Water is very very cloudy

[mrvincent]

GKM

Finally, I just recieved my 9W Green Killing Machine w/ Powerhead. I'm very impatient to see the results

 

[Rivercats]

Glad you finally got it. You should see results within 24 hours and if the bloom is really heavy it will take longer to kill all the algae off. Then once the water is clear I'd run it another 24 hours just to be sure you've killed off all the free floating algae.

 

[mrvincent]

I did 8%PWC, the water was so cloudy !!! Now it's almost crystal clear, I'm impatient to see more results!

Should I keep lights for 6 hours or I can raise to 8 ?

Can I add ferts ?

 

[Rivercats]

Only run lights 6 hours for a few weeks and slowly increase them by 30 minutes every 2 or 3 weeks. When you start seeing algae you'll need to back down 30 minutes and that will be the amount of time you can safely run your lighting daily.

But right now let the UV do it's job. No ferts until you remove the UV as you don't want to feed the algae bloom. I told you they UV would work very quickly.

 

[mrvincent]

Should I stop dosing CO2 ?

 

[Rivercats]

I would just until your remove the UV.

 

[mrvincent]

K i'll stop CO2 for 1 week.

I noticed water seems to help Green Water to develop in my case. Is this possible my tap contains enough nutrients to feed my plants and that I don't need to dose ferts in this case ?

My tap readings are 0 NO3 and 0 PO4. (I don't know if my API PO4 test is accurate, it never detected more than 0 ppm with PO4 in 6 months...)

 

[Rivercats]

No your tap water isn't the cause and you need to dose your ferts. Most often green water algae blooms come from too much light left on too long and having a lot of excess dissolved organics in the water just feeds the algae.

 

[mrvincent]

Would it be a good idea to remove most of plants, all rocks and woods and clean ALL the substrate then replant everything ? There places under rocks where it's hard to clean the substrate, even impossible because of decorations.

 

[Rivercats]

You might already get a small ammonia spike from the dying algae so I wouldn't do all that right now. Maybe wait a couple 2 or 3 weeks and then clean a section of the tank at a time so as not to cause a big ammonia spike and possibly a mini cycle.

 

[mrvincent]

Now my water is crystalclear like it have never has been. I did 30%WC yesterday, you think I can remove UV St. ?

 

[Rivercats]

Yes you can but remember start running your lights only 6 hours for a couple weeks and add 30 minutes more every couple weeks up to 8 hours as long as you don't begin to see algae again. Resume liquid carbon and ferts also.

 

[mrvincent]

2 days ago: I removed activated carbon, my plants are starting to look colorless a bit, as if they are nutriment starved.

So I added a bit ferts:
- 1/4 cap Seachem comprehensive (all in one nutriments)
- 1/2 cap seachem potassium (I saw on internet algea doesn't feed on that)
- 1/4 cap seachem liquid carbon
- resumed pressurized CO2.

Always 6 hours light/day, water still clear w/o UV st.

Thanks, until now, all your advice worked.



Do you think plans will grow faster if I keep light closed for 1 day/week ?

Plants actually grow at night. We lost power awhile back and it was too late at night to drag the generator out until the next morning. We hooked up the tanks and everything to it but I left the tank lights off in the 220g for 2 nights and a day. Some of my plants had up to 5" of growth when I turned the lights back on.[...]

 

[Rivercats]

I'd run the lights normally since the plants weren't getting a lot of light through the green water.

 

[mrvincent]

I'm still running 6hrs/days, and i'm increasing to 6,5hrs/day this week. It will do 2-3 weeks that I removed UV sterilizer. Water sometime get a very little cloudy green tint, but that's not a problem.

Problem solved by reducing light time and by uv sterilizing for 1-2 weeks.

Thanks