Some of the more common causes for cloudy aquarium water are bacterial blooms, algae blooms, high levels of dissolved organic carbon and/or the use of new driftwood.

It’s a good idea to have in mind what kind of fish you want to keep before you purchase an aquarium. Some fish only grow to be an inch or two, whereas other types of tropical fish can grow 12 or 13 inches or more in length! Knowing what kind of fish you want will help you decide the size of the tank they will need. If this is your first time with an aquarium, it may be a good idea to start with a 10 or 20 gallon aquarium setup for now and stock it with some smaller and hardier species.

If your tank has been setup for a short time this may be the result of a bacterial bloom that happens in a newly setup tank or when too many tropical fish were added too soon. This situation will correct itself when a sufficient amount of bacteria establishes on your biological filter. See the Nitrogen Cycle for more information on this process.

Now is a good time to decide on the type of aquarium filter you will want to use. You will also need to purchase a heater capable of heating the tank size you have. Buy the gravel, plants, a power strip and other decorations. A good rule of thumb for the amount of gravel that you will need is 1 to 1.5 pounds of gravel per gallon of water.

Usually the result of an algae bloom. The green water will not harm your fish but it is not the most pleasant thing to look at. This happens because of the amount of nutrients and the amount of light entering the aquarium. Your tank water is nutrient rich, which may mean that you’re feeding too much, your tank may be overstocked or you’re not doing enough water changes or a combination of all the above. Avoid placing your aquarium where it could receive direct sunlight. Direct sunlight will cause not only algae problems but temperature fluctations as well.

To correct this problem, perform 25 percent water changes daily, rinse out or replace the filter media to reduce the amount of nitrates, feed your fish a little less and leave your tank light off for a few days or until the water clears up. If you do practice good aquarium maintenance and still have algae problems, look into testing your tap water. You may be introducing nitrates and possibly phosphates into your tank via the water changes and not even know it. Also look into keeping live aquarium plants which will compete with the algae for available nutrients.

Pond keepers sometimes use a UV Sterilizer on their outdoor ponds to help control algae growths. While we agree that these sterilizers can have a positive effect on the algae growth in your tank, there are better, less expensive methods to use for controlling algae in the aquarium and we recommend you try some of the ideas presented above.

If that doesn’t work, as a last resort, you could use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Algae Destroyer. The algae destroyer should clear up the algae problem quickly. Please use as directed on the bottle. This is just a quick fix and we recommend that you figure out what’s causing the algae problem in the first place.

Tags: Aquariums

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at 10:25 am and is filed under Aquariums. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.