Victory over green water & fog!

[Greg Menke]

I've been fighting green water for about 3wks in our freshwater planted 55.

Nitrates and phosphates approx 0, KH 3, PH 7, 8hrs light. I upgraded to an Eheim, changed media around several times, tried 4 different kinds of flocculant- all to no visible effect. In desperation I bought a whole-house filter unit and plumbed it into the output of the Eheim, didn't help much until I tried some more of the flocculant just for kicks- the tank cleared in about 10-20 minutes.

I guess the "1-5 micron" rating of the filter unit was on the optimistic side, but flocculating the algae clumped it up enough to catch. The ".5-1 micron" filter cartridges seriously impede waterflow, so will require a real pump- a cannister filter or powerhead won't have the grunt to move water through it. The Eheim moves water through the 1-5 micron filter without much trouble. I will probably get a dedicated pump at some point to take some of the static pressure off the Eheim.

The whole-house filter is one of the GE "Smartwater" units, it takes NPT fittings, 1/2" barbs will directly accept the Eheim tubing so its easy to install.

Greg

[Drumachine09]

You could also get a UV sterylizer to keep it at bay.

[Lady Hobbs]

I hope I never have this problem because I haven't a clue what you're talking about. All I would do is scream.......:help: and probably run out and buy a Vortex.

[Rue]

I glad the particulate clumping stuff worked for you...it worked well for me too...

[cocoa_pleco]

i ended up getting a UV sterilizer too. the darn 20g with the tetras kept getting massive algae. i did a godzilla blackout and lots of water changes and i still had 20lbs of algae allover

[Greg Menke]

The trick seems to be getting a filter in-line that will pick up the small stuff- none of the regular filters will do it, which is probably why green water algae is so hard to get rid of. We'll see if the algae comes back.. if the filter is now primed with some material and working, it shouldn't- any free floating cells are filtered out, sterilization not required.

Greg

[Lady Hobbs]

I'd like to get a diatom filter and was thinking of the Vortex freedom that can go from tank to tank. They sound a bit complicated, tho, but guess once I used it I'd have it figured out.

[Greg Menke]

I don't know- the more I learn about the aquarium product racket the less I want to be involved in it. The comprehensive lack of industrial rating for these filtration systems is really annoying and the reviews are pathetic; all the filters are "good products" with no measurements of their actual effectiveness in removing materials from the water. Consumer Reports sort-of does it for the whole-house filters, but details remain sketchy with them too.

In a multitank situation I guess a hang-on-tank unit you can move around as a "fixer" would be handy. We have just one tank so I built out infrastructure to make working it easier. If I was going to build a "fixer" filter, I'd skip the aquarium products and go for a rated industrial filter and a real pump to drive it. Costs real money though...

I took the trouble to plumb water into a 10 gallon change tank in the aquarium base and added a bilge pump to move it into the main tank after heating and water treatment. The tank siphon leads into a drain tube I installed thru the 1st floor down to the basement sink, so its really easy to do water changes. I can do 20% water changes as fast as the heater will warm the water- every 3 hrs if necessary. No buckets or mess (helpful because the tank is on the 2nd floor in finished space), just turn a valve to drain off a few inches from the main tank, then flip on the bilge pump and in goes the change water- done in 5 minutes and no water on the floor.

It was a fair bit of trouble and expense to do all that, but it makes working on the tank easy, which is nice.

Greg