Green water finally gone

[marek313]

While I was on vacation my tank developed bad case of green water. It took me two weeks to clean it up and now my water is crystal clear again. I updated me little website (link in the sig) and I was looking how much my plants grew the last month and I think its filling in really nice. Take a look if you have a moment and let me know what you think.
Thanx

[sergo]

glad to know you got it taken care of. what did you do to clean it up?
i can't see the pix at work, will check it out when i get home.

[Chrona]

For future reference, a 48 hour blackout (covering the tank) and a 50% water change will take care of that green water.

[Lady Hobbs]

Very nice. Chrona's suggestion was dead on. I heard the Diatom filters give a quick clean up as well on many of the algaes.

[marek313]

Yes I agree with both of you because I read the same things.
- 4 day blackout + wc
- diatom filters
- UV sterilizers

I'm sure all those work short term but I decided not to stress my fish and my plants by blackouts and diatom filters and UV sterilizers dont fix the cause of the problem. My plants were already well established so I figured I'll let them beat the crap out of green water. How you might ask? I stopped feeding my plants and changing water and lowered light time. Thats it nothing more then that. It didnt take a week before it was going away and was completely gone after about 10 days. I had zero ammonia, nitrites and nitrates since the begining but it took about a week for my plants to suck whatever leftover nutrients my water had and that killed algea really quick. I havent seen my water this clear in a long time. It looks better then ever.

[Chrona]

I'm sure all those work short term but I decided not to stress my fish and my plants by blackouts and diatom filters and UV sterilizers dont fix the cause of the problem. My plants were already well established so I figured I'll let them beat the crap out of green water. How you might ask? I stopped feeding my plants and changing water and lowered light time. Thats it nothing more then that. It didnt take a week before it was going away and was completely gone after about 10 days. I had zero ammonia, nitrites and nitrates since the begining but it took about a week for my plants to suck whatever leftover nutrients my water had and that killed algea really quick. I havent seen my water this clear in a long time. It looks better then ever.

You only need a short term solution though. In an established tank with healthy growing plants and proper nutrient levels (namely ammonium), green water is only caused be excessive lighting. Sure cutting down on lighting will take care of the problem too, but you get much better (and faster) results by doing a 48 hour blackout. This does not stress the fish at all and the plants do fine without light for 48 hours. By not fertilizing, you are risking other types of algae, such as blue-green algae and or clado, which thrive in low-zero nitrate environments. Plants will rarely, if ever, suck all the nutrients out of the water unless you have NPK in a perfect balance in the water.

[Lady Hobbs]

I had zero ammonia, nitrites and nitrates

Ahhhhh haaaaa.......another one who has the same water parmeters as I do!

[marek313]

LOL you got so excited by that :18:
I know what triggered my green water though. I cleaned my fish tank and my filter too much right before I left and I noticed low ammonia the day I was leaving. Any ammount of ammonia + high light source = green water. Thats how mine got all started. Normally I always have zero ammonia, nitrite and nitrate by itself. I keep dosing seachem nitrate to keep it nitrate around 5 - 10 range for the plants. In planted tanks its common to have all 0s because plants use it all up.

[Chrona]

LOL you got so excited by that :18:
I know what triggered my green water though. I cleaned my fish tank and my filter too much right before I left and I noticed low ammonia the day I was leaving. Any ammount of ammonia + high light source = green water. Thats how mine got all started. Normally I always have zero ammonia, nitrite and nitrate by itself. I keep dosing seachem nitrate to keep it nitrate around 5 - 10 range for the plants. In planted tanks its common to have all 0s because plants use it all up.

It's common but not good, because it leads to the algae I listed above (though clado also requires low CO2) And I see you are finally agreeing about the ammonium issue now :) So really, after the ammonia was eaten up by the bacteria (probably within 24 hours), the only thing to cut down on green water is a blackout. Cutting off fertilizer doesn't really do much, if anything at that point.

I would suggest looking into dry fertilizers too, instead of Seachem nitrate. Sure it works a little better, but that stuff is expensive! lol. A 100ml bottle is like 7 bucks, which could buy you several years supply worth of KNO3.

[Lady Hobbs]

Marek.......your statement of having 0 on all water parmeters does get me excited. I've had people arguing with me for over a year that "I HAVE TO HAVE NITRATES" .......well, tell my test kit that then. Someone else here always test 0.......either sergo or xoolooluny. Can't remember which.

Oh gez......this sounds like a good excuse to another poll. Here goes. LOL

[Chrona]

Marek.......your statement of having 0 on all water parmeters does get me excited. I've had people arguing with me for over a year that "I HAVE TO HAVE NITRATES" .......well, tell my test kit that then. Someone else here always test 0.......either sergo or xoolooluny. Can't remember which.

Oh gez......this sounds like a good excuse to another poll. Here goes. LOL

Well, I still think there's something else going on, because I've never heard of nitrates dropping 40 ppm (!) in a single day, even in full tanks with 5 watt/gallon and pressurized CO2. You don't have to have nitrates, but a steady level of 5-10 ppm nitrates shows that plants have plenty, and it's not the limiting factor. If you have 0 for nitrates, that tells you nothing, since the nitrates could be just enough or the plants could be starving.

[Lady Hobbs]

I think my very hard water makes for a big difference in what I get and what others get. I can think of no other reason, either. I nitrates also disappeared in my recently cycled tank with no plants.......so there.

[Chrona]

I think my very hard water makes for a big difference in what I get and what others get. I can think of no other reason, either. I nitrates also disappeared in my recently cycled tank with no plants.......so there.

!

I think you should start up a company marketing your local water for sale in the aquarium trade....lol