Green Water

[Glenc]

It was only a matter of time before I messed something up. I over dosed iron and now have green water. I have tested NO3 and PO4 levels and tested again. NO3=6, PO4=.5 Ammonia=0 nitrite=0 The tank is a ten gallon and is 5 weeks old. Cycle is done. I know a blackout will kill off the green crap but I am hesitant to do it. I just got my rotala macrandra to grow well and don't want to chance losing it. Is it possible to get rid of the green water by water changes and reduced light intensity and time. I'm lit up 12 hours a day with 4 WPG, DIY CO2 at a steady 25 to 27 ppm. I think the water changes will throw my nutrient levels that I worked weeks to get in check out of whack, possibly causing more problems. :? What do you think?

 

[azn_fishy55]

Adding a micron cartridge to the filter?That should get rid of it,or use a UV sterilizer but that will take away nutrients,and it will be only useful for that so the cheapest and more snsible solution would be the micron cartridge.

 

[bman]

How much iron did you add? pwc should help to dilute the algae that has bloomed in you tank, and a micro filter would help to filter out the rest. How many plants and how many fish?

Yes, your nutrient levels will be thrown off with the pwc, but in overdosing iron, your levels are off anyway.

Many members have suggested using flourish excel because it has a side effect of eliminating algae, even though the company does not support it. It may help, plus the extra carbon is good for the plants.

 

[Glenc]

My tank is heavily planted with a few fast growers. Hygro rosenervig, Ludwigia perennis, Hygro corymbossa 'compact", Chain swords, Hemianthus callitrichoides, dwarf val. For fish there are 8 Neon tetras, 1otto, 1SAE, 3 amano shrimp. I am using 100% Eco complete. I noticed what I thought was iron deficiency especially in the chain swords and Hemianthus callitrichoides. Old growth was yellow to brown, and dying off, previously very healthy. New growth is healthy green. Only fert I use is Tropica master grow. I figured this stuff was enough for everything though mostly for micros, for my red plants. I dosed Flourish iron to hopefully help my old growth yellowing. I accidently double dosed. Don't know my iron levels as yet as I don't have a test kit. I do own pretty much every other test kit known to man and have tested everything else. I assume it's the iron giving me the trouble. Went to get an iron test kit yesterday and could only find the dipping kind, which I don't like. It was also 21 dollars. I have since ordered one online. Did a 50% water change last night and the water was almost clear. This morning it is clouding up again. Think I'm gonna try the micron cartridge, flourish exel with water changes. Makes sense to give the plants more carbon so hopefully they can get ahead of the algea. thanks for the info, keep you posted.

 

[Glenc]

Forgot I also have Rotala Macrandra, which is just starting to take off really well.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I noticed what I thought was iron deficiency especially in the chain swords and Hemianthus callitrichoides. Old growth was yellow to brown, and dying off, previously very healthy. New growth is healthy green.

Iron def. will cause new growth to be yellow, old growth will remain green. Iron is not transportable in the plant (once it's affixed to the leaf, it remains there forever, unlike some other nutrients that the plant can take from old growth and trasport through the plant to new growth.)

I would have guessed a potassium deficiency or nitrate def. and Nitrate def. would also account for the green water, .5 Phos requires a minimum of 5PPM NO3. Increasing your desired level to 10PPM will keep you somewhere between 5-10PPM and keep the ratio of the 2 in check. Also you should dose Potassium at a rate equal to or greater then the dose of NO3. (the full ratio should be 10:1:10 to 20:1:20 of NO3 PO4 K (Or NPK as most fertalizers list))

So to start ith the green water, I would do a 50% PWC (with the lights off), dose NO3 and K to 10 (KNO3 is a very handy fert for this), Then run at 50% lighting for a couple days, see if it improves or returns to it's original state. You should find it get's better, continue with 50% PWC as often as you can, remeber to only do it with the lighting very low and dose NO3 back up to 10ppm before you put the lights on.

 

[Glenc]

Thanks Wizzard. I dosed iron on the advice of my LFS. A good one to. As soon as I mentioned cahinswords, they were positive that I needed iron. Though I thought my Eco would take care of that. I just read chucks page on nutrient deficiencies. It pretty much confirms the advice you just gave. Thanks again. I am learning. READ, READ, READ!!

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

There's always stuff to read.

Yes, your Eco-complete will more then take care of any iron the chains need. Too bad about the advice, it seems some people draw conclusions based on species, rather then problem.. it's caused me grief before..

Oh, that hygro is a pain, the side I chopped down to give you some is absolutely covered again, it's like a carpet of the stuff. (picture 2' x 18" of red plant).. it's growing everywhere.. have you had any luck keeping it vertical?

 

[AshleyXavier]

Yeah, I also agree. Should be potassium deficiency. I only dose potassium in my tank, I had the same yellowing issue before I started dosing. Currently I pour a capful of Flourish Potassium to my 15G tank every 3 days.

 

[Simpte]

Adding a micron cartridge to the filter?That should get rid of it,or use a UV sterilizer but that will take away nutrients,and it will be only useful for that so the cheapest and more snsible solution would be the micron cartridge.

UV will not harm your trace elements to any point of exhaustion.
Waterchanges will not slow down greenwater.
Less light will not help but a blackout will. Your plants will recover.
I don't think NO3 or PO4 or Fe caused the problem.
POssibly K but I would lean towards mg but hard to tell as you didn't list ph, gh and kh.

