Green water!!! Aaah

[Aquazan]

My tank has green water, it is about a month and half old. I am sure it is not bacteria, so please dont tell me it is. It is completely green and cloudy. You cant see 1 in. past the glass.

I am leaving the lights off on the tank for the next three days. I have heard of people blacking it out by covering it up, but is it not good enough to just leave the lights off? My tank is in the basement, so very little to no light goes in.

How do I get rid of Green Water? Any good products? I want to hear your story, what worked for you?

 

[Calypso77]

I hear UV Staralizers work good for green water.

 

[bloodlucky]

When was the last time you did a water change? Do 50% weekly with the siphon and use the algae scraper every day. That's what I do and my water is slowly clearing up and getting less smelly (I had yellowish water, very ugly)

 

[Aquazan]

When was the last time you did a water change? Do 50% weekly with the siphon and use the algae scraper every day. That's what I do and my water is slowly clearing up and getting less smelly (I had yellowish water, very ugly)

I dont do waer changes that often, my nitrates are 0-ish. I have a planted tank.
I only use the scraper when I have too

 

[BBradbury]

Green Water

My tank has green water, it is about a month and half old. I am sure it is not bacteria, so please dont tell me it is. It is completely green and cloudy. You cant see 1 in. past the glass.

I am leaving the lights off on the tank for the next three days. I have heard of people blacking it out by covering it up, but is it not good enough to just leave the lights off? My tank is in the basement, so very little to no light goes in.

How do I get rid of Green Water? Any good products? I want to hear your story, what worked for you?

Hello Aqua...

This is "single celled" Green Algae. It's typical in tanks that haven't been running long. Every tank works differently, but it can take months for the combination of nutrients, fish wastes and growing and decaying plants in the water for the chemistry to become level or stable.

The fish and plants will adapt to your water supply. Specifically, your job is to be the "keeper of the water". You remove and replace half the tank water every week, so no toxins build up and regularly service the filters. Don't feed too much. Unless you have fry in the tank, your fish and plants will do fine with feeding a couple of times a week. If you feed too much, algae can become a problem.

Float some stem plants that will filter the tank water. Anacharis is excellent. So are Pennywort, Water sprite and Water wisteria.

Just a thought or two.

B

 

[Rivercats]

There are other methods that can work but honestly the quickest and easiest way to rid a green algae bloom is a UV sterilizer. There was a posting witin the past couple weeks of someone with the same issue and when they turned on the UV sterilizer they had but wasn't using it cleared overnight. Once cleared you need a good WC schedule even in a planted tank. I have a 220g, very heavily planted (only about 5% of the substrate visable), do weekly WC's, and run a UV sterilizer in-line. The thing is when buying a UV sterilizer you have to research, there are some really good and really bad ones. UV's need to be the correct size for your tank and your water flow has to be slow so contact time of water to the UV light has max contact time to do its job. There really are some cheap brands with high claims so do look up customer reviews (like amazon has customer reviews online on many UV sterilizers) and see which ones work and which ones are a waste of money. Besides UV's clearing up green water they can also be used to keep water bacteria count low, can clear up bacterial blooms, and works as a water clairifer. Combine that with weekly WC's and good aquarium practices as stated above and you'll have very healthy tank.

 

[Aquazan]

There are other methods that can work but honestly the quickest and easiest way to rid a green algae bloom is a UV sterilizer. There was a posting witin the past couple weeks of someone with the same issue and when they turned on the UV sterilizer they had but wasn't using it cleared overnight. Once cleared you need a good WC schedule even in a planted tank. I have a 220g, very heavily planted (only about 5% of the substrate visable), do weekly WC's, and run a UV sterilizer in-line. The thing is when buying a UV sterilizer you have to research, there are some really good and really bad ones. UV's need to be the correct size for your tank and your water flow has to be slow so contact time of water to the UV light has max contact time to do its job. There really are some cheap brands with high claims so do look up customer reviews (like amazon has customer reviews online on many UV sterilizers) and see which ones work and which ones are a waste of money. Besides UV's clearing up green water they can also be used to keep water bacteria count low, can clear up bacterial blooms, and works as a water clairifer. Combine that with weekly WC's and good aquarium practices as stated above and you'll have very healthy tank.

