green algea outbreak

[dolphinsrok]

Hi, ever since i removed a few plants i had, I'm getting green algea buildups on the glass and green cloudy nasty looking water. I have a 35 gallon with 5 (small to medium) african lake malawi cichlids. I have an 80 watt lighting system (Orbit by Current-USA) that i run for 7 hours a day (2pm - 9pm). I have a penguin 350 biowheel filter. the tank is no where near a window. I'm using freshwater sand as a substrate. I never had any algea problems until I removed the plants and upgraded the lights. I have been doing weekly or even biweekly h20 changes and have had no issues until i removed my plants and got the new lights. Since the cloudy h20 started, i have been doing 33% h20 changes every 3 days for the last 2 weeks and it gets little bit better but in a day or 2 looks horrible again. I'm thinking of getting new plants this weekend. Besides lowering the lighting times is there anything else that might help? My tank used to be crystal clear and it would last for like a week and a half and still look great. Now it's a different story.

[Alfcea]

How much do you feed your fish?

Green water occurs most commonly due to overfeeding. When you had plants, they were using up the excess nutrients in the water for their own growth, but now that they are gone, those extra nutrients are being used by the green algae. Now, you should do very frequent water changes to remove those extra nutrients and your water should clear up soon. You might also want to keep the tank completely dark for a few days and, of course, change your feeding habits....

Why did you upgrade the lights if you were going to remove the plants? Usually, lights are changed for the plants' sake. Most fish prefer a somewhat dim environment to feel secure anyways... That extra lighting is doing great things for the green algae too...

I think you should think about getting plants once more. Plants, as more evolved living beings than algae, are much better at taking up nutrients from the water and will help you control the growth of algae... but first you should treat this huge outbreak... water changes, darkness and less food...

I hope that helps...

[oldhead]

Often algae bloom are caused by excess nutrients and light. How long ago did you upgrade the light? You might try some Algone, worked for me in the past. Water changes are not really going to help you. You need to find a way to cut off the food supply. A change in lighting can sometimes trigger an effect like this and like I said see about cutting excess nutrients. You may wanna cut back feedings and amounts until the tank clears. Good luck!

[smaug]

The solution depends on a few things.You mention cloudy water,is it green cloudy or milky?Removing some plants could be a bit of the problem ,but unless you removed a very large amount then I doubt it the biggest cause.If its a milky type murk then you have a bacteriological outbreak and are experiencing a mini cycle.What are your water parameters,nitrates,nitrites,ammonia,ph and temp?