[bloodofthefallen]

I am having a major bloom of "single cell algae" or that is what I am told, and that the cause is to much nutrients in the water, plus the introduction of the algae I have tried everything from water changes to an algae killer, and clumping agent so my filters would capture it, how do I get rid of this problem???

[SHUEZQ]

I read an article on this and darned if I can't find it. The only thing that has worked for me for surface algae are a combo of different algae eaters.

If you are talking about actual green water, then there are two things to do: reduce light and eliminate waste. You need to cut back on additives and feeding, or the tank is overcrowded. Sunlight is the biggest enemy--where is your tank located? How long are the lights on for?

NO ONE CONFUSES ME--I DO IT MYSELF!

[bloodofthefallen]

yes, I am afraid its honest to god green water, if I didnt have a microscope, I wouldnt believe it, visabilty is about 2 inchs (thats bad for a 125 gallon tank)....I have now bought a 10 gallon tank to tranfer fish to (have 4 oscars,3 samll catfish (silver black) and i striped catfish (I cant remember its name, but he is a litte fellow, and an algae eater) all the fish are in the inch and a half range, so I know its not overcrowded, feeding is once a day, and the lights were on 8 hours a day, untill I lost a 5th oscar, and a 4th catfish to "lack of O2" (at night the stuff sucked the O2 right out of the water) so I am doing the transferr, draining the tank, sifting the gravel, refilling, plant more plants, and let it run for a few days and see if it works) did I miss anything?

[SHUEZQ]

I would add the algae eater and catfish first. Let the nitrogen cycle build before adding the Oscars back in when you are set up. Oscars are messy fish, and I don't know much about them. Eight hours is not too much, but what about sunlight?

Once all the fish are re-introduced, see what happens.

NO ONE CONFUSES ME--I DO IT MYSELF!

[bloodofthefallen]

well I have good news, and bad news

I have a cure for green water
in this order

1, pull all filters in the tank(cartridges)

2, diatom filtration, (go ahead and buy one, yes they sell them on this site) run it till the tank looks like a block of glass.( I say find a place that diatom primer packets (u need one of these everytime u activate a diatom filter) are cheap, or better yet, try ebay for diatoms by the pound, and measure out the needed amount

3 algaecide, any and all, this is up to you, choose your fav brand Of algae killer... treat it 3 times ( bear in mind that the filters are not filtering out chemical or biological chemicals, meaning test water everyday, and do water changes as needed) do this 3 times , will take slightly over a week, is best if tank has no animal life ) bear in mind this is a perm solution wait48 hours between treatments) (also snails in a freshwater tanks are a good thing, u can always pull them out if they reproduce)or use a snail killer) but in general, they will kill themselves (starve to death)you can tell by snail shells if this is working as present or even added snails shells turn white with dead algae during treatment)



after that, hope for the best the good news is I aM THE FIRST PERSON TO GIVE A STEP BY STEP TREATMENT FOR SINGLE CELL ALGAE ( tHAT i HAVE FOUND ONLINE ANYWAY, EVERONE ELSE PRETENDS THAT IT DOSNT HAPPEN)


the bad news is that u can get it from anywhere, for petstores will not tell u they have an outbreak, and a diatom filter is their standard equipment (it can hide an outbreak without treatment) and its a pin in the butt to get rid off, good luck, please post if it dont work

[bloodofthefallen]

in regard to the before mentioned treatment, I found this nessisary for a 125 gallon tank(freshwater), for my ten gallon primer tank(quarenteen(sp)) I only needed 3 days, without cartridges, and algaecide, so bear in mind that the treatment is very extreme, and is designed for a large tank, also, a diatom filter is very cool, but u can get away with a complete water change, and after treatment if it dosnt clear, try a clumping factor(they sell them everywhere)(a diatom filter makes water change and clumping factor unneeded)

[laurajoj]

try, kill all the algea, and use phosphate removers every time you add new water, also keep the tank away from direct sunlight and don't have the light on for more than 8hrs a day, if you try all that the algea wont have be able to grow, trust me, i get paid to know these things. Also, no matter what the lables say ONLY feed your fish once a day, no more than they can consume in 3 minutes.

Laura