Overdosing fe has never cause algae in any of my tanks and my substrate has plenty to start with (more than eco).
A diatom filter will rid you of greenwater also.

Remember algae isn't cause by too much of a fert but rather a lack of fert. (Too much No3 causes PO4 to bottom out. Related but yet different).

 

[Glenc]

My ph=7, kh 180ppm, gh is off my chart at over 200 ppm. Got very hard water around here. I have changed 50% water and lowered down to 1 WPG. I have added 5 Harlequin Rasboras to help get and keep my nitrates up. Also dosed Flourish potassium.( how do you test for K?) Can't find KN03 locally, going to get it on-line. Thanks for all your info. Wizzard the hygro in my tanks is also growing like crazy and horizontal! I've got it in high and med light, same growth in both tanks. Still like it as it is a pretty plant. Need a lawnmower to keep it down!

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I just ripped it all out of one side of my tank, replaced it with Rotala rotundifolia (Pretty sure, it was marked as Indica..) Very beautiful red if it will hold it. (it has red stalks like macranda tho)

Simpte. I have beaten green water with a blackout, I've also beaten it by reduced lighting w/ constant water changes.. But balancing out the issue would be more important. and too much NO3 will cause PO4 to bottom out, but not enough NO3 will cause PO4 to be excessive. once the imbalance is sorted PWC just expedite it's removal from the column.

 

[Simpte]

Why do the constant waterchanges when you don't have to? You know the blackout will work and is 100% effective.

As for No3/Po4.......................
Add plenty of both

PWC will remove what the plants don't use at the end of the week.
Add 5ppm No3 daily
Add .4ppm PO4 daily
30-40% PWC at end of week.

 

[dskidmore]

I'm suffering the same problem. I got my PO4 kit on saturday, since many people have told me excessive PO4 is the cause of green water. I have 0 PO4. I have 0 Nitrate. I figured I'd bring up NO3 first, and then PO4, but it seems that no matter how much nitrate I add, I'm stuck at 0. Perhaps something is wrong with my math. (Does 1/4 tsp of KNO3 for a 75 gallon aquarium sound right to get to 10ppm?) Or maybe my tank is taking up more than 10 ppm of NO3 a day? The test kit and KNO3 are both good, the test turns red if I add KNO3 directly to the test tube.

 

[Glenc]

If your test kits and KNO3 are proven good, I would keep dosing until you get readings of some kind. if your water is still cloudy, your nutrients are still not in check. I don't know if 1/4 teaspoon is enough of dry KNO3 for a 75 gallon tank, as I have yet to use dry ferts. I used Flourish Nitrogen to get my NO3 up to 10ppm. Cost effective in a ten gallon, not for your 75. My PO4 is .5 to 1 out of the tap so I didnt dose it. Flourish Nitrogen also has K in it and I am assuming that level is ok as I don't have a test kit for K. Also dosed small amounts of exel. Did two 50% water changes over the weekend while dosing to keep nutrients in check. Even with those water changes before dosing the water was cloudy again within a few hours. Got so bad you couldn't see to the back of the tank. No water change today. Water is clear. No blackout. I believe my low NO3 levels (5ppm NO3 to 1 PO4) before dosing was my problem. I am still running 1WPG but am slowly going to fire up to full light(4WPG) over the next few days. See if my clear water holds. My Rotala Macrandra still grew with low light but lost some of it's red and got long and leggy. Thanks to all for your great advice in helping me solve this fast! I HOPE!

 

[Glenc]

Clear Water

Didn't take a before shot of my green water, but it was so bad you couldn't see through the tank. Here is the tank now after fert balancing, testing, and good advice. Thanks.

 

[dskidmore]

Re: Clear Water

Didn't take a before shot of my green water, but it was so bad you couldn't see through the tank. Here is the tank now after fert balancing, testing, and good advice. Thanks.

Looks great! I hope I can do that well with my 75 some day. Right now I just have a forest of hornwort and eloda in the background, with scatterings of nicer plants in the foreground, with too much sand showing between.

 

[Glenc]

To do it on this small scale is not that tough. Gets kinda tricky with high light. You get results much faster than a big tank. Good and bad! Once everything started to take off my ferts went out of whack. It' frustrating and satisfying at the same time. I hope I can to do this in a big tank as well. I plan to. 90 Gallon for my b-day? I have a feeling it's alot tougher. I could not have done this tank without the help and patience shown by the people on this forum. It continually blows me away how generous you folks are. When I actually think I know something I will try to follow this example.
Glen.

 

[dskidmore]

Yeah, half my problem is the sheer expens of buying enough plant matter to cover a 75 gallon right off the bat. None of the foreground plants I started with are fast growers like my background stem plants, that I have enough of to produce screens and clumpings with after only a few months.

 

[dskidmore]

Well, I figured out part of my problem. Test kit was bad after all. I didn't think it was that old, but there was no way the nitrates should be holding a 0 when I'm dumping so much KNO3 in. Now I need to do a couple big water changes, and go back to plan A for balanced fertilizing.

Still working on the CO2 plan. Picked up a cheap 10 gallon for the CO2 waterbath. (House too cold to produce decent CO2 in winter. Going to put CO2 generating bottles in temp controlled water bath.)