green water...*SIGH*
- Thread starter breaker_1113
- Start date
ok this is wat i did so far to help cure my green water.
ive been doing a 40% water change every day for 4-5 days and i raped a towel around my tank and turned off all the lights. i also only feed my fish once a day. my green water has gotten alot better but i hope it stays this way.
the other problem i have is low ph. my tapwater ph is around 6.6 but the ph was 6 or even bellow. after i did all the water changes i finally got my ph to about 6.2. im wondering if it will get higher if i keep doing water changes but is there ne other methods??
thnx alot
breaker
ive been doing a 40% water change every day for 4-5 days and i raped a towel around my tank and turned off all the lights. i also only feed my fish once a day. my green water has gotten alot better but i hope it stays this way.
the other problem i have is low ph. my tapwater ph is around 6.6 but the ph was 6 or even bellow. after i did all the water changes i finally got my ph to about 6.2. im wondering if it will get higher if i keep doing water changes but is there ne other methods??
thnx alot
breaker
Add about half a cup of aragonite to your filter. Put it in a bag or stocking. Usually a fish store will give it to you if you ask. It will increase your KH and possibly your ph but at the very least will keep the ph from crashing. All of this is in the link skeptical aquarist . Cut the feeding for two days, trust me they don't need it. What is the ph after it sits out overnight?
What about live plants?? I would add more if you have some or a few if you dont something easy like Java Fern. It should take all the nutrients and choke the algee
tricksterpup
It's SPRING!!! BUNNIE RABBITS
Yeesh,
I am trying to do Daphnia Cultures and can not get green water for the life of me. Some people have all the luck.
Save the water and do a Daphnia culture.. great live food and fun to watch bounce around the water.
jim
I am trying to do Daphnia Cultures and can not get green water for the life of me. Some people have all the luck.
Save the water and do a Daphnia culture.. great live food and fun to watch bounce around the water.
jim
when i first got my tank the water was crystal clear and i noticed that my ph was low so i decided to add proper ph 7... i think this was the biggest mistake ...
Yes. The ph adjusting chemicals contain things that algae feed on. It is always preferable to bring your ph to what you want it via natural means... i.e. putting rocks in that will raise your ph if it's low or adding peat to lower a high ph. The best thing, of course, is to suit the type of tank you have to the type of water you have. Pick fish that like the water you're stuck with.
i did many water changes and the green water would get better but then itl come back again.
i tried turning of my lights for a week or so and the green water didnt get worse but rite when i put it back on, it came back.
It will continue to do so until you fix the root of the problem. Right now you are only treating the symptoms.
i talked to the people at the LFS and they told me to put green X in my filter. that didnt work. then i bought accu clear( some liquid stuff) and put it in. to my surprise the water became crystal clear but once again came back in a week.
Don't ever put a chemical in the water as anything other than a last resort. Once again, you are treating the symptom, not the problem.
The way I get rid of algae when it happens (as it invariably does in my sunny home... I need drapes, doggone it...) is this: I turn the lights out on the tank, give the fish a normal feeding, and then cover the tank with a blanket. Then I forget about it for a week or so. I don't feed them, I don't "peek in" to see how they're doing, and I don't turn the lights on. I just leave it. After a week, I uncover the tank and do a large water change (about 50%), feed my fish, then lather, rinse repeat... I do this for about 2 to 3 weeks, and the tank will be clear for months and months. It works until I decide to open my windows up to air the house out or I forget and leave the lights on overnight after entertaining guests....
On my non-planted tanks, I don't ever turn the lights on unless I am in the room and looking in the tank, because there is no need to. The fish get enough ambient light from the outside to let them know what time of day it is. My planted tanks, I go easy on the light, not even giving them the 12-hour blast that most new fishkeepers do with a non-planted setup. I turn the lights on for 4 or 5 hours, and that's all. And the hardest thing in the world: only feed your fish every other day. That ensures that you are not overfeeding. Just feed them what you normally feed them on a daily basis every other day, or at least give them a fast day or two a week, and your water will be much happier.
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Yes. The ph adjusting chemicals contain things that algae feed on. It is always preferable to bring your ph to what you want it via natural means... i.e. putting rocks in that will raise your ph if it's low or adding peat to lower a high ph. The best thing, of course, is to suit the type of tank you have to the type of water you have. Pick fish that like the water you're stuck with.
i did many water changes and the green water would get better but then itl come back again.
i tried turning of my lights for a week or so and the green water didnt get worse but rite when i put it back on, it came back.
It will continue to do so until you fix the root of the problem. Right now you are only treating the symptoms.
i talked to the people at the LFS and they told me to put green X in my filter. that didnt work. then i bought accu clear( some liquid stuff) and put it in. to my surprise the water became crystal clear but once again came back in a week.
Don't ever put a chemical in the water as anything other than a last resort. Once again, you are treating the symptom, not the problem.
The way I get rid of algae when it happens (as it invariably does in my sunny home... I need drapes, doggone it...) is this: I turn the lights out on the tank, give the fish a normal feeding, and then cover the tank with a blanket. Then I forget about it for a week or so. I don't feed them, I don't "peek in" to see how they're doing, and I don't turn the lights on. I just leave it. After a week, I uncover the tank and do a large water change (about 50%), feed my fish, then lather, rinse repeat... I do this for about 2 to 3 weeks, and the tank will be clear for months and months. It works until I decide to open my windows up to air the house out or I forget and leave the lights on overnight after entertaining guests....
On my non-planted tanks, I don't ever turn the lights on unless I am in the room and looking in the tank, because there is no need to. The fish get enough ambient light from the outside to let them know what time of day it is. My planted tanks, I go easy on the light, not even giving them the 12-hour blast that most new fishkeepers do with a non-planted setup. I turn the lights on for 4 or 5 hours, and that's all. And the hardest thing in the world: only feed your fish every other day. That ensures that you are not overfeeding. Just feed them what you normally feed them on a daily basis every other day, or at least give them a fast day or two a week, and your water will be much happier.
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PBQ I respectfully disagree. Sunlight has no bearing on algae. I had my home built specifically with lots of windows and all of my tanks get direct sunlight. Algae is not an issue. I find that as the tank matures I get a nice "pasture" of algae on the driftwood that does not increase or decrease but as far as green water or algae on the glass.....never anything more that normal scraping will take care of.
Thank you for the show of respect. I know for solid fact that certain algae rely upon sunlight to grow. The green types use chloryphyll, which most certainly requires the suns rays (or another suitable light source) to process nutrients into something usable by the plant. Maybe you have low-e windows in your home? Or possibly all the other triggers that form algae problems in your home tank are absent due to your stellar maintainence of your tanks. it takes a certain set of criteria to trigger an algae bloom. Sunlight is one of those things, but not the only one. Other factors, such as nutrient levels and filtration have to be considered. MY algae problems are caused from sunlight and/or overexuberant feeding (when my sweetie thinks he'll be nice and feed the fish for me, etc... or if I just plain forgot that I already fed them, which does sometimes happen. I'm a scatterbrain, so sue me...).
I'm thinking it's the ph regulator causing most of his problems. However, my method works for the biggest part of the problem, and has every time it has ever happened to me in the 15 years I've been keeping fish. And, if it doesn't work, then at least too much light/too much food can be ruled out as a cause and alternative measures can be taken.
