[tjurhs]

Hi guys,

on Saturday I did a 50% water change using "purified" water as the replacement, and eversince the water has had a greenish color/tint to it. My first thought is that this is algae, but I have 6 snails busily at work in the tank. my water numbers are


ph_________7.4
Ammonia___0.5
Nitrite______0.5
Nitrate______30

ideas?

Thanks, Todd

 

[vsparkys]

Maybe a algae bloom if it is you wana black it out with bin bags or somethink to kill it of


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[tjurhs]

what are bin bags, and will they kill the plants, btw, the only livestock are snails

 

[poormanisme]

If you still have measurable ammonia and nitrite then you are still cycling and algae (green water) is not that uncommon. Do more water changes, increase plant mass, and make sure you have correct fert levels. It should work itself out if you give the plants what they need to grow.

 

[tjurhs]

If you still have measurable ammonia and nitrite then you are still cycling and algae (green water) is not that uncommon. Do more water changes, increase plant mass, and make sure you have correct fert levels. It should work itself out if you give the plants what they need to grow.

:thumbsup:

I also found a whole thread about it here:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=609618

thanks again!

 

[vsparkys]

Black rubbish bags anythink dark to stop light going into the tank but only if U have no live plants because they will die snails and fish would be fine without light for 2 days


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[tjurhs]

bummer! no black out, my tank is all about plants, so I don't want them to die!

I read I can reduce the reguar light and try a UV light (I already have one of those so I don't have to buy it).

I read I can also try daily water changes with Excel added after each change.

I also read that it might naturally go away....

Todd

 

[oblongshrimp]

If you already have a UV light use that....it will kill it in a day or so. You can then do a big water change to remove the pollutants from all the dead algae.

If you try the blackout method you won't hurt your plants (they are fine for several days of darkness) but if you have a UV go with that since it is much easier then trying to bag up your whole tank (especially if you have an open top tank).

In my experience it rarely just goes away on its own. I think I have had it go away on its own once but every other time it just sticks around until I used my UV light on it.

 

[lauraleellbp]

Wait- just to clarify, a UV LIGHT is very different from a UV STERILIZER.

UV sterilizers: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/fish-supplies/uv-sterilizer/ps/c/3578/4393

UV bulb (usually used for keeping reptiles) http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=6016+6028+15468&pcatid=15468

 

[oblongshrimp]

Sorry I was talking about a UV Sterilizer....I misread his post. Thanks for catching that!

 

[Kat12]

A few day blackout will not kill your plants.

 

[tjurhs]

so I have a turtle who will let me borrow his UV light for a few days, I could place it right over the filter outlet, will this help?

what about changing out the filter element, will that help?

 

[vsparkys]

Sry though black out would kill plants as plants need light all I know about UV to clean water is my dad has a marine tank and has a box with UV init and the water god through the box and then gets filters im not 100% sure tho





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[lauraleellbp]

so I have a turtle who will let me borrow his UV light for a few days, I could place it right over the filter outlet, will this help?

what about changing out the filter element, will that help?

Just running a UV bulb won't do anything (not anything helpful, anyways).

Changing out the filters will help clean the filters so that they can catch some more algae. Won't make the GW go away though.

 

[tjurhs]

So my plan to get rid of the GW is to:


1) significantly reduce the light

2) change out 25% of the water daily for idk how long...

3) after changing the water dose with Flourish Excel (so the plants can use the light that does come in, and I've read that algae doesn't like Excel?

4) stop the use of all other ferts, although there must be some that are ok to continue? please let me know if there are

5) after changing the water dose with API's ALGAEFIX (it says it won't harm fish or plants , and hopefully not snails)


I caught the GW early, so hopefully this will do the trick.

thanks guys for all your help in this, any other suggestions?

Todd

 

[Kat12]

So my plan to get rid of the GW is to:


1) significantly reduce the light

2) change out 25% of the water daily for idk how long...

3) after changing the water dose with Flourish Excel (so the plants can use the light that does come in, and I've read that algae doesn't like Excel?

4) stop the use of all other ferts, although there must be some that are ok to continue? please let me know if there are

5) after changing the water dose with API's ALGAEFIX (it says it won't harm fish or plants , and hopefully not snails)


I caught the GW early, so hopefully this will do the trick.

thanks guys for all your help in this, any other suggestions?

Todd

A quick search says API's ALGAEFIX will kill snails.

 

[lauraleellbp]

If you use an algaecide, keep in mind that though it itself may not be toxic, the mass algae die-off will produce an ammonia spike. So you'll need to do some very large water changes once it's had time to be effective.

There are only some algaes that Excel is effective against. GW is not one of them. Though the Excel should not hurt.

Make sure this tank isn't getting any sunlight. Even indirect can sometimes trigger GW.

 

[tjurhs]

I can't believe I am up at 11:30 at night changing the water out of a fish tank that doesn't even have any fish, well I wanted to heed Kat's warning and "save the snails" and not let the ALGAEFIX do anymore damage to them, hopefully that little bit won't hurt them, although they have been doing this funny shell twitching thing as they slim their way along.

In changing out the water I did find the water filter full of algae as well, it looks brown in color, hopefully it's a build up of the same GW algae and not a new one I have to fight?

so what about the other four:

1) significantly reduce the light

2) change out 25% of the water daily for idk how long...

3) after changing the water dose with Flourish Excel (so the plants can use the light that does come in, and I've read that algae doesn't like Excel?

4) stop the use of all other ferts, although there must be some that are ok to continue? please let me know if there are

signing off for now....

Thanks much

Todd

 

[vsparkys]

Be carefull cleaning your filter to much I hear it can start the tank cycle again


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[Kat12]

I just did a 6 month or so fight with green water, even tore down the tank and went to a different tank all together (went through the black out, the UV filter, changed filter media, did lots of water changes, reduced lighting, heavy covering on windows...... ) In the end I was about set to give up and accept I had a green tank - the fish were doing well and breeding, parameters were good, plants were doing well.... I just had lime green jello color water! I finally took out my driftwood, put it in the shower and sprayed the exposed parts of it with hydrogen peroxide and returned it to the tank - WATER CLEARED. So no matter what common "cures" are, they don't always work. I still have no idea why my wood did that for so long, what caused it etc, but it's gone now.