Green water early battle

[Bk828]

About mid week ive noticed my 29g heavily planted tank get somewhat cloudy. I right away thought it was due to the ferts i added (First introduction of flourish nitrogen,potassium, phosphorus and iron) and thought it would clear up in a few days.. well this friday it started turning somewhat green so i did about a 30% water change and decreased the hrs the light was on (to 7hrs). The ammonia was 0 and so were the nitrates. The tank didnt at all get better so today after reading up a bit on Green Water and what exactly it can do to a tank I went straight to action and did another 30% water change and covered up the tank for the 3 day blackout.
Any tips on solving this problem??
Should i do small water changes during the blackout?!

Thanks for reading and for any help.

edit: forgot to add, probably the important part to this too. The tank gets some window light for a few hours during the day, nothing big but maybe enough to cause a problem.

[jaysen]

hope your plants dont melt

[grannylvsfish]

does flourish excel take care of this problem? I know it killed all the algae on my 10 gallon when I used it the first time.

[Bk828]

thanks jaysen for your concern.. I dont think 3 days will hurt the plants. Read on one site that i can check the tank midway to see if its clearing up, if it cleared up 100% already then im done if not continue till its 3 days without lights.. Compared to some of the images they got on the web of green water, mine is maybe slightly green so hopefully it will go away faster

[Bk828]

does flourish excel take care of this problem? I know it killed all the algae on my 10 gallon when I used it the first time.

read that it does help but i got vals and other plants that it might kill :huh:

[Mgamer20o0]

100% black out. no water changes better yet dont even feed the fish. keep it covered at all times.

[Bk828]

Thanks Mg will do
But still have to figure out what sparked this.. Either the window light or adding Flourish N-P-K and iron all at once or both at the same time.

[Mgamer20o0]

i am guessing a combo of all. since it gets the light the extra ferts in the water gave them the boost they need.

[Bk828]

The sunlight issue is easily resolved with the shade so I am good there.
But for future reference, would it be best to dose the tank with all ferts at once or space them out to different day doses?

[Mgamer20o0]

i do trace the one day and the others the next. check out the sticky. i dose just like that.

[Bk828]

anyone have any other suggestions to clear up green water?!!!

[LADIBUGGL]

I just went through the same thing with my water. I talked to a very knowledgeable fish store owner who advised me that short of buying a uv sterilizer the only other cure would be to remove all my fish and bleach the tank, equipment and plants (in a seperate bowl for 2 mins then immediatly put them in a bowl of water with a heavy dose of water conditioner) and then rinse the tank and equipment very well fill with water and add 15 times the declorinator and replant your plants and start the tank over. The only problem with this is you will have to recycle your tank.

[Bk828]

ehhhhhh I dont really wanna use bleach ever again with my tank, i had a bad experience with it before (bleach dip with plants) and the whole thing of cycling the tank again, dont think its that worth it.

Anyone tried excel with green water?

[jmhart]

I may have an early development of green water. I'm going pressurized on the co2, hope the stability helps.

I've got all the equipment and a full co2 tank, setting it up in the morning. We'll see what happens.

[Bk828]

cool let me know if that helps. how long is your photo period?

[jmhart]

So, my suspicion is this: About a week before this started, I added 52 more watts of light to my tank, might have been an overload for my DIY co2. My lights are on a time and on for 12 hours a day.


Hopefully I'll up the amount of co2 and add stability, should take care of. I almost never see people that have pressurised co2 have algae issues.

[Bk828]

what ever you do, dont do black out. I dont know how a tank can go 3 days without light, i had a few deaths due to it being off for 2.5 days.

How much you spent on your co2 equipment???

[jmhart]

I've done a blackout before and never had a problem.

Anyway, I bought a used setup off craigslist that included a 40g Tru-Vue, stand, 5# co2 tank, Pacific Coast Regulator, and a Coralife 36" 2x96w Aqualight. I paid $200 for all it.

I'm going to sell the Aqualight on ebay(I already have one extra sitting next to my tank, my wife would kill me to have two). That should bring in between $50 to $100. I'm then going to sell the tank/stand on cragslist for about $75. I say low end, I make back $150 and, after it's all said and done, I will have paid $50 for the co2 equipment.

The regulator is a Pacific Coast regulator. I have one complaint about it. The regulator is preset for downstream pressure at around 35 psig. It has a built it flow controller and I also added a 3 port manifold and Swagelok needle valve, but this high of pressure makes all flow control suck. I'm going to have to get a metering valve to really cut down the flow before it reaches the needle valve.

[Bk828]

lol nice way to actually profit.
I found a problem with my diy co2 that mightve been the cause for green algae but not 100% sure, basically once i setup the bottles i dont really pay attention to them since i know its going to bubble soon.. well this time i guess i didnt pay even more attention and didnt factor in that the cold room temperature will be effecting the mixture. Normally i have a nice big stream of bubbles coming out of the wooden airstone but this time it was a fraction of that.. So today i placed the bottles in a tub with warm water and what do you know... it started bubbling like mad again. Will have to find a way to keep the water there warm (dont have an extra heater)

a pressurized system wouldve been so much easier to deal with......

[Bk828]

mmmm delicious
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/7399/1000304gz6.jpg

[jmhart]

[quote=bk828;1332536]lol nice way to actually profit.
quote]

Just an update: Put the tank and stand on craiglist for $100, sold within 8 hours.

