green water

3556 Views 32 Replies 10 Participants Last post by eyebeatbadgers, Oct 27, 2007

dafoghorn

Discussion Starter · Oct 16, 2007

i set up a 110 g tank last weekend.the second day the water was green.i did a 50 % water change 5 of the last 8 days.the water stays clear for a day but when i wake up its green again.i have a eheim 2280,tek t5 6 bulb 324 w lights,run four bulbs 8 h, all 6 bulbs for the last 2 hours and rexs co2 system.will the green water clear up once the tank is cycled?this is my first planted tank ,so im new at this,and not doing to good.

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epicfish

· #2 · Oct 16, 2007

No plants, right? Do a planted cycle. Toss a ton of plants in there to soak up the nutrients before the green water comes back again. Use media from an established tank to get the cycle going.

324W over 110 gallons with 0 plants is a recipe for disaster.

dafoghorn

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 16, 2007

i bought 5 or 6 packages from people on here ,and planted last fri.there is all kinds of plants in there and i can see growth and pearling.just cant seem to get rid of green water

eyebeatbadgers

· #4 · Oct 16, 2007

It's really going to take a lot of plants to fill up a tank as big as yours. 5 or 6 packages probably won't be enough. Until you get the tank totally planted, I'd cut back on the light's intensity and photoperiod.

Digsy

· #5 · Oct 17, 2007

Agreed. Add as many cheap plants as you can until your aquarium gets past this stage.

caoboy

· #6 · Oct 17, 2007

Turn ur lighting down a bit, less light / less exposure. Is there a window nearby that's adding to the light in your tank at all? You may want to cover that up also.

You can also do a black out, but I don't know how bad that would be for the plants.

dafoghorn

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 17, 2007

my 110 g

I think I put enough plants, here it is:

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dafoghorn

Discussion Starter · #8 · Oct 17, 2007

do you think i should put in more plants or is tha a good enough start?

Digsy

· #9 · Oct 17, 2007

While it may seem like a lot, your plants are not yet established, and until they are they'll need some extra help until everything settles down on your cycle. I would try a ton of the cheapest plant you can find and even if you just float it at the top. That will help soak up all the excess nutrients that are part of the cycle until your plants get acclimated.

Digsy

· #10 · Oct 17, 2007

I never had to do a blackout on my tank, I just added a ton of extra plants initially and then waited it out. It took a couple of weeks for me but, you may have better luck!

dafoghorn

Discussion Starter · #11 · Oct 17, 2007

thats how it looked w/o the floating plants.i have at least 30 -40 stems of different types of plants floating.they are already starting to show growth.how long would it take for a 110 to get cycled,im using brand new filter media and a new filter,new everything

Digsy

· #12 · Oct 17, 2007

How long have you had the floating plants in? How long has the tank been setup now? If you've added them all fairly recently, give it some time, it can take up to a few weeks for green water to go away. In my experience, a full cycle typically takes about 4-6 weeks.

dafoghorn

Discussion Starter · #13 · Oct 17, 2007

its been about 10 days,is it a waste of time to do 50 water change every other day,im going through a lot of water and prime.

tazcrash69

· #14 · Oct 17, 2007

FWIW, I've found that water changes will extend GW.

IME 2 things will put a definite end to it: UV or Diatom filter.

I've had mixed results with a blackout, and with waiting it out (worked 1 time after 5 days, didn't the next waiting 12 days).

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dafoghorn

Discussion Starter · #15 · Oct 17, 2007

wow i guess mine is not that bad, after seeing that.lol.this morning the water was pretty clear, the best it has been.i tried using pro clear, and stuffing my eheim with filter floss .it seems to bo working,what effect does it have on plants? i know its not the best for fish,but still none in the tank.

zomac

· #16 · Oct 17, 2007

I just got over green water in my 150 gallon. I dont think it has much to do with your cycle at all. I did a fishless cycle with pure ammonia in a bare tank over a 2.5 week period to get it fully cycled and I still had green water afterwards. I got green water after adding more wattage and moving alot of plants around in the tank all on the same day. I also think I was dosing a little to much. I didnt do a water change directly afterwards and then I was hit with the green stuff.

I think its all about dosing, lights, and plant load. If decreased the first two and increased my plant load. I added a gang of water sprite/wisteria as they are easy to find and very fast growers. I only left my lights on between 3-4 hours a day as I didnt want to shock my new plants so much. The rest of the time I blacked out the tank.

I added a HOT Magnum to clear the water and I had an old in-tank UV sterilizer to break down the green water. You can choose one or the other but for my large tank I hooked up both to speed up the process. I did one large water change, hooked up the extra filters, and started the short light time period. After about 8 hrs I could see half of my plants and then after 3 days it was crystal clear.

After all that I slowly bumped my light hours back up to 8 per day and went to my every other day of dosing instead of daily. I plan on taking the HOT down and adding a permanent Aquaclear. I will then just run the HOT Magnum post water changes and adding/removing/trimming plants.

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tazcrash69

· #17 · Oct 17, 2007

dafoghorn said:
wow i guess mine is not that bad, after seeing that.lol.

LOL, well some times experiments go bad, that is a result. It was a holding tank, so I didn't mind.

dafoghorn

Discussion Starter · #18 · Oct 17, 2007

YESSSSS,i just got home from work and my water is just slightly green,nothing like before.hopefully now it will stay that way.

Geobelle

· #19 · Oct 18, 2007

With that aquarium size, you must have at least minimum of 3 canister filters.

eyebeatbadgers

· #20 · Oct 18, 2007

I don't know about three, or why you must have three filters, but you probably are a little under-filtered right now. However, I doubt this is causing the GW.

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