Never ending GREEN water!

IsaacMTSU

Nikon D7000
Jul 24, 2008
135
0
16
38
Murfreesboro, TN
www.isaaccogdill.com
I know there are a million threads about green water, but here's what happened....

I got a 90G tank cycled and added some plants...I added some Flourish.
The plants were growing great, I added some Buenos Aires Tetras.
They ate 60% of the plants in the tank so I sold them...
The green water started after the plants were eaten.

I think maybe the nutrients were in excess and there were all of a sudden no plants to consume them.

I changed the water very frequently but that didnt help.
I added a whole lot of plants , but the water never cleared.
I added some Algae Fix stuff and changed the filter floss, just went green again.
Tried a 3-day blackout! Didn't help...
I added some Accu-Clear.

The tank cleared a little, but came back.
I added more Accu-Clear and changed the filter floss
More Accu-Clear...

STILL NOT MUCH BETTER!

I haven't really disturbed the root tabs , but may this is the problem

I have no idea why this is such a problem...?? Nutrients, Not enough bio load...?

Ammo: 0
PH: 7.6
Nitrate: 0-5

Water is pretty hard...
 
Ok, first, keep up 10-20% water changes daily. If you do start to kill the algae, it'll break down and cause problems too.

Second, in a planted tank, I'd recommend not using any algae "fix" products. Anything marketed to clear algae will almost certainly stifle your plants.

How much light do you have over the tank? Too much light without enough co2 could be your problem. Flourish Excel could help.

Finally, while not really fixing the problem, just treating the sympton, a UV sterilizer will clear green water.
 
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150w over that tank is indeed a fair amount of lighting. Keep in mind that for tanks over 75g, the wpg "rule" breaks down. Additionally, in larger tanks, circulation and gas exchange become more of a problem, so you could have a co2 deficiency.

Personally, I think co2 would clear up your problem. There may be another route, but I think that would definitely do it.
 
Thanks for the Accu-Clear advice Bk, it really worked better than anything...but it just won't go away

np i remember ive done 3 treatments of accu-clear with water changes in between + later upping my filtration to a fluval 404 (on a 29g tank) and that really helped..

I tried upping the co2 and though i did get tons of bubbles out of the diy setup, the GW still remained.

Ive had GW in my previous tank for about a month and they say its common to get gw in newly setup planted tanks..
Heres a photo of it on its good day with GW
1000047jv8.jpg


And heres one after a few treatments with accu-clear
1001126np4.jpg



So i guess there are a few ways of treating this
1- leaving it alone and letting it run its course.. can take months and months
2- adding a uv sterilizer and zapping all the GW spores
3- doing a very very long blackout
4- chemical treatment..

Ive done 1, part of 3 since i saw my plants were melting after 2days and 4th worked like a charm..
 
Just fought green water myself and I also did all the things you have, except the chemical stuff. Here's what I did....put an airline tube in the tank and let the water slowly run out, of course on end is in the tank and the other i threw out a window. Then I did the exact opposite for refilling, I put a bucket of clean water above the tank with one line in the water and the other in the tank, slowly refilling the tank. I did this ALL day one day and within two days CRYSTAL CLEAR.
 
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