# Green Cloudy Water... again



## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

A while back if some of you remember, I was having a problem in one of my 10 gallon tanks. I have a sand substrate (sand bought from Home Depot and washed thoroughly) two Gouramis and a blue crayfish (he's still pretty small). Basically what my problem was that after ever water change the tank would get cloudy, then within the following days it would turn to this deep green color. As I had thought, people said it was just algae and that a simple blackout procedure would clear it right up. 

I wrapped a towel around the tank and kept it tight for 3 days, never removing the towel or feeding the fish. As soon as the 3 days were up, I removed the towel and the aquarium looked amazing. I thought it had worked. Then within a week, the tank got the same cloudy look to it, and then went straight back to being green, where you can't even see halfway into the 10 gallon tank. I have no idea what this is, and it's really getting me upset. If anyone has any suggestions one what to do (I've tried blackout three times now) and how to fix it, I would very much appreciate it. I'll try to get a picture up as soon as possible.

All my parameters are in order, and the pH is just around 7. The only thing that comes to mind... maybe to spur your guys thoughts, is the sand. If there is too much gas build up in the sand, will this cause the water to continuously become a green color? Thanks for all of your help.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

After a blackout, you must do a large waterchange to remove the dead algae. Otherwise it will start all over again.


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## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

I agree with Simpte, however getting rid of green water is not as easy as it seems like it should be. Coventional wisdom is that it's caused by excess nutrients in the water. Sounds like a water change would fix it. Right? Anyone that has experienced this knows that won't always work. I've had green water in a tank in my fish room right next to another with no green water. Same maintenance schedule, same everything. It won't harm your fish so I normally just keep doing water changes and it eventually will go away. I don't like medicating my tanks with anything but there are products thay will kill the algae. Clarity by ( I think ) Seachem is suppose to be good but I've never used it.


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

ive had problems like this. it was due to my sand being to deep, and when i did a water change, gas and other gunk would rise up out of the sand, making the water really really cloudy, how deep is your sand? might be something to consider. mine was about 6 inches and i dug it down to 3-4 and it really helped.


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## ron v (Feb 24, 2005)

Leveldrummer, your situation could be very dangerous to your fish. A very deep sand bed will trap debris and allow it to rot. This is an anaerobic ( lack of oxygen ) reaction and the gasses given off are very toxic. If you have a deep bed, you need to stir it up frequently to keep it clean. I think this is different from fishnoob. Your water was not "green" was it?


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

ron v said:


> Leveldrummer, your situation could be very dangerous to your fish. A very deep sand bed will trap debris and allow it to rot. This is an anaerobic ( lack of oxygen ) reaction and the gasses given off are very toxic. If you have a deep bed, you need to stir it up frequently to keep it clean. I think this is different from fishnoob. Your water was not "green" was it?


my water was all sorts of things when that happened. i know all about it, thank you, thats was many years ago when i did that and i found out allllll about it. but this may be very helpful to some newbies. i was just letting this poster know that that may be an issue.


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## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

My sand bed isn't that deep. At most I would say 2 and a half to three inches... but I highly doubt it's even that much. I'll try the blackout again, and change about 50 - 70 percent of the water and see if that works. Thanks for the help. I'll get back to you guys on how it went once I complete the process.


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