Murky water

[Peyton]

Anyone else ever had a tank go from this

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/peglegburnout/08192006002.jpg

to this

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b207/peglegburnout/12132006.jpg

With only a change in lighting? I had 2 20w flourecent and a 55w CF over this 20gal long. The ballast went out on the CF so I removed it and put another 20w flourecent bulb over it for the time being. In less than two weeks this has happened. It's not really green per se, more like white.

:? I don't know what it is but I have been having the weirdest problems with my tanks lately

 

[rkilling1]

Looks like green water to me. GW is caused my having NH3 in the water column.

Have you done anything to the tank recently that would have increased the NH3 like cleaning the filter, adding more fish, finding dead fish, or removing a lot of plants?

 

[rich311k]

Just stirring up the substrate would do it.

 

[Peyton]

As a matter of fact I did find that the filter had stopped running for at least a few hours about a week or so ago. However I think it started before then. Other than that I have made no changes really.

Just tested ammonia with a 0ppm result.

 

[Purrbox]

Once Green Water developes Ammonia probably won't register on your test kit as the Green Water consumes it. That's the nice thing about it, it generally fixes the problem that caused it in the first place. The drawback is that it tends to want to stick around for a long time.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

The cheapest way to fix it is a 2-3 day blackout. Cover the tank with a thick cloth so no light gets in and unplug the lighting. take a peek with a flashlight in 2 days and see if it needs the extra day.

What bulbs do you have in there, and more importantly, how old are they. T8 bulbs have an effective life of 9months to 1 year. They could have been spectrally dead and the CF was the only thing keeping this from happening.

I don't subscribe to the NH3 being the "Cause" as much as it may be a trigger. There is definately another cause.

 

[Peyton]

The cheapest way to fix it is a 2-3 day blackout. Cover the tank with a thick cloth so no light gets in and unplug the lighting. take a peek with a flashlight in 2 days and see if it needs the extra day.

What bulbs do you have in there, and more importantly, how old are they. T8 bulbs have an effective life of 9months to 1 year. They could have been spectrally dead and the CF was the only thing keeping this from happening.

I don't subscribe to the NH3 being the "Cause" as much as it may be a trigger. There is definately another cause.

The bulbs are several years old. The thing is I know better than to leave bulbs in there that long, just me being my normal cheapskate self I guess. I agree with you that the CF was problably the only thing keeping things alive. If that were the case it would explain why it GW happened only after the fixture was removed. I'm going to get new bulbs this weekend to see if it helps.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

In the meantime, cover the tank and turn them off.

Most bulbs can be purchased from home depot for less then 5$, Just look for Philips Daylight Deluxe. Very good tri-phosphor bulb.

If you do a 2 day blackout and replace the bulbs when they do come back on, you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[Peyton]

Ok covered the tank for 4 days and done a 70% water change afterwards, along with changing all bulbs. This has resulted in a few halfway dead plants and still green water. It's not as bad though. At least I can see the middle of the tank now and not just a few inches. Anything else I can try?