# waterquality



## wildfrahm (Jun 8, 2009)

I have a 200 gallon in my resturant. Its up front and gets indirect sun during the day. my bio load is low( to 8" fresh water sharks & 3 algie eaters and a few small community fish) Anyway I went out of town for a mounth and when I returned water was green. I have chainged water 3 times in last month and algecied it to death. It did not clear untill I used clafier. Now it is going south again. I vacumed it the day after using clafier, I use a canisterrated for up to 260 gal tank and two HOB'S RATED for up to 55 GAL each. Oh yea tank has been problem free in current location for three years & I just bought canister filter when it went green. Any help or sugestions will be greatly apreciated.


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

Run the lights less, stop using alagacide. Anyway to block sunlight? Blinds? DO larger water changes. Consider a UV filter?


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## planenut007 (Mar 21, 2009)

UV sterilizer best bet, make sure it is a big one with slow flow, maybe 18 or 25 watt, with 90-110 gph of flow.
NO chemical can substitute the result that you will get with the sterilizer.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

I personally do not / will not use chemicals to solve a problem with a tank. Even if they do appear to remove the problem without killing / harming the fish you are then reliant on the chemical as they do not solve the problem, the solve the byproduct of the problem...

If you did not have green water issues for 3 years... and in the last month or two you do have green water issues... then something must have changed to allow the new issue to arise... Get your analytical wheels turning and solve that question and you'll know why you have green water, then we can help you determine the best route to overcome the issue.

If you simply cannot determine anything that has changed, then I would suggest you go with the UV light as opposed to the chemical approach. If you are only concerned with your UV light removing green water, then an 10+W UV light will work fine at any flow rate equal or less than the UV units max flow rate. If you wish to kill parasites, fungus, algae/green water, etc, etc then I would suggest a 20+W UV light and a flow rate of 10 gallons per hour per 1W of UV strength (for example 200 gph for a 20W UV).


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## wildfrahm (Jun 8, 2009)

the first sign oftrouble began when a freind brought over three huge golgfish out of there pond, then an employee fed the fish algee pellets for a week thanking it was fish food all before my going out of town for a month.

I bought and installed a uv sanitizer, the largest petsmart had today, lowered my ph a couple of points and put in a little amonia remover the readings were both on the high side of aceptable.


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

Water changes fix ammonia. Quit using chemicals to fix everything. Why did you lower the ph. Don't fix it if it isn't broken. Lowering the ph is going to have more effect than the algae.


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## Wolfwolf (Apr 30, 2009)

Not 100% sure but I believe ammonia is an excellent source of nutrition for algae. If you added fish and started a mini-cycle in your tank the ammonia could trigger an algae outbreak. It will likely continue until your nitrogen cycle is balanced again (ie no ammonia or nitrite). Be careful adding ammonia remover. Depending on what it is is will completely kill your nitrogen cycle and you will have BIGGER problems. I'd take the goldfish out anyway, but that is just me. They are not tropical fish and they are dirty.


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## wildfrahm (Jun 8, 2009)

gold fish are gone. uv sanitizer does not seem to be doing a lot. water is mabey stabilizing in a cloudy condition. would some polishing pads in my canister help or just mask the problem. think about doing anouther water change just did about 80 percent last weehend. how about just clarifer then vacume/watwr change. my amonia level is still high after two treatments.


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## Wolfwolf (Apr 30, 2009)

What exactly are your water stats? Nitrate, Nitrite, ammonia, pH, water temp?

What ammonia remover are you using?

A cloudy tank might be a bacterial bloom that signals your tank is cycling. If the gold fish are gone and there are no other new fish it seems odd that the tank would be going through a cycle. Have you cleaned the filters lately or installed new filter media?

A polishing pad will not help if the cloudy water is bacterial.


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## wildfrahm (Jun 8, 2009)

my stats are , ph7.8, KH 80ppm, GH75ppm, nitrite 0ppm, nitrate 10ppm, amonia 0.02, temp is 78deg. Water is still cloudy but stable. cleaned/replaced filters. added lite dose of clarifier and am planning on adding new fish and plants tonite.


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## Wolfwolf (Apr 30, 2009)

I'm confused. I don't think kh can be higher than gh. Also how in the world do you measure .02ppm of ammonia?


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## wildfrahm (Jun 8, 2009)

I could have them backwards bot both were in safe zone, am perty sure of amonia level though but of course could be wrong, level was just outside of safe. have a in tank active testing station/strips.


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## wildfrahm (Jun 8, 2009)

It was tested with the"live NH3 IN-TANK METER	by Mardel.


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## Wolfwolf (Apr 30, 2009)

I checked out that meter online. Interesting I never looked at them that closely in the stores. I always use API liquid test kits. What filters do you have in the tank? How do you clean the filters? You should just give them a rinse in aquarium water.

I am out of ideas for you.


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## wildfrahm (Jun 8, 2009)

thanks for the imput, I actuilly use the master intank gives constant ph,temp,and amonia. I have a drop test kit also but aquarium is in Bar/Resturant I own. the intank allows me to keep a closer eye on what's going on. I have been washing filters in tap water.(filters from canister). The light dose of clarifer helped a lot am ging to do a 25% water change today.


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## Wolfwolf (Apr 30, 2009)

Yikes! Don't wash your filters in tap water. Tap water normally has chlorine or even worse chloramine which will kill your bacteria. That would lead to your ammonia not being at zero. Wash the filter in the aquarium water that you sucked out when you do a gravel vac.


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