filter media but i don't want to kill benificial bacteria, so do i just clean it in tank water?


Yes, or dechlorinated water is ok too. You've got a challenge and lots of work on your hands, so good luck and let us know how it goes.


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## BurgerKing (Jul 1, 2008)

if i were you, i'd try to take the turtle out temporarily and put it in a container with a filter on it. Not only will this reduce the amount of waste, but you wont have to worry about your turtle getting sick. Prestine water is a necessity for turtles(and fish, but not as prestine).


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## mithesaint (Oct 31, 2006)

Tell us more about light duration and how many watts of lighting you have. I have had major issues with green water in the past simply due to too much lighting. Something like 160 watts over a 55 gallon. I removed a light, and the green water went away. That's an easy fix.

I'll second the notion about the turtle. One of the messiest creatures around. I would be that's the source of your problem.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

The algae in green water needs both light and nutrients. If you change or take away the light, you may resolve the green water problem, but green water is nothing more than unsightly. It's not harmful. What you haven't done is deal with the problem of excess nutrients. And it's the excess nutrients (waste) that can be harmful to fish. A 'solution' that doesn't deal with the nutrients, is more of a mask than a solution. At least in this case. There are times when there can be a phosphate issue from the tap water, but I'm pretty sure that's not what we're dealing with in this instance.

Little doubt that the turtle is a major contributor, but he wants to try to resolve this while keeping him, so let's try that first. Nothing wrong with a challenge and we may all learn something from it, who knows.


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## JustAWitness (Jul 16, 2008)

i'm unsure on the wattage of the lights. i turn them on at 6am and turn them off at 9pm, which i now realize is too much.

i'll feed less, black out my lights and do 1 or more 50% changes a week. as for water test, people are saying it's not my water thats bad, it's just algae and that my green water isn't harmful, just unsightly.

keep u posted. thx a million for all ur help guys/gurls.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

In order to get a true gauge of success, I'd suggest adjusting the light duration to what you intend to run long term. You may black out the lights and be rid of the green water only to find it return when you start turning them back on.


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## schlekw (Oct 25, 2007)

make sure no sunlight is hitting your tank, and turn off the lights all day for a couple days and you will notice the algal blooms will go away. happened to me randomly a couple weeks ago.


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