Habitat - Indoor :: Need help!

[daredevilgirl013]

I took some water in today to the pet store to get tested as it is turning green in about a week after every single full water change that I do. So I took that water sample in and if any of you have a pool you'll understand this.

I have itty bitty algae micro particles floating in my tank. They are too small for the filter to pick up and too small for the pleco to eat along with the ghost shrimp. So therefore I have to do a total total water change and a total thorough cleaning of every single thing in the tank.

So since I have to do this (not today..probably Saturday or Sunday) how am I going to clean everything with just water?

I have fake paper plants (if you can call it paper..kinda like material really) in my tank, the dock, the heater, snail shells, shells, rocks, and the filter. Can I use bleach to clean all of them to knock this stuff out?

And don't worry about my pleco, I got him algae disks so he's good to go when this is all said and done.

So just some advice on how to clean all of that stuff would be helpful since vinegar won't work.

[robm]

Cleaning out all the stuff probably won't help. Before you know it the algae are back. You have to make sure the algae don't grow.

There are three things the algae need to grow. If you remove any one of these the algae can't grow (and you don't have to clean the aquarium as often!):
- oxygen. The bacteria need oxygen to break down the waste and ammonia and nitrite so removing the oxygen is a bad idea.
- nutrients. You take away all nutrients by changing all water. This is a good approach and you also remove all toxins by doing a water change.
You can also remove (or rather prevent) nutrients by using some kind of rocks that absorb ammonia (I think they are called zeolite). This way you remove the ammonia before it gets broken down into nutrients.
- light. Algae need lots of light. Reducing the amount of light that falls on the water is probably the simplest and cheapest option. Is there a lot of light in the aquarium? Is it located next to a window?

The people with an outdoor pond also use a uvc light to kill the algae. The idea behind it is that the dead algae clog together so they can be removed by the filter. This is probably overkill for an aquarium since you can reduce the amount of light. Reducing the amount of light is ofcourse impossible with an outside pond.

Note that the green water does not harm your turtle, it only looks bad. Having green water (algae) is a lot better than white cloudy water (bacteria bloom).

[sonyj]

I got this tip from some site (don't remember where) but thought that it might come in handy so I copied it to a notepad. It's referring to fish, but should be helpful for a turtles tank as well.

"Algae tip:
The dreaded Algae
If you have algae in your tank, it is likely the result of too much nutrients in the water. Countless
books have been written regarding algae. If you have algae in your tank, cut down on the feeding of the fish. If you were adding fertilizers, stop adding them and conduct daily water changes, 20 % or so for a period of three weeks, This should be all that’s required to rid a tank of algae."

Cutting back the lights might be a bad idea if you are cutting them down beyond the necessary requirements for your turtles (10-12hours per day). If you have other lighting on besides the heat light and UVB light you might consider cutting that light off or down, but I'd leave the basking lights alone as long as they aren't on over 12 hours.

[daredevilgirl013]

The tank is next to a window but the curtains are drawn tight and shut and no light really gets them through them (trust me it's dark in here and it's daylight out there.) When I feed the fish, it's gone in like ten minutes, what they leave behind the shrimp and turtle will eat. I do have live plants in there which may be the cause.

The other source of light is his UVA and UVB, those are on for about 12 hours, but I was told to cut back to 8 which is fine because he'll be going outside some too.

And I know the green water isn't bad but it looks like I don't take care of my tank. And this algae has got to go. So there will be a full total cleaning of everything in that tank to hopefully stop it from being so quick. Usually it would take about a month for the water to get green and like that. Now it's only a matter of days. I imagine it got worse because I wouldn't clean his plants and dock and stuff when I did a water change cause I knew the pleco needed something to eat so I just dried the stuff off and put it back in when the tank was clean.