Green tank

Hiya everyone, nice forum and I am a bit of a newbie so would like some help. We got a small tank about 5 months ago now and have had nothing but trouble with it since. I just cant keep the tank clean. Its about 30litres and is just covered with algae and the water is green tinged all the time. The algea is on everything, so I was told to get a catfish and I also have a cherry barb I have a barb, and two guppies and that is all so I know I am not overloading the tank. It has an in lid filter with sort of cartridges in it which I change about once a month when it gets really dirty, change the water every fortnight and give the tank a good clean - ornaments and gravel about once a month too. It stays clean looking for about a week and then the water starts to go green again.

Please help me get this sorted.

does it sit in front of direct sunlight ?

bloggy wrote:

Hiya everyone, nice forum and I am a bit of a newbie so would like some help. We got a small tank about 5 months ago now and have had nothing but trouble with it since. I just cant keep the tank clean. Its about 30litres and is just covered with algae and the water is green tinged all the time. The algea is on everything, so I was told to get a catfish and I also have a cherry barb I have a barb, and two guppies and that is all so I know I am not overloading the tank. It has an in lid filter with sort of cartridges in it which I change about once a month when it gets really dirty, change the water every fortnight and give the tank a good clean - ornaments and gravel about once a month too. It stays clean looking for about a week and then the water starts to go green again.

Please help me get this sorted.

Hiya bloggy .

A couple of things come to mind. First, as kbekl has mentioned, if your tank is in direct sinlight then algae will just thrive and be difficult to get rid of. Second, if you are completely changing you filter cartridges for new ever month then your tank is never properly cycled. There is information on that in the Aquarium Articles section, it might be worth having a read of that. Third, it is only a small tank, and small tanks are harder to keep clean that larger ones. I would increase the number of times that you change the water to at least weekly, doing a 50% gravel clean every week too. Dont forget to dechlorinate the water each time too.

Finally (sorry there's a lot!), you say you have a catfish - do you know what type it is? Some can grow quite a size and may be too big for your tank, and do you know what your water stats are - ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

Oh, and finally, finally to TFF

Thanks everyone

Ok, the tank isnt in direct sunlight although the living room is quite a bright room.

If I am not supposed to change the cartridges, what do I do when they get mucky??

As for the catfish, I am not sure what it is but the shop said it doesnt grow big and so would be ok for a small tank.

Hi Bloggy. Welcome to TFF.

Do you have real or fake plants in the tank? Also, how long do you have the tank lights on for?

Hello Bloggy, What sort of tank have you got? (name/make/model etc)

Hood filters can be taken out and cleaned in a bucket of tank water (saves replacing them)

Hiya, sorry its taken me a while to get back to you - it's just been mad at work lately!

Right, I have an AquaMode Aquarium, and use the Aquamode filters, which I change about every 4-6 weeks, as per the instructions.

http://www.aquarium-parts.co.uk/acatalog/Aqua_Mode_Series.html

The rest of the filters I wash about once a fortnight.

I have fake plants in the tank, and have the lights on for about 10 hours a night.

Does that help ata all?

Personally Id reduce the light.

I myself I have a 24HR timer and i have it on at 9-10am 12-1pm 5:30-11pm.

If you dont have live pkants then you dont really need lights on at all - the fish dont need them, so it would do no harm to reduce them, and just have them on for a few hours of a night for you to watch them.

I am not familiar with this type of tank or filters bloggy, but am a bit concerned that you are overcleaning the filter. If you are totally replacing half of the filter and then washing the rest of it every 2 weeks I dont know that the bacteria is getting enough time to build up.

I know that Mary wraps filter wool around her filter media and just washes that so it might be best if you try that. Hopefully she will be on later and will be able to give you a bit more info

oh, i didnt realise bloggy never had live plants. oops

Tsk, Tsk, Tsk.........Pay attention please!

:lol:

If you only have fake plants, you don't need to have the lights on for more than 2-3 hours in the evening. That's prob why you're getting the green buildup.

You don't need to change the filter cartridges at all. That's just a gimmick on the part of the tank manufacturers to get you to spend money on consumables. You'd be far better wrapping some filter wool around the cartridge which you can then rinse every month in some siphoned off tank water and just replace it as necessary.

I have a Tetratec goldfish tank and the instructions also advise changing the filter cartridge every month. I never have - just put extra filter wool around it as described above - and I have crystal clear water.