# what a long, strange journey



## Den Socling (Sep 10, 2018)

Months ago, my 40 (38?) gallon aquarium got cloudy - very cloudy like I've never seen before. I don't know if this was a mistake or not but I bought a product that was suppose to clear it. Shortly after I added that, algae grew like (you guessed it) I've never seen before. I tried leaving the LEDs off for days. I tried salt. I tried water changes but I couldn't beat the algae. The water looked like pea soup. Finally, some combination beat the algae and the water cleared. I was just sitting and looking at fish that I haven't seen for months. It appears the algae did not bother them. I could find every fish I can remember having when it went green.


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## fishexpert (Jun 24, 2020)

Thats amazing! You must have very hardy fish!  Usually you will lose a few fish that can't withstand algae. If you don't have any fish that will clean the tank thats how much algae it will collect. When I was 7 or 8 years old I had a five gallon tank with just a betta fish in it. It was a tank that had cycled for 3 and a half months, (I really wanted the perfect tank) it didn't have any live plants but it was a pretty stable tank otherwise. Just a week or two after adding the new betta fish in the entire tanks glass was COVERED in algae. you couldn't see anything inside at all. I was devastated, I had done everything perfectly. My mother looked into the tank from the top and could still see the betta fish was perfectly fine. So we removed the fish into a plastic container temporarily and bought 5 ghost shrimp and the last mystery snail at the store. Whiten 2-4 days the tank was spotless, not a trace of algae anywhere. After that we added the betta fish in and they all lived happily together.


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## Den Socling (Sep 10, 2018)

I did remember that this bunch was in there.



















Everytime I get near the aquarium, that water churns in a feeding frenzy. I don't think Mollys can bite but I'm not sticking my finger in there to find out. lol Would you believe they were all from the same female and the same birth. Not only that but my daughter took a bunch and I have some in other aquariums. I mentioned this before at this forum. It must be some kind of record.

Btw, I hope I didn't mess up inserting images. If I have ever done that here, it was a long time ago,


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## MoreThanAFish (Nov 16, 2020)

I’m sorry, but the statement is not correct. Algae in water column will not harm any fish, shrimps or snails. As far as I can tell from the photo, you may have a bacterial bloom which indicates uncycled tank, a tank that is trying to cycle. What are your parameters for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?


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## fishexpert (Jun 24, 2020)

It is definitely an algae out break! Bacteria floats in the water but this ALGAE appears to be on the glass! Its is algae if its on the glass! I am growing tired of your incorrect information MoreThanAFish. From your other post it looks like you only have ONE betta fish you got recently!


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## MoreThanAFish (Nov 16, 2020)

20yearfishexpert said:


> It is definitely an algae out break! Bacteria floats in the water but this ALGAE appears to be on the glass! Its is algae if its on the glass! I am growing tired of your incorrect information MoreThanAFish. From your other post it looks like you only have ONE betta fish you got recently!


Got him over a month ago. Get your brain right guy and stop being rude as this is frowned upon. This not algae outbreak but bacterial bloom caused by not uncycled tank or overstocked tank. OP, size and how many mollies? Seems a lot 
Oh and algae outbreak water would be green not cloudy LOL
I got my betta over a month ago. Why do you keep throwing this into your hissy fits?


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## fishexpert (Jun 24, 2020)

Hi! Sorry if what I said was offensive! But I've seen bad algae outbreaks before and this seems like one to me.


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## MoreThanAFish (Nov 16, 2020)

20yearfishexpert said:


> Hi! Sorry if what I said was offensive! But I've seen bad algae outbreaks before and this seems like one to me.


Its alright  I have had water this cloudy and it was uncycled, but either way it might be algae


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## AbbeysDad (Mar 28, 2011)

Not to get in the middle of any feud but just maybe there's some algae AND a bacterial bloom....or maybe the food being fed to all those mollies causes the cloudy water. I've got a good article here on Cloudy Water. A bacterial bloom is not necessarily due to a tank being cycled or not - is more that there is excess organics in the water that have created a 'perfect storm' for bacteria to bloom. See Bacteria in the Freshwater Aquarium.
Hope this helps!, ~Mike V.


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