Sounds like that you have had a bactrea creash or something along that way. You need to run your lights at a max of 12hr a day and amen of 4 a day. You can also add Accu-Clear to the tank & do a 30% water change 1 week later with a new dose of Accu-Clear if needed & remember to clean you filter real good in about 4 days after dosing accu-clear & your tank will be the cleanest if not the tank will almost look like new again. Wilth the algea you just need to clean in out & see what it does.
Cloudy water all of a sudden
I have a question about how to deal with my cloudy water in light of the fact that my plants are not especially happy right now.
I recently set up a 55g with 130w of lighting and SMS substrate. I let it run for about a month without any dosing other than putting Seachem root tabs into the substrate. This is my first planted tank so I wanted to see how everything went and slowly introduce the ferts and CO2 once things settled (plus I have read the possibly unreliable info that you don't really need to dose anything in the first month anyway). It's only lightly planted, with some swords, java fern, and anubias for now. (Had some other stringier stuff but none of that made it; I'm not ready for that stuff yet.)
Predictably, with that much light, I got some pretty heavy brown algae growth. No big deal, easy to clean off, doesn't bother the fish (there are 15 tetras right now). I took this as a sign that there are nutrients in the water and that I needed more plants to outcompete it, so I added some. I'd still call it lightly planted though.
Friday, just like that, the brown algae was gone and hasn't returned. I left for two days saturday morning and sunday night when I returned the water was cloudy.
I did a 50% water change, and about an hour later it looked great. Then this morning it was cloudy again. I suppose this is green water, though it's really not all that green in my opinion. It's definitely not white or milky, anyway.
So the question: I've got my ferts and the plants are starting to look a bit unhappy. I'm all set with a dosing regimen and want to start - but now it looks like I'll need to black the tank out for 5 days. Should I wait a couple of weeks, give the plants some ferts and time, live with the cloudiness, and black it out later? Or just go ahead and black it out now?
(Or, and I know this is a long shot, is this just a common post startup step that'll pass, like the brown algae, that I should just wait out?)
I recently set up a 55g with 130w of lighting and SMS substrate. I let it run for about a month without any dosing other than putting Seachem root tabs into the substrate. This is my first planted tank so I wanted to see how everything went and slowly introduce the ferts and CO2 once things settled (plus I have read the possibly unreliable info that you don't really need to dose anything in the first month anyway). It's only lightly planted, with some swords, java fern, and anubias for now. (Had some other stringier stuff but none of that made it; I'm not ready for that stuff yet.)
Predictably, with that much light, I got some pretty heavy brown algae growth. No big deal, easy to clean off, doesn't bother the fish (there are 15 tetras right now). I took this as a sign that there are nutrients in the water and that I needed more plants to outcompete it, so I added some. I'd still call it lightly planted though.
Friday, just like that, the brown algae was gone and hasn't returned. I left for two days saturday morning and sunday night when I returned the water was cloudy.
I did a 50% water change, and about an hour later it looked great. Then this morning it was cloudy again. I suppose this is green water, though it's really not all that green in my opinion. It's definitely not white or milky, anyway.
So the question: I've got my ferts and the plants are starting to look a bit unhappy. I'm all set with a dosing regimen and want to start - but now it looks like I'll need to black the tank out for 5 days. Should I wait a couple of weeks, give the plants some ferts and time, live with the cloudiness, and black it out later? Or just go ahead and black it out now?
(Or, and I know this is a long shot, is this just a common post startup step that'll pass, like the brown algae, that I should just wait out?)
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Ok. I think I understand 1/4 of that. The poster likely has a bacterial bloom. This happens in almost all new tanks, and is nothing to worry about. It will clear itself up in a few days to a week.Sounds like that you have had a bactrea creash or something along that way. You need to run your lights at a max of 12hr a day and amen of 4 a day. You can also add Accu-Clear to the tank & do a 30% water change 1 week later with a new dose of Accu-Clear if needed & remember to clean you filter real good in about 4 days after dosing accu-clear & your tank will be the cleanest if not the tank will almost look like new again. Wilth the algea you just need to clean in out & see what it does.
Black outs are used to treat a green water outbreak.
If I were you I would start injecting CO2 now and dosing fertilizers.
Do not add Accu-clear or any other snake oil to your tank, especially a planted tank.
Dave,
May I suggest you get ALOT and I mean ALOT of fast Cheap growing Plants for mass in your tank The more the better! make it look fully planted right from the start. Don't wait for your Slow growers to come in....You'll loose the fight to all sorts of algae blooms/break outs before you can say what the
%#@!&*^$ happened? Get C02 / ferts going right away! Your plants are using thier reserves and will soon deplete themselves and then it gets ugly...
tab ferts are fine for once they are established but fill your Water column with ferts from the start. Look into EI dosing for Tom Barr's sight and Good Luck
Troy
P.S. Your new tank cycle will not be as severe with ALOT of plant mass as well
Troy
May I suggest you get ALOT and I mean ALOT of fast Cheap growing Plants for mass in your tank The more the better! make it look fully planted right from the start. Don't wait for your Slow growers to come in....You'll loose the fight to all sorts of algae blooms/break outs before you can say what the
%#@!&*^$ happened? Get C02 / ferts going right away! Your plants are using thier reserves and will soon deplete themselves and then it gets ugly...
tab ferts are fine for once they are established but fill your Water column with ferts from the start. Look into EI dosing for Tom Barr's sight and Good Luck
Troy
P.S. Your new tank cycle will not be as severe with ALOT of plant mass as well
Troy
Thanks guys.
