Curse of the green cloud, this bloom has me beat! need help

[b4tn]

I have done everything I can think of and I am about done. I am not sure what to do now. I have green cloudy water that will not go away. I have done two complete 4 day blackouts followed by a 75% water change and it only takes a matter of hours before the water starts clouding up again. Due to the thick fog there is a serious lack of light getting to my plants and they are really starting to look sickly, that combined with the blackout they are just looking real bad right now. Before the black outs I tried 50% water changes daily for about a week with no luck also, water would clear mostly from the water change and be clouded by evening.

I have no drift wood, only substrate and plants. The substrate was from another setup that was crystal clear so I am sure there is nothing wrong with it. Here are the specs.

40Gal
I have Pressurized CO2 with a PH controller
I have 2 NO 30 watt bulbs and a 96 watt PC (3.7wpg) currently at 9 hours a day.
Heat is maintained around 79-80 degrees

KH 7
PH 6.7

After the blackout and water change these where my initial measurements.

P04 .1ppm
N03 .5ppm

I am using dry ferts and added enough to bring P04 to 1.5ppm and N03 to 15ppm. Two days later, water is massively clouded and I take measurements again. P04 was 1ppm and N03 was still in the 15ppm range. So I dosed .5ppm of P04.

Really everything seems to be in balance! the only thing i can think of now is that the plants are not taking the nutrients so the algae is? I was thinking of getting some Najas in there until the algae clears? Any ideas?

 

[Purrbox]

Are you dosing Potassium? Without Potassium, the plants won't be able to use the Nitrates and Phosphates.

 

[b4tn]

yeah, I forgo to add that. I dosed 10ppm Potasium Sulfateafter the blackout and water change. I dont remember which but either the NO3 or the P04 also has potasium in it also.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

40Gal
I have Pressurized CO2 with a PH controller
I have 2 NO 30 watt bulbs and a 96 watt PC (3.7wpg) currently at 9 hours a day.
Heat is maintained around 79-80 degrees

KH 7
PH 6.7

After the blackout and water change these where my initial measurements.

P04 .1ppm
N03 .5ppm

First, your NO3 is way low. PO4 should be around .5 Nitrate around 10-15PPM but it seems you are aware of this.

your WPG is wrong. you are pushing around

30W NO (Assume T12) x 2 = 60w
96W CF = 168W NO T12
Total 228W. you are pusing over 5.5WPG.. kill the 2 NO's and try just the 96W CF and increase the time to 10 hrs. (This is your Excess, causing the blooms)

 

[travis simonson]

If your NO3 is really at .5 ppm then I can say it is almost certainly the cause of your GW problem. When NO3 bottoms out, algae gains the upper hand. Keeping your NO3 at a consistent 10-15 ppm will help balance things out. Cutting your lighting as Wizzard suggests until the GW dissipates will help clear things up faster too.

 

[b4tn]

Notice though that N03 was .5 ppm immediatly after a water change. Once I do a water change I alway dose my ferts so it was brought up to 15ppm before the lights even came on.

I cut off the NO lights and will to a 50% water change today and see what happens.

 

[Glenc]

I to had green water. I think my problem came from low NO3 and high light. I reduced my lights from 4 WPG down to 1 WPG.I didnt reduce the lighting time, just the intensity. Also got my ferts in check NO3 10ppm, PO4 1 ppm, K 10 ppm. Did two 50 percent water changes and one 25 % water change over 4 days.Last day no water change. Your ferts seem to be ok. The only other thing I did even though I have good CO2 levels was to dose flourish exel. Heard through this forum that it has an algicide in it. That may have done the trick. My water went from so cloudy you couldn't see through it to clear in 4 days, and stayed that way. Keep in mind this was a ten gallon tank so results will take longer on your tank. HTH.

 

[azn_fishy55]

I am trying out a new method of getting out green water.Cut off some willow(yes the tree) that are at least two inches in diameter.Then submerge part of the branch and leave it there,after a few week the green water is supposed to be gone.At SFBAAPS I heared alot fo success stories with that method yesterday at the meeting and I am trying it myself.I think it would be ideal as it cost little or no money to get your hands on some willow branches.Just be sure not to keep the branches in the tank too long since it will starve your plants of nutrients.HTH

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I'll be interested in your results. the willow tree (weeping anyway) is not something that can be easily found in my area anymore, the root systems are massive and it was finding it's way into any crack in plumping.. I can see how it would possibly help, by absorbing all nutrients in an attempt to grow.. but I'm more interested on which nutrient will bottom out first.

take pics

 

[dskidmore]

I live in the frozen north, I don't think willow clipping at this time of year will have enough life in it to be useful.

I'm having the same problem. I gave up on the blackout, my stand is making it difficult. (Tank is on middle shelf, can't pass blanket between corner uprights and tank.) I'm trying nutrient balance and CO2 injection now. We shall see how that goes. If this continues I may have to downgrade my lights, even though some plants previously failing are liking the new lighting.

Any idea if filter feeders like bamboo shrimp are useful? I have a $2.00 cupon to Petco from the survey I took, and they frequently have the bamboo shrimp in stock. (Need to wait for course of parasite clear in QT to be over.) Any type of faunna infusoria that will eat it up?

I couldn't grow this stuff when I had guppie fry to feed, and now I can't get rid of it!

My hornwort is starting to suffer, but all the rest of the plants seem to be getting along fine in the murk. The eloda is even having explosive growth. (I'm seriously going to have to dig everything up after my driftwood is cured, and re-aquascape.)

 

[azn_fishy55]

Sorry I can't take pics while my laptop is in repair(BTW I am using my sisters laptop which cannot load pictures).Bamboo shrimp will work but you will need alot of them and alot of flow in the tank,since they are filter feeders they need a certain flow of water,they will hang out by the filter outake but since you will need alot you probably won't have enough room for them to filter feed.You could always get a micron-cartridge which are small enough to filter out the green water,so will the magnum(HOT or anything else with a micron cartridge).You could always try the willow branches,they exposure too warm temperatures in your home can cause it to spring out roots since it doesn't nessasarily need the leaves.Daphnia will eat out green water but you'll have to take out all fish since they are a food source.I believe anytime of willow branch will work,just as long as it is a willow branch.According so the people at SFBAAPS,if I heard correctly,the branches will get the ammonium fist,I think but I forgot..sorry.HTH