Green Water Problem

[Zolek]

I Have a bad case of green water. About the tank:

Photoperiod was 12 hours, then after green water I reduced to 9 hours, now I've reduced it to 8. 164 watts over a 75 gallon tank. Plants are anacharis, amazon sword, giant vallis, wisteria. Lightly planted. 33% water change per week normally. More recently after attempting a blackout I did a 50% change before and 50% change after. The plants are actually doing rather poorly, low growth, browning leaves etc.

I feed daily, try to keep it light. Sometimes I feed vegetables but remove them the next day to prevent spoiling.

After attempting a blackout the fogginess was reduced quite a bit but it started coming back pretty quickly the very next day. I'm trying 25% daily water changes with 8 hour photoperiod now but would really like suggestions if theres a better course of action.

 

[Musho3210]

UVS cleared mine up fast.

What kind of lights are you using and what are the reflectors?

 

[Ilya]

Just pour anti UV sunblock over your bulbs. It'll stop it from making algae.

Spoiler

Just kidding.

 

[Zolek]

So one of you is telling me to kill them with UV and one of you is telling me to remove UV to kill them..

Id prefer to do this for cheap (ie free), cant really afford a sterilizer atm.

 

[Dave Spencer]

Black outs can be a bit hit and miss with green water, but will only really work if you get to the root cause of the problem to prevent it coming back every time. People seem to have great success with UV sterilisers, but you are still only masking the problem, rather than curing it.

You have far too much light and not enough plant mass. If you wish to maintain these light levels then have a read of the pinned EI article on the planted forum. If you don`t want to run a high tech planted tank, then you will have to at least half your lighting.

Ammonia is another green water trigger. How heavily stocked is the tank?

Dave.

 

[The-Wolf]

you could use either Green Away (Interpet No.4)
or Sera Algovec
both are for green water problems

 

[Zolek]

You have far too much light and not enough plant mass. If you wish to maintain these light levels then have a read of the pinned EI article on the planted forum. If you don`t want to run a high tech planted tank, then you will have to at least half your lighting.

Ammonia is another green water trigger. How heavily stocked is the tank?

Dave.

I set it down to 7 hours of light now, should I go even lower? Id really rather keep it low tech. Adding plant mass with more anacharis is an option I guess.

Stocking level is extremely low, just a collection of rescue fish (1 small S. eupterus, 2 Zebra danios, 1 botia kubotai, 1 small bristlenose pleco, approx 11 inches total) in a 75g tank. Ill increase the numbers of the ones that need schools but not till I get the tank stable and green water free.

 

[Dave Spencer]

I set it down to 7 hours of light now, should I go even lower? Id really rather keep it low tech. Adding plant mass with more anacharis is an option I guess.

The length of the photoperiod isn`t the real issue here; plants like around ten hours. Your problem is the amount of light you have. With 164W over 75USG, you have around 2.2WPG. For a tank this size, that level of light dictates that this is a high tech tank that needs a large plant mass, pressurised CO2 at 30ppm and a fertiliser regime of potassium nitrate, potassium phosphate and trace elements.

Your plants are doing poorly because light is the main driver for growth, and they are trying too grow too quickly with increased nutrient uptake in a nutrient deficient environment.

Considering that you do not want a high tech set up, I would recommend that half your lighting levels.

Dave.

 

[ngalli]

I have a green water problem as well. I have tried everything that people have suggested and nothing seems to work for more than a day or so. I test the water regularly and the levels are all safe. I do regular partial water changes and change the filter pack once a month. I have used an algae control product, I have tried leaving the light off for 3 days straight, and just recently I pulled all of the plants and the large rock out and scrubbed them and poured boiling water over them. I also use a gravel vac and did about a 75% water change a few days ago. Nothing is working for me and I'm about to lose my mind over it since it is in my front room where I see it all day long. I guess the good news is that the fish don't seem to mind the green water. Any ideas? Here is some more info about my tank:

10 gallon fresh water
Has been set up for about 4 1/2 months
Fish - 1 zebra danio, 3 black skirted tetras, 1 mickey mouse platy

 

[mark.w.jones]

I have a green water problem as well. I have tried everything that people have suggested and nothing seems to work for more than a day or so. I test the water regularly and the levels are all safe. I do regular partial water changes and change the filter pack once a month. I have used an algae control product, I have tried leaving the light off for 3 days straight, and just recently I pulled all of the plants and the large rock out and scrubbed them and poured boiling water over them. I also use a gravel vac and did about a 75% water change a few days ago. Nothing is working for me and I'm about to lose my mind over it since it is in my front room where I see it all day long. I guess the good news is that the fish don't seem to mind the green water. Any ideas? Here is some more info about my tank:

10 gallon fresh water
Has been set up for about 4 1/2 months
Fish - 1 zebra danio, 3 black skirted tetras, 1 mickey mouse platy

What is in this filter pack and what are you replacing it with?
What media does you filter contain at the moment? ie sponges, ceramic noodles etc.
How are you maintaining your tank and filter? What cleaning do you do weekly and monthly.
What test kit are you using to test for your levels and what levels are you testing for? (Often ammonia spikes are a cause of green water.)

A tank with no plants or slow growing plants is often no match for the unicellular algae which cause green water. Answer the questions above for us and we'll try to help. I suspect that you are cleaning to harshly or replacing you filter media needlessly on a regularly basis, monthly I think you said. This would kill off a load of your useful bacteria each time. There will then not be enough bacteria to cope with the waste ammonia from your fish. This would lead to an ammonia spike which may only last a day or two so you wouldn't notice it. These high ammonia levels would then enable unicellular alage to take another foot hold on your tank.

Fast growing plants are a great algae cure as they outcompete all types of algae for excess nutrients. I suggested some here:

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/222845/Brown-Algea/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/222845/Brown-Algea/[/URL]