Abouttina quiao Expertise I can answer all questions about chemistry of water and I would say, I am familiar with almost all diseases of fresh and saltwater fish. I have had my 125 tropical salt and 45 agressive for yrs. I managed a petshop for five years and I am a petcare specialist for a large petchain now. I love my animals. I love this kind of work. Helping people keep their fish sucessfully is so rewarding to me.
Experience I managed a petshop in Bridgeton called Petpourri for about 5 years...I am a petcare specialist for a large pet chain. I have 2 African greys, a Nandey conure,a potbelly pig, 2 rats and a hamster. Oh and did I mention a 125 tropical salt and a 45 agressive salt. I have had brakish and fresh. I am very familiar with disese and chemistry of your tank. I also have 2 senegul chameleons and the anoles that live in the bottom of their 37 high tank. We keep tons of reptiles at the store and keep a couple as pets love them all. I have worked in the pet business for yrs.....along with taking care of all of mine.
Expert: tina quiao Date: 3/11/2008 Subject: water chemistry
Question heya, im having a minor problem with algae in the water, its not a bloom as such, its just slightly green water. out of all the tests ive done, the general hardness of the water is a bit under, so il add some marble chips, my nitrite and nitrate levels are fine, but my phosphate is way too high, its at 2ppm. i tested my tap water, and that is also on 2ppm, is this high enough to be supporting the algal growth? am i right in thinking it should be at about 0.05ppm? pH is fine, and ammonia is fine.. the plants are all healthy, the fish get fed once a day on a fairly small amount, there is no dead fish or plant material in the tank, they get cleaned out, filter maintained and cleaned, 20% water change, light is on 8 hours a day.. no direct sunlight.. etc etc.. i cant think of anything other then the tap water that could be adding it? i use water conditioner too.. think thats everything! do you know of anything that could be causing the green water other then the phosphates? and is it likely the phosphates are from the water? if so, is there something i can add to the water or filter to eliminate it? cheers for any help!
josh
Answer Josh , Are you keeping goldfish or trops.It is a vicious cycle especially with well water...the algea feeds the fish the fish wastes feed the algae. This is especially true with goldies. Sometimes if you are by a farming community there is alot of fertilizer that will bring your phosphates up.....so will over feeding. If any of these are the case I would recomend reverse osmosis. This is a fancy term for try to replace some of your water from another source like spring water when you do your water changes. This should take care of it. Sometimes even city water uses alot of buffers to soften the water and this can cause high phosphates. If that doesn't work prob too many fish .... go to a bigger tank....Tina
