LED Moonlight and green water

B

Bon

AC Members
Feb 21, 2007
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Perhaps I'm desperate. I know I'm frustrated. My 46 gallon freshwater tank has had a constant issue with green water. My 90 gallon aquarium has never had any issues. Same amount of daily light (about 7 h/d). Same generous hand feeding them. Same housekeeping. After trying a number of things to defeat the algae (except chemicals) I realized that "a" difference between the two is the LED moonlights. It's still hard for me to comprehend that 4 blue LED's running all night could be the culprit but I find myself questioning it anyway. I unplugged them last night and they will remain unplugged until I get on top of the green water problem.

My most recent waste of money: A 1 micron filter cartridge attached to a power head. My floating algae are obviously smaller than 1 micron.

My most exhausting remedy: a vortex DE filter about once a week.

My most dissapointing remedy: Algone (I said no chemicals and this experience is why)

My biggest waste of money. Two new HOB filters because I never let the algae colony develop far enough that I could see that it was green (algae). I kept thinking that it was something else.

My next adventure: Live plants, mainly anacharis, to outcompete the algae for the nutrients. My silver dollars and barbs will love the salad.

Do you think that I'm past the point-of-no-return? Or do I stand a chance of sucessfully beating this green water?
 
UV light and 1 micron filter helped me ones. It was clear in one night and stayed clear ever since. I used UV for maybe 24 hours. Your micron might be doing OK job, but algae could reproduce even faster. Kill it with UV and then filter out with micron filter.
I am not an expert on algae, but this was the easiest one to get rid of.
 
Bon:

This is intended to be humorous but I doubt that you really know what a green water (also algae) problem is. Please refer to the photograph below.

Your description reminds me of my many adventures in fish keeping.

My comments are relative to a planted tank.

Bon said:
Do you think that I'm past the point-of-no-return? Or do I stand a chance of sucessfully beating this green water?
Click to expand...
Yes, IMHO, you can beat this.

Do not feed for three days and only light for six hours for three days.

Then commence determining the appropriate feeding, lighting and fertilization protocols for your ecosystem.
(Please note that increasing fertilization in a planted tank may decrease the algae density.)


Bon said:
My most recent waste of money: A 1 micron filter cartridge attached to a power head. My floating algae are obviously smaller than 1 micron.
Click to expand...
IMHO something is wrong here.

In order to expedite getting the algae under control I placed 100Mu and 50Mu mechanical media in my filtration process.

After 6 hours this media had a distinctive green color with some brown.


Bon said:
My next adventure: Live plants, mainly anacharis, to outcompete the algae for the nutrients. My silver dollars and barbs will love the salad.
Click to expand...
IMHO unless you rehome the silver dollars you can forget the planted tank business.

I have been there, done that and got the tee shirt.

I am not familiar with barbs.

TR


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I didn't include it on my list but I do have a UV sterilizer on order. I'm not going to use it until I have given up on light control though. At least, my experimenting is not hurting the fish. Regarding my silver dollars, yes they love greens as do the tiger barbs. They will devour a slice of cucumber very quickly; and plants. With all the extra equipment I've collected I've been thinking that I'd start a tank just for plants, and sacrifice the excess growth to the silver dollar tank.

I've read that some single cell algae are indeed smaller than a micron. My 1 micron filter does have a brown cast to it but no green;and my water is very, very green, so I assume my algae are really, really, small.

I ordered 50 strands of anacharis today. I'm going to try to grow it faster than they can eat it!

Thanks for the links Coler, they're encouraging and educational.
 
hornwort may be an option for you. it can be planted or left floating, and i don't think it would be very tasty to your silver dollars. it's the aquatic equivalent of a pine tree. lots of little needles instead of soft leaves. in my tank it would grow over an inch a day and it sucks up nutrients (didn't use special lights or fertilizers). available at most petsmarts for about $2-$2.50.
 
I think I will try some hornwart because I would like to get some live plants established in my tank.

To bring closure to this thread I'd like to say that my green water is now behind me! I had turned off the LED moonlights without any relief (no suprise). I recently added a 9 watt UV sterilizer from PetSmart online. Within 4-5 days my water looks perfect! I had no idea that it could be so easy. The power head and UV light equipment is a bit clunky but it works as advertised. From what I understand it doesn't have to be left on all the time but rather only when a problem arises such as green water or disease. I'm sold.:headbang2:
 
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