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I have a 72 gallon bowfront tank that recently has been having problems with green water, I'm assuming from algae blooms. I only have a few fish, 3 or 4 Central American Cichlids and a few cyprinids, so and I've done everything from changing the water twice a week, cleaning all filter components, replacing filters, and adding "supposed" green water conditioners that have not even alleviated this problem at all. I have no plants in the tank, but I do have plenty of rocks that have been part of the tank for quite a while now. I thought the rocks might of had a bit of algae build up, so I removed half of them before I recently changed to water. I don't have an over abundant amount of light, less than 6 hours, and don't generally over-feed the fish, so I'm quite confused. Up until a week ago I was absent an algae eating fish in the tank, but recently purchased two plecos who must be feasting their hearts off. If someone could give me advice on what could be the problem, or if I need to be changing the water on a daily basis for a period of a few days to help get fresh water in the tank, please let me know. Thanks all.

did you get the plecs before the algae bloom? in that case you should test your nitrates, cause plecs make lots of waste and i am pretty sure that algae blooms in high nitrate conditions... though i would think a lot of water changes should somewhat fix that, has it cleared up at all?

Thanks for the input Devon. The algae bloom was there for at least a week before I purchased the plecs, almost a last ditch effort to try and fix the algae problem. I'm almost pretty sure the only way this will go away is if I change the water 20% daily for 5-7 days, so that the algae in the water won't have a chance to spread. The tank looks best usually right after the water change, then a day goes by and it's almost as green as ever. I'm just surprised that all three of these products that are highly touted as algae destroyers have not done one thing to combat the water conditions. I do have a Penguin Emperor with the bio-wheel that uses that you're not supposed to change throughout the life, is it possible that there is some bad algae on that, and I should replace it? That's the only other thing I can think of other than the nitrate levels, but the algae problem was before the purchase of the plecs so I dunno. If my nitrate levels are high what is a solution for that?