Controlling Green Water?

Either block the light from the top with some surface plants, tin foil on the glass top, or just buy a diatom filter which works for many other removal of small particulate.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/myPlants.php?do=homepage&cat=5&page=0&n=Floating_Plants

http://www.diatomfilters.com/ See their page then buy cheap elsewhere...

You simply have too much light with your setup for the moments and the plants are not out competing the algae for the excess nutrients that are already present.

Good luck!

Imi

Have a siesta period. That'll control algae!

I thought T5HO bulbs were 54 watts for 48" long bulbs and 39 watts for 36"?

I have rid the tank of GW with floaters and adding nitrate to a nitrate free tank but best success has definitely been adding more biological filtration to the tank. Now minor ammonia issues can be handled quickly by both plants and filter.

Add more hungry plants like hygro, water sprite. Start fertilizing. UV is good for clearing GW fast, but you need to figure out why you got the bloom.

GW is quite simply "in most cases" in a underfiltered tank. either by plants or bio filter or both which leads to ammonia. light exacerbates the issue

I noticed my greenwater went away after I let it have its way, didn't try to control it or anything...

They're 24' bulb, 24w each. It's getting alot clearer now. I added a huge bunch of stem, though they ruin the scape. Rotala Magneta(24+), Pogostem Erectus(20+), and stuck 4x golfball of Java Moss in a breeding net. I'll just leave them for a while till the HC and Dwarf Hairgrass (Parvula) grows in.

diatom filters clear it up well.

But they're quite expensive, I'd rather buy a canister and load it up with mechanical and Bio.

If this helps any, I heard a long time ago that with the right conditions, if you have sufficient light, you get green water, otherwise you get a bacterial bloom. The point is both are driven by too much dissolved organics, with perhaps some other reasons.

So, if it were me, I would vacuum the tank, look for dead fish and leaves, perhaps clean the filter if it needs cleaning, and generally try to get rid of sources of food. The green water will subside by itself once the population gets big enough to use up the food supply. It is a single-celled algae bloom, similar in function to a bacterial bloom.