What are the best fast growers to get?
I plan to dose EI and was thinking I might start a little lower than recommended just so I could monitor things (and also because it will be a while before I can get all the CO2 stuff set up). So sounds like I am set to start doing that now? Hopefully I'll be able to have the CO2 stuff set up in 2 weeks.
The reason I didn't think it was the bacterial bloom was twofold: One, it's not milky white, as everything I have read indicates. Two, both of my filters came over from another established tank, which ought to mean things are OK in there bacteria-wise (I actually never had to worry about cycling, there was never any ammonia or nitrite). I can try to take a picture. It's not obviously green but definitely more green than white, which is why I was thinking it was algae.
What are the best fast growers to get?
I plan to dose EI and was thinking I might start a little lower than recommended just so I could monitor things (and also because it will be a while before I can get all the CO2 stuff set up). So sounds like I am set to start doing that now? Hopefully I'll be able to have the CO2 stuff set up in 2 weeks.
The reason I didn't think it was the bacterial bloom was twofold: One, it's not milky white, as everything I have read indicates. Two, both of my filters came over from another established tank, which ought to mean things are OK in there bacteria-wise (I actually never had to worry about cycling, there was never any ammonia or nitrite). I can try to take a picture. It's not obviously green but definitely more green than white, which is why I was thinking it was algae.
If it looks green at all, I'd say it's GW for sure. I had a relatively light case of GW a while back, and it was only mildly green. So, if you put it in a white container and it looks green at all, you can start to consider your options (UVS, blackout, etc) Good luck!
Oh, for fast growers, I've had good luck with anacharis, hygrophila, ludwigia repens, Hydrocotyle leucocephala, etc. Others commonly recommend wisteria, cabomba, and water sprite. There are lots of options
Odd, the anacharis that I got did terribly and died. May be that I just got a bad plant. They refunded me for it though. The Cabomba and anacharis aren't great for this tank, unfortunately, because the substrate is so light. If I'm truly to avoid using those metal weights I am going to avoid all the plants that just have a thin stringy base to plant. I'll try to pick up some of the other stuff you mentioned.
Hadn't even occurred to me to scoop it out into a cup. Whoops. Just did that now and it pretty much just looks like water. The lights are off right now too and in just the ambient lighting from the next room I can't even tell that the water is cloudy.
Hadn't even occurred to me to scoop it out into a cup. Whoops. Just did that now and it pretty much just looks like water. The lights are off right now too and in just the ambient lighting from the next room I can't even tell that the water is cloudy.
I would give it a few days and see what happens. In a new tank there's lots of stuff still trying to balance out and taking drastic measures might just make things worse. It's not just nitrification bacteria that need to be established, but all kinds of other stuff that breaks down solid waste to ammonia, stuff that breaks down proteins, etc. If it refuses to get better after a week and/or plants or fish seem adversely affected, then take action.
But yes, I would definitely start dosing ei right away.
But yes, I would definitely start dosing ei right away.
My favorite fast growers are Hygrophilia difformis (can't think of the common name off the top of my head) and Rotala Rotundifolia. I have both in my tank and the former plant grows double it's mass weekly, and the r. r. probably triples.
I second the hygro. It grows super fast even without co2. I've never had the difformis but I have the giant, sunset, and regular hygrophila polysperma; of those three the sunset is probably the slowest grower but it's still fast, and pretty too.
The past two days I've noticed that the cloudiness is much worse in the morning than at night. This is a little weird because the tank is in an area that doesn't get much natural light, especially when the shades are drawn like they were today. I just got back from the gym and it is almost clear, as it was last night, but it was as cloudy as I've seen it yet two hours ago.
The fish don't seem to mind, at least. So that's good.
How long should I wait to see if it goes away? It's been nearly a week now. I first noticed it sunday.
The fish don't seem to mind, at least. So that's good.
How long should I wait to see if it goes away? It's been nearly a week now. I first noticed it sunday.
OK, it has been ten days and it is cloudy as ever. It still doesn't seem to be all that green though when I scoop it out with a white cup, but maybe it's just because there's not enough volume in a 12oz cup.
The really strange thing is that at night it is crystal clear. Sunday night I turned on the actinic bulbs instead of the usual ones (I don't usually use these and intend to replace them and go high-light once I am no longer a novice) and the tank looked great. I even turned everything totally off and was able to read the fine print on a piece of mail held behind the tank in just the ambient light from the kitchen. (By contrast, in the morning it is cloudy enough that I can't even see the filter intake in the back of the tank) It looked great. Then in the morning it was clouds galore again.
I'm kind of at a loss here. Should I just do a blackout? I don't mind doing this... it's just that it keeps giving me signals that it's not algae. But it seems like it has lasted too long to just be bacteria.
The really strange thing is that at night it is crystal clear. Sunday night I turned on the actinic bulbs instead of the usual ones (I don't usually use these and intend to replace them and go high-light once I am no longer a novice) and the tank looked great. I even turned everything totally off and was able to read the fine print on a piece of mail held behind the tank in just the ambient light from the kitchen. (By contrast, in the morning it is cloudy enough that I can't even see the filter intake in the back of the tank) It looked great. Then in the morning it was clouds galore again.
I'm kind of at a loss here. Should I just do a blackout? I don't mind doing this... it's just that it keeps giving me signals that it's not algae. But it seems like it has lasted too long to just be bacteria.
1 - 13 of 13 Posts
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