green water

[bornscorpio30]

HI all
I have set up a 40 gallon tank recently.
I am running 2 pumps since i never got water to clear up completely.
there are no fish in the tank just plants.. lots of them are decaying but i am cleaning as much as I can..

Unfortunately the water is starting to turn green now..
I did 50% water change today and might do another 50% again..

I have 36x18x14 tanks with ada aquasois= co2 injected and 2 55w CFC 10K lights running for 8 hours?

any suggestions is much appreciated. when i scrap the surface of tank, it seems that the algae is stuck to glass.. white paper turns green..

thx

[steven p]

When i had green water, initially i tried floculents and water changes.. it was bad.. and kept getting worse.. eventually i added a 6 inch air stone running on a whisper 30-60 i think.. and left the tank alone. it started to clear in a matter of days after that..

Dont know what caused it to bloom or die off.. im just glad its gone

I have a UV on another tank, which i could have run.. but that would not have taken care of whatever was feeding them to begin with.

Edit: what color are your lamps?

I had diy CO2 fed into the tank before the bloom, stopped during, havent tried again.

Try adjusting the flow of water in the tank.

Does your water company use chloramines?

Edit 2: 10000k lamps, can you get different bulbs easily, a 7500 or 6500k mixed in might balance some of the spectrum, some plants want more or less of some colors. Different colors also penetrate deep water differently.

[bornscorpio30]

the lamps are plain white.. I am not sure I should be doing a completely black out since my plants are still in state of shock and are still adjusting..

[Complexity]

A black out won't cure green water. Any time you're addressing an algae issue, you should make your first priority be growing the plants as healthy as possible, and black outs most certainly won't do that. A tank full of healthy growing plants has a much better chance at becoming algae free than a tank full of unhealthy plants.

I don't know the exact cause of green water, but it seems to mostly occur with newly set up tanks. It will go away on its own, but it can take anywhere from days to weeks before it goes away, and in between that time, the water can get so bad, it can look like pea soup.

The good news is that green water does not cause any harm to fish, inverts, or plants (other than blocking light).

I suspect excess organic matter plays a role at triggering green water. This makes sense given your issues with dead plants.

The best thing you can do is clean up the tank and keep it clean. Try to not do water changes that are any larger than necessary as large water changes do not help, but often exasperates green water. If you get tired of waiting it out, then buy/borrow a uv sterilizer. That will clear it up in less than a week. Green water can come back once it's been removed, but it usually does not.

[Kathyy]

If the algae is stuck to the glass it is likely green dust algae. It floats free when you try to wipe it off then it goes right back on the glass? My otos, snails, Siamese Algae Eater thought it delicious stuff and ate interesting tracks through it. I actually left it because they enjoyed it so and it turned out that was considered a good treatment. Some say it is a zoo spore and if you leave it for long enough it will fall off and die. Some say it is associated with BGA and can be killed by treating with Maracyn.

That said, if you do have GW, I have had success with black outs to clean it up and failures as well. Letting floaters cover the surface of the tank and leave until the water is cleared up works better I think. Keeping debris cleaned up is a great idea, keep it up. Having good circulation and good oxygenation is good as well.

I had recurring GW for a couple years. Once I increased the amount of biological filtration it hasn't [knock on wood and all fingers and toes crossed] reappeared. Perhaps once your filter is mature, which takes longer than one would think, the water will clear up.

[cradleoffilthfan]

dude....I am going through the same thing you are. I think it's just the ADA aquasoils really, they leach ammonia, or at least mine does. What is your ammonia reading? Mine has been set up for months and is still leaching ammonia. I am going to the LFS to buy tons more Rotala Indica tomorrow so I can more heavily plant the tank. I think the soil is more geared for people that seriously plant their tanks really heavy right at the beginning. If you don't plant a ton of fast growing plants, you will end up with ammonia in the tank for a long while. I planted java's, C. Helferi, Anubias nana, and Glosso but only sparcely in the beginning. I didn't have any stem plants at all and most of the plants I have are slow growing. Actually, since I planted one bunch of Rotala, it has gotten clearer. I think you just need some really fast growing stem plants and that green water might go away. Let us know what your ammonia reading is though because for me, no matter how many water changes I do, the water stays at .25ppm ammonia and the green water stays no matter what I do. Also, obviously the ferlitilizing matters too as well as your light, but I am no expert on lighting, and I don't use PC lighting.....someone else will have to comment on that.

[Soujirou]

Were your plants decaying before the green water hit or because of the green water? Do you have a canister filter or any filter you can throw a bag of media in as well? I think the key is getting healthy plants and getting nutrients or dissolved organic matter out of the water.

[asmith]

Get some daphnia. With no fish in the tank they will multiply and clear it within a week.

[cradleoffilthfan]

Yes, my plants were decaying. It was like they were melting.....At that time though, the tank had been set up and I was just waiting on the plants....I added the plants and a few days later they began to melt and turn brown. I was adding fertilizers and I already had the pressurized co2 set up as well. I tested the ammonia at that time and it was off the charts high. I did lots of water changes to get the ammonia down to a reasonable level. The water was still crystal clear at that time(and using a Rena XP3 filter). It wasn't until about two months into the cycle(ammonia was still stuck at .25ppm) I thought maybe my plants just weren't growing because my light wasn't strong enough so I replaced the light fixture(at the time a coralife aqualight T5HO) to a Catalina 3 bulb fixture with way better reflectors (still T5HO). I figured the plants were not growing which is why the ammonia was still there....I didn't know yet about the ADA soil leaching ammonia..... Then, because of the new way intense lighting and dosing the ferts and the co2, and the fact my plants I chose were more slow growers than fast ones, the water turned green. I guess the co2 + the ferts + the high lighting + .25 ppm ammonia=green water. I just added Rotala Indica and P. Erectus today and already it has made a huge difference. The P. Erectus and Rotala were pearling this evening and since the water cleared up(yes in just the span of a day) the glosso was starting to pearl as well(thanks for the help Complexity). The only thing that went wrong today was my siamensis was acting like he was going to die....and I am not sure why yet, the only thing I changed was adding the stem plants........

[Complexity]

Originally Posted by cradleoffilthfan

I just added Rotala Indica and P. Erectus today and already it has made a huge difference. The P. Erectus and Rotala were pearling this evening and since the water cleared up(yes in just the span of a day) the glosso was starting to pearl as well(thanks for the help Complexity).

I'm glad to hear the good news! I hope this is the beginning of things turning around. P. erectus can be a bit difficult so if it starts to give you trouble, don't get too concerned. Amazing how plant mass makes a difference.

The only thing that went wrong today was my siamensis was acting like he was going to die....and I am not sure why yet, the only thing I changed was adding the stem plants........

Did you rinse the plants before putting them in? How's he doing now? I hope he's alright.