Reasons for partial water changes

Changing small amounts of aquarium water will ensure water quality is maintained without having major variations in the chemical make up of their environment. Remember they are living in the water, so if you put too much freshwater in, even with water ager, this will affect them and potentially lead to many problems. For more information, learn about the nitrogen cycle [link to information]. A key rule to follow is never change more then 30% of fish tank water at any one time. In fact, it is best to change a smaller amount more often. Constant removal of nitrates will accelerate the growth of your pet fish.

How to change aquarium water

Everyone does fish tank water changes a bit differently. Use a bucket and a gravel vacuum that has a self-starting siphon. As this is an opportunity to get some of the gunk off of the bottom, then use the vacuum to go through the gravel.

For a larger aquarium tank, you can also use a long hose running out to the garden. Fish tank water is full of phosphate and nitrate, which your aquarium plants will love; you don’t need to tip it down the drain.

Fill the bucket with clean water and chlorine treatment. You want to make sure the water is similar in temperature to the fish tank already.

Ways to Attack Aquarium Algae

Any body of water can be subjected to algae problems (pools, hot tubs, ponds) try several of these methods to remove the problem

1. More frequent fish tank water changes
Doing extra partial water changes will remove move waste elements.

2. Get Pet Fish That Eats It

Fish that eat algae
Algae eating fish like Plecostomus or "Plecos" as they are nicknamed will come out at night and do a nice job cleaning up leftover food (that will create more food for algae if not cleaned up) and algae with their sucker mouths. Bristlenose, sucking cats and Otos (Otocinclus catfish) are other fish that fall into the algae eating category although there are others. For example, certain African Cichlids like the Mbuna are algae-grazing cichlids and in the wild, they eat all day like water bound cows scraping rocks for algae. Mollys are another fish that likes to munch on algae.

Snails eat algae
Common water snails are another option that will eat algae and are often the by-product of buying live plants since these things multiply like crazy. Just buy one so they don't take over the aquarium tanks. Apple snails are larger and don't seem to multiply as much but be safe and stick to one. If snails do take over your fish tank, you can buy products that will kill them.

3. Add Live Aquarium Plants
Plants are higher on the evolutionary hierarchy and will compete with the algae for nutrients and thus will limit algae growth.

4. Limit The Aquarium Light
Algae need light to live so don't place your fish tank near a window and don't leave the aquarium light on too long. Lights should be on for no more than 8 hours a day. Reduce the light period if you develop problems

5. Aquarium UV Sterilizer
A solution to algae would be to purchase an aquarium ultraviolet sterilizer. You hook one of these along the output from your aquarium filter and the water passes in front of a powerful UV light that bursts the algal spores free floating in your water.

6. Physical Removal
When all else fails, you have to remove algae by hand. This means scraping the aquarium glass with algae scrapers and dipping decorations in a bleach solution (just be sure to rinse everything well before placing it back in the fish tank!)

7. Aquarium Chemicals
As a last resort, you can try commercially available aquarium algae killers in liquid or fizz tabs but this should be as a last resort. The algae are growing in your fish tank because it has favourable conditions. You should try to solve these problems first before resorting to chemicals because if you don't reduce the lighting, or nitrate levels, the algae just will come back.

Also, you can buy phosphate removers that you add to your filter either in powder or mat form, which will reduce phosphate in the water which encourages aquarium plant growth.

Cloudy fish tank water

Cloudy water in a new home aquarium is usually due to a condition known as bacterial blossom. When you added three dozen pet fish all at once, you placed an extremely high bio-load on the fish tank, which resulted in a large amount of waste being produced suddenly. Bacteria that feed upon those wastes began to grow in large numbers, resulting in cloudy water.

Don't add any more aquarium fish, as you are way overloaded for a new fish tank. If possible, move some of the pet fish out of the tank until you get things under control.

Nitrogen Cycle

Your biggest issue now isn't the cloudy water in your aquarium; it's the ammonia spike that will soon occur (if it hasn't already), followed by elevated nitrites. Both could result in the loss of some or all of your aquarium fish. I'd strongly recommend that you become familiar with the Nitrogen cycle, so you are aware of what will be happening in the upcoming weeks