Feeding and Nutrition :: green water in feeder tank?

[marydairy15]

I know this is supposed to be the section about feeding and not tank issues, but it seems to be the appropriate place to ask about a feeder tank. I raise guppies for my RES and a couple of months ago the water started getting really cloudy and kind of green. i went home for christmas for a couple of weeks (took my RES with me but had my roommate feed the fish) and when i got back 3-4 weeks later, it was disgusting--i couldn't even see the fish. so i cleaned the whole thing out and scrubbed it, boiled the rocks, the whole deal. well, now it's about a month later and the water is starting to get cloudy and slightly green again. I've got 2 snails, a good-sized pleco, and some shrimp in there on clean-up crew, and there's not algae growing on the glass or rocks or plants. It's just the water. I have heard of UV filters (i think that's what they're called) that kill the bacteria in water, but I honestly don't want to go to all that expense just for my guppies. I also have a baby arowana in the tank living with the guppies (gobbling them up) until I can get a tank set up for him, so I want to make sure that the water's ok for him. So, basically, my question is, aside from cleaning out the whole tank again, does anybody have any ideas on how I can keep the water clear?

[steve]

Its probably the light... anyway you can limit the amount of light that reaches the tank?

[marydairy15]

i could do that, but before i had this problem i had brown algae and i was told it was because there wasn't enough light.

[industrial_girl_2000]

Do you do any partial water changes in between the full water changes?

Get an algae scraper from the store so you can keep up on the walls/floor of the tank with the scraper. Between that & the partial water changes, it should keep the water clear.

I have noticed that guppies do tend to muck up the water quite a bit. I have about a dozen swimming around in my turtle tank & they definitely make a mess. Not sure what 1/2 that stuff is at the bottom of the tank (prolly fish poop among uneaten food, etc.) but I do the partial water changes to keep up on the muck and it helps a lot!

[marydairy15]

I've never done partial water changes--I'll give that a shot and try limiting the time the light's on every day

[marisa]

How often do you change the water?

[marydairy15]

Generally, every couple of months--it's been about one month since the last time I changed it.

[marisa]

It sounds like it needs to be changed more often, with partial water changes in between. I've forgotten if you said somewhere else how big the tank is, but it sounds like you've got a fair-size bioload in there with those creatures.

Do you put algae wafers in the tank for them to eat? They can really foul the water quickly.