Now all I have to do is sell the aqualight for $100 and my pressurized system was free.


On that note, anybody want to buy an aqualight for $100?

[grannylvsfish]

mmmm delicious
http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/7399/1000304gz6.jpg

Holy cow!!! that is green. I am sorry, this must be very frustrating for you. how about a UV sterilizer?

[Bk828]

Just an update: Put the tank and stand on craiglist for $100, sold within 8 hours.

Now all I have to do is sell the aqualight for $100 and my pressurized system was free.

On that note, anybody want to buy an aqualight for $100?

lol nice only if nintendo wii were still rare.. I couldve bought some again and sold em for double = free co2 system :lipssealedsmilie: Idk will see how things go, if anything maybe will sell some stuff and get a regulator and as far as tank.. maybe my pop will let me trade in his acetylene tank for a co2 tank. hows your green water so far?? setup the system yet? any change?

[Bk828]

Holy cow!!! that is green. I am sorry, this must be very frustrating for you. how about a UV sterilizer?
Its pretty bad lol but i still cant compete with some of the greener tanks out there
edit: Heres a picture of one of the worst ive seen so far
http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae/gw_1.jpg


I did consider a UV but at the moment just trying to fix things up with $0.00 spendings..

[jmhart]

Set up the pressurized co2 yesterday morning. As of last night looked 100 times better. At that point, still a little cloudy, we'll see today when I get home.


Wow, that is bad....mine was nothing like that. I'd say you're way passed the "begining stages".

I'd say invest in a pressuried system before getting a UV sterilzer. You'll appreciate the pressurized in the long run, whereas a UV you barely need anyway.

[Bk828]

Right now I will be trying to change the water even more often and bigger volume, today i changed about 75%. I will probably only put back 50-60% of that. will try reducing tank volume to allow for easier faster more frequent water changes

[Bk828]

Set up the pressurized co2 yesterday morning. As of last night looked 100 times better. At that point, still a little cloudy, we'll see today when I get home.


Wow, that is bad....mine was nothing like that. I'd say you're way passed the "begining stages".

I'd say invest in a pressuried system before getting a UV sterilzer. You'll appreciate the pressurized in the long run, whereas a UV you barely need anyway.

lol that aint my tank lol my tank is like 25% of that

[Bk828]

Heres my godly tank.. Still filling it up slowly.
http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/5436/1000307by5.jpg

[Notophthalmus]

You just need more Daphnia; they convert Green Water into Fish Flesh! :D

I don't know if adding daphs will keep your green to acceptable levels, but hey, it can't hurt!

[Cory Keeper]

yeah, I've been told to try daphnia, it may help.

[happybob59]

I tried this out and it cleared my tank up some...but not enough to suggest it to others...the people on the forum said it worked for them so...I also hear that water changes dont work because essentially your adding back what the GW is feeding off of, the nutrients that are in your water and such. Im battling with this also and its been about a month or so and am going to try a DIY diatom filter....but if yuo can get it cleared without spending lots of money....id be GLAD to hear it!

[Yadokari]

Ugh... I think I'm starting to get green water. Have you found a good solution? I didn't want to make another post about green water, since there's a ton of them here already.
My tank is just a very faint green right now. I can still see through it, clear but not crystal clear like I want it. That faint green is really bothering me!

I have zero ammonia, nitrite and nitrates. It's less than 1 watt per gallon too!

I read that you had some deaths during the black out. Fish, invert or plants? I have my crystal reds in this tank and I'm really scared that they might die off from this 3 day blackout.

[Bk828]

Yadokari hey..
Im actually still suffering green water, even after upping the co2, and not using any ferts my water still remained green. I did try blackout, water changes and still nothing helped. Water changes made the tank look clear for 5 or so days but after it started clouding up again. Im kinda just lettting it be for now...

The blackout killed some of my new growth from the ludwigia and a ton of baby ferns.. so i dont know if blackout is really a good way of dealing with green water.. I know a UV sterilizer will work but i dont have that kind of money... So im trying everything else in between..

Good luck with yours, just keep up with water changes, feed less, make sure co2 is stable and monitor the lighting..

[leocom2000]

I know it might sound bad, but not long ago someone posted a thread that he gave up and let it be. He did not replace any water or add anything for a week or two and algae died by itself. I think it used up all the nutrients and died.
Personally, I used a UV with diatom filter and was clear in a couple days. It never came back (nock nock on wood).

[Yadokari]

I'd use the UV and diatom too but it's just way too expensive. :(

I don't have a co2 set up yet, this was an extremely low-tech aquarium. All I put in it is liquid ferts and like, less than a watt per gallon of light. I'm suppose to monitor the co2 levels and all that jazz too, which would mean I have to go out and buy more equipment, right? I'm just trying to be as cheap as possible and not spend more money on stuff.
I was thinking of making a DIY co2 but I've been pretty busy so I have no time to read up on the article on how to make it and how to maintain it.

Doing the blackout right now, today is day one :( I hope it works...

[jmhart]

If you aren't adding co2 and don't have hight light, there isn't need to regularly dose fertilzers. That is probably the source of your green water, excess nutrients due to your fertilizer.


Also, mine ended up not being green water, but more of a diatom problem. I already own a Mag 350, so instead of getting a diatom filter (~$90), I added the micron sleeve to my Mag 350 (~$15), worked great. The water is clearer than I've ever had it.

[The Zigman]

HOB UV sterilizer from Petsmart.
$50

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2750628