Green water?

[erik7]

Recently my water has been green.. turned up a few days ago, and ive done some WC's but no change to the color.

Im testing the water now, so ill have results in a few minutes, but wanted to know any ideas why my water is green. I do 40% WC's every 10 days or so.

in my tank:

1 flame dwarf gourami
6 zebra danios
1 black mystery snail
10-20 BMS babies
1 bristlenose pleco

thanks

 

[gfink]

If you don't have a phosphate test kit buy one. They are hard to find at stores, but you can get them online. Phosphate to nitrate ratio should be roughly 1:10.

So maybe 1 ppm phosphate, and 10 nitrate. or 2 and 20

The green water won't hurt the fish.

Phosphate comes from food and waste, and it is also in some tap water.

I have it in my tap water, so I need to keep my nitrates high enough that I don't get away from that ratio after doing water changes.

 

[erik7]

ok, the biggest thing for me as long as its okay for the fish.

It was fine for the first few months, i started my tank in august.

So should I bother with the large WC, or not? My nitrates are around 25-30.

 

[CompMage]

I like to keep my Nitrates under 20. I would not do a "MASSIVE" water change as that can cause more problems. I would say change about 15% - 20% EVERY DAY for say two weeks. Also do heavy gravel vacs with each water change.

Green water is algae that feeds off leftover food and bad water chem. Changing the water every day will fix the water part, cleaning the tank will do the other. Also, you might want to start skipping meals for your fish for a while to get the tank clean. Don't worry most fish can do a day between feedings. If it's a planted tank, don't add any ferts for a week or two.

If your tank water is still green after all that you're beyond me.

 

[erik7]

Thank you CompMage and gFink.

Ill do just that

 

[TankGirl]

I had green water in a tank that was pristine - not overfed, no debris collected, and I do 50% PWCs weekly. In my case I am sure it came from my high PO4 in the tap (5ppm) but I have had this condition in one tank only, and only one time in 20+ years. I guess I mean that I can't begin to tell you why this tank alone got it, and therefore I can't give a lot of advice on why it strikes.

You can beat it with PWCs, but you need to be patient - it will take weeks. I am confident it will go away on its own. You will be surprised to find that once it has been there for a week or so you will not be able to measure any NO3 - the algae gobbles it all up! A lack of NO3 does not kill it off right away, though, as mine lingered for weeks. I finally got a UV filter because I am impatient, and it cleared up in 36 hours.

BTW, this is not harmful to your fish, so do not worry about them suffering while it is there.

 

[QTOFFER]

I recently battled green water in one of my tanks. The tank gets a 40% water change wvery week, and I don't overfeed. My green water problems began when I did an overzealous tank/filter cleaning.

I was even less patient than TankGirl, so I bought a diatom filter and got rid of the green murkiness in 30 minutes!

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=66071

If you don't want to plunk down the cash for a UV filter or diatom filter, pick up some phosphate removing media for your filter and do daily water changes. It will take weeks to get rid of, but like TG said, the green water is in no way harmful to your fish.

 

[Zezmo]

I too had green water, was not willing to have a green cess pool in my living room for weeks. So, I solved the problem with a diatom filter as well. I bought the H.O.T. magnum ( http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=22139;category_id=2981;pcid1=2885;pcid2= ) and seed it with Diatom Powder. Now that my green water is long since cleared, I just use the filter as a part of my normal maintenance.

 

[erik7]

Awesome.

Thanks for the links and info everyone.

Think I might pick up the Vortex Diatom Filter D-1 ( http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/product.xml?product_id=22065;category_id=2995).

Should be good for a 29 gal, right?

 

[Blucat]

i used a water balancing chemical and phosphate remover. gone in a week

 

[Snuffleupagus]

It might be worth trying to add a filter shrimp or two or a freshwater clam. They would be in heaven, and could possibly clean up the green water more cheaply and in a more interesting fashion. Maybe the water's too far gone, but who knows.

 

[erik7]

Thanks for all the advice.. but...

I skipped a day of feeding, and fed much less the next day (I now think ive been feeding too much), and the water cleared up over night.

 

[TankGirl]

That's the best news I have heard all day! Glad to hear it.

 

[sayuncle]

For the dreaded green water, I used an algaecide on a 55 gallon FW tank I had a number of years ago. More recently I used UV to get rid of it on a reef tank; I am sold on UV now because of that and its other water quality enhancements.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I just change the lighting to 1 bulb for 1 hr/day, clears it up in a couple of days, the 1hr/day gives me a chance to feed them (1/2hr on, then feed, light's off 1/2 hr later)

ALSO Don't trust your nitrate readings while you have green water, having the lights on all day mine was reading ~80 before lights out, this morning it's <20 (lights off for 10 hr's)

If you are using a light's out method, run an airstone to let out the Co2 from the dieoff

 

[Simpte]

UV or diatom filters are the best method of getting rid of GW. Waterchanges don't help at all. Neither does balancing nutrients once it has established. Uprooting plants is the major cause of greenwater. Releasing Nh4 will start it. Once developed it can use No3 just as easily as plants. Blackouts work on low light tanks but very few ll tanks get greenwater.