# Help! Food keeps discoloring water!



## nofinga911 (Sep 18, 2007)

I feed my pleco's Hikari algae disks and everytime I feed them, the disks turn my water green! I am not overfeeding them. How can I stop/prevent this? It really makes my water look bad I can barely see inside my tank!


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## tangy (Apr 23, 2007)

when we used to have one we would place pieces of these algae disks(from wall-mart)near it one after the other to keep the tank from becoming green, and whatever it did not eat we would quickly remove. you could try that. i gave him away cause his powerful tail kept destroying the tank :?


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## beetlebz (Aug 2, 2007)

wow, that would totally explain why my 110 wont clear up! its greenish cloudy, but i thought the glass was just tinted and it was a bacteria bloom. I feed 2 algae wafers a day in the 110 and only 1/4 and 3/4 of a tab to my 10 and 30. i wonder if noone is finishing off those algea tabs in the 110!

ill stop for a few days to see if it clears up, let you know how i make out  my pleco likes the tropical wafers better anyway lol


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## fish_4_all (Nov 13, 2006)

That is extremely odd because I feed both of my tanks algae wafers almost every other day. The snails get 5-7 of them and don't eat it all in less than 24 hours and I never have a problem with clouding.

Do you have the brand name? Maybe it is something with to with the specific brand. I buy bot of them that my local Wal-Mart carries, the larger ones and the small ones, I think one is Hikari and no clouding from the wafers.


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## nofinga911 (Sep 18, 2007)

I use Hikari wafers...can you please tell me the brand you use...







fish_4_all said:


> That is extremely odd because I feed both of my tanks algae wafers almost every other day. The snails get 5-7 of them and don't eat it all in less than 24 hours and I never have a problem with clouding.
> 
> Do you have the brand name? Maybe it is something with to with the specific brand. I buy bot of them that my local Wal-Mart carries, the larger ones and the small ones, I think one is Hikari and no clouding from the wafers.


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## fish_4_all (Nov 13, 2006)

I use whatever is the cheapest to be honest. I have never cared about which ones I get. Some of them are kinda big and flat, the ones I have now are kinda squared off rounds and I have even used to really small ones I found once. None of them every clouded the water.


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## nofinga911 (Sep 18, 2007)

can you please post the names?? And also maybe if everyone wants to do this little experiment I did and we could all post the results for different brands, i did like 3 already and ill post the results tomorrow. Fill some cups with water and put a few crushed up wafers,disks,tabs, etc. in them...stir it up good...and then after it settles see which cause discoloration and which do not...





fish_4_all said:


> I use whatever is the cheapest to be honest. I have never cared about which ones I get. Some of them are kinda big and flat, the ones I have now are kinda squared off rounds and I have even used to really small ones I found once. None of them every clouded the water.


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## jeaninel (Aug 24, 2007)

Hmmm...I use Hikari Tropical Algae Wafers and never had a problem with them clouding the water. But I only feed 1 wafer every couple days and it usually is all eaten up within an hour or so.


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## Falina (Feb 25, 2007)

I've never had this problem with algae wafter either.

I know you say therre is no such thing as overfeeding with the sevs. Is it possible that the wafers are sinking to the bottom too quick for the sevs to see them and the wafers are actually just lying uneaten hidden amongst plants or something?


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## JouteiMike (Oct 7, 2006)

Doesn't sound like the wafers are the cause of the problem at all. I drop several wafers in my tank everyday and never have had problems.

Could just be an ordinary algae bloom. How much do you feed your fish and how often? What are the specs on your tank?

Cut back on feedings and reduce the amount of light. Also, increasing the amount of water changes will help.


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## beetlebz (Aug 2, 2007)

I did a w/c and then didnt feed any algae wafers, and it still went back green on me. mine is just a bloom!


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## don1carter (Mar 20, 2012)

nofinga911 said:


> I feed my pleco's Hikari algae disks and everytime I feed them, the disks turn my water green! I am not overfeeding them. How can I stop/prevent this? It really makes my water look bad I can barely see inside my tank!


I have the exact same problem. I only used one Hikari disk, although I let it stay in the tank overnight, which was probably a big a mistake. And my water turned so green it was painful to look at. It seems to be clearing very very slowly. I doubt if I will every used another of those dreadful things.:roll:


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

I'm thinking that something else is doing this in your various tanks. Or some interaction in the chemistry.

I've never had water discolour from the Hikari wafers, and I'm now using Omega One and no problem with these either.


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## Adamson (Feb 5, 2012)

Throw some carbon in your filter.


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## TwinDad (Mar 3, 2011)

I never had green discolor from the Hikari either. I switched to API for variety and haven't had the issue with those either.

I also use the omega one shrimp pellets, no discoloration either.


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## Qswetlikoff (11 mo ago)

I used Hikari algea wafers and had the same issue. They kept turning the water green. Apparently this is fairly common. 

I was told to try the top fin brand, and had no problems!

I tried another "high end" algea wafer brand last week, and it turned the water green again!
I looked at the ingredients, lo and behold, it has green colouring added! No wonder it's turning the water green!!!

I didn't see added colour in the Hikari brand so I don't know which ingredient is doing it...

Top Fin it is!


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