Cloudy and green tank........

Hey, my tanks been getting really cloudy lately, and its starting to go green. ive been doing regular water changes but that doesnt seem to be helping. ive taken both axotols out and did a 50% water change, it help for a couple of days but its gone green anf cloudy again. does anyone know how i can fix it. im guess i changed too much water and it needs to re-cycle. but its taking so long! much longer than when i first got it.

What are the levels like?

My tank water has a constant yellow tinge - I don't know what it is either, but the levels and temp are all fine. I think it might be off the natural coloured sand I have in there.

Have you got any coloured sand or anything in there?

hey. nah i have normal white aquarium sand. ooh but the sand was SO dirty, i took most of it out and cleaned it in a big bucket and the water was black! it was so bad. i think that might have unbalanced everything, soim guessing it needs to recycle. but its been like this for a couple of weeks. the levels are normal now but before i took the axoltols out the ammonia was a little high.
:S i duno. i would like coloured sand. i really like your setup with the red sand it looks great.

Thanks

The cloudy water might just be off the sand then, mine took 8 days with the filter on to clear even though I washed it for like an hour before I put it in.

Not sure about the green though...lol

Is your axie still in the cloudy tank or have you put them somewhere else?

green is an indication of an algae bloom.

Ed

did you cleaned your filter?
I suggest that you move a lot your sand on the tank so that the dirt start to come off, and clean really well your tank walls, then just put your filter on the maximum power that would start cleaning , on the next day clean your filter again and put it again working full power, also if you don´t have carbon on your filter it´s good for you to get some, that will clean your tank without taking all of the water and start the cycle again.

Sometimes the tank will go green if it gets to much bright light. Or if it is near a window. Normal house fluro lights will send it green. Or if you have aquarium lights on your tank and they are on for a long time.

Shane - Here are a couple of pages about algae blooms, you can google more if you need to.


http://www.drhelm.com/aquarium/cloudy%20water.html

http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm

hey, thanks heaps for that information, ill have to get into fixing it, i really want to put my axoltols back in!. thanks again

I had trouble with my tanks water before. I let my tank cycle with a couple of large feeder fish (goldfish) for 5 weeks. The levels were normal and everything, but then I put in my axies and within a couple weeks it was all foggy and stuff. My ammonia wasn't very high but it was there so I took them out and let my tank sit for about a week. Even with no axies or anything in it the ammonia began to rise until it was extremely high. I emptied out the entire tank and cleaned off everything and put in new sand. I then got 4 of my large adult breeding guppies and a couple babies and put them in the new tank. I had lots of live plants in there as well. I let the tank sit with the guppies in it for 4 weeks and the levels were perfect. I put in the axies and the ammonia and nitrites rose a little and then subsided within a couple days. Now everything has been perfect for over 3 months.

PS If you do water changes while your tank is cycling it will mess up the nitrogen cycle and the bacteria will not build up correctly. And when you recycle your tank get a brand new filter cartridge (I normally get carbon). And when your tank is all set up I've seen a lot of people say to do weekly 20% water changes, but I do monthly 20% water changes and just try to suck up poo and waste with a turkey baster whenever I see it. Hope that helps!

hey thanks for that info. was it because you had the other fish in there that it began to cycle properly? mine is still bad. its better than it was last week, but i still dont want to put my axotlols in there. everythings ok like ammonia. but its just not getting any better.... :S thanks again

WHY WONT IT CYCLE!~ its still as bad as it has been for the last 2 and a half months. what am i doing wrong?. i really want to put my axolotols back but the tank is still just as cloudy, and almost brown as it was to start with.

should i start all over again? or should i put some fish in it?... or should i just put my axolotls in!.,... :S im so confused.. its starting to get really annoying...

Cloudiness does not always mean that the tank hasn't cycled if there are algal blooms but it can mean that the tank can crash if there is a massive die off of the algae at one point.

If you have algae blooms you need to deal with the algae before the tank will stabilize.

Ed

Shane, how do you know your tank's not cycled? If it's cloudy and brown, it's probably cycled and growing brown algae. If you have algae growing, it's probably cycled. Have you tested the water or had it tested professionally?

BTW: changing the water during cycling does NOT disturb the cycle, as long as you don't change more than 50% or so.

If you have a larger tank and don't have many axolotls (like one per a 20 gallon tank or so), I wouldn't worry about pre-cycling since the water probably won't be able to build up enough toxic animal excretions before the next water change (10-20% once a week).

Shane - Do you have a test kit? If you do what is the nitrate reading? Nitrate is algae food.

Here is a link on the nitrogen cycle.
graphic:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/4805/diagram.html
Info:
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/biologicalcycle/a/nitrogencycle.htm

hey. thank you alot everyone. the tank is probably cycled. its starting to grow algae, but it hasnt cleared for weeks, i dont really want to put my axoltols into the tank incase anything isnt quite right with it, which is what it looks like.
it might be an algae bloom but i dont really undersatand how to fix that. i only have an ammonia test at the moment, which is 0 at first it read a little but now its nothing.

ive never had a fish tank before so this is a huge learning experience, i just hope my axoltolts dont suffer because of it. everything has been fine its just lately something must have gone wrong :S i dont know.

ill get onto test for nitrate should i also test for nitrite?

thank you so much! again!