Thank You! I might get one, but Im worried it will make the water "dead"
Is low bacteria population good? I thought it was bad.
How does this one look? It is not inline

Is it okay if I use the one made for a 55 gallon tank? I will use it on a 75 gallon.

 

[Rivercats]

There was no link to follow so don't know which one your talking about. UV's won't affect your BB if that is what your worried about. It only lowers bacteria that actually passes through the UV light, BB is mostly attached in your filters but some is also attached to substate, etc. UV helps clarify and sanitize your water but you need one that is the proper size. If the UV only goes up to a 55g then you need a bigger one. If it's not properly sized then it's not going to be effective.

 

[Aquazan]

There was no link to follow so don't know which one your talking about. UV's won't affect your BB if that is what your worried about. It only lowers bacteria that actually passes through the UV light, BB is mostly attached in your filters but some is also attached to substate, etc. UV helps clarify and sanitize your water but you need one that is the proper size. If the UV only goes up to a 55g then you need a bigger one. If it's not properly sized then it's not going to be effective.

Oh sorry, this is the one I was talking about
Green Killing Machine Internal UV Sterilizer with Power Head at PETCO

I dont understand though, wont the UV sterilizer still kill all the algae/sanitize the water? It will just take longer right?
All the stuff that goes through the sterilizer is still killed, the only difference between the 55 and 75 gallon model is the GPH right? Also, isnt slower the better? Im just asking, just curious

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

I suppose a UV sterilizer has its advantages. However, i had limited funds when i experienced an algae bloom (green water). I tried the black out method and it certainly solved my problem and didn't cost a dime... In fact, it saved me money since i (obviously) didn't have the lights on eating up my electricity

It's been a few years, but i think i followed a modified version of this...
http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/...cles/getting-rid-green-water-black-out-13177/

 

[Aquazan]

I suppose a UV sterilizer has its advantages. However, i had limited funds when i experienced an algae bloom (green water). I tried the black out method and it certainly solved my problem and didn't cost a dime... In fact, it saved me money since i (obviously) didn't have the lights on eating up my electricity

It's been a few years, but i think i followed a modified version of this...
Getting rid of Green water with Black out

Could you tell me how you did the blackout? What did you cver the tank with? How were the fish?

 

[Rivercats]

I've heard good and bad about that brand but that seems to be the norm for most things. Everything I ever read about UV's says be sure to use the proper wattage rated for your size tank. The difference in the one you are looking at is a 9watt bulb vs a 24watt bulb which is a big difference. Higher wattage means stronger UV light, which IMO means better killing. Yes, slow rates are best but the rates given are usually the max rate flow for UV effectiveness. I feel that the stronger UV bulbs rated for larger tanks will do the best job. JMO

 

[Aquazan]

I've heard good and bad about that brand but that seems to be the norm for most things. Everything I ever read about UV's says be sure to use the proper wattage rated for your size tank. The difference in the one you are looking at is a 9watt bulb vs a 24watt bulb which is a big difference. Higher wattage means stronger UV light, which IMO means better killing. Yes, slow rates are best but the rates given are usually the max rate flow for UV effectiveness. I feel that the stronger UV bulbs rated for larger tanks will do the best job. JMO

What were the reasons for proper wattage? Do bigger tanks have more resistant algae?

 

[Rivercats]

No the algae is the same... here is a very long detailed article about UV and hopefully you can get a better idea.

UV Sterilization, Aquariums, Ponds; UVC Sterilizers, 'How To' Information, Myths, Facts

 

[rkilling1]

I have used a diatom filter and it works great. I just put DE in a magnum 350 with the fine filter installed and the GW was gone within hours.

GW is caused by NH3/NH4 and light.