Green Water Sucks! =(

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Yodlem

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
May 16, 2006
Messages
86
I put a towel over the tank on for atleast 5 days and it's still there...

but then again my dad made me take it off for one night b.c the aquarium water was getting really hot.

I'm doing it again, but my whole family doesn't like the idea of putting the towel over it because they feel that they need some kind of light.

I asked a while ago if doing this was bad, and all of you guys said it was okay.

Is there some book out there that says that this is okay? Because most of the people here say it is...but I want written proof from a book or something like that.
 
Well I don't know one but I am sure if you google "aquarium algae remedie" "aquarium blackout"......you will find something.

Your fish will be fine with no light. I have done it many times when I have had semi-new tanks will algae. If everybody, especially in the planted forums is telling you it is ok, I would feel safe about it.
 
Is it a dark towel? Remember that not a single speck of light can be reaching the tank. It is perfectly fine to do the blackout method as long s you have tried the alternative remidies first.
 
What are your parameters?

My grandma's tank went through one of these awhile back.
Solution:
PWC and Grav-vac. Any UGF's need to be removed. *BEFORE YOU TRY TO RIP OUT YOUR UGF, MOVE YOUR FISH FROM THE TANK*

HTH
~Mp
 
green water is healthy for the fish. I'd personally just scrape the sides and leave the rest as is.
 
blackout is a last ditch method for elimiating green water IMNSHO


PO4 levels are the problem. testing the tapwater for PO4

exess feeding, built up mlum hiding somewere in the tank, dirty filter housings.

how about cleaning everything real well, doing a very thoral gravel vac and doing some heathy sized water changes.

feeding just enough for the fish to eat in 45-60 seconds while turning off the filter will help as well.

if you still need printed proof, ie the methods above dont work for you, check the local library the blackout method is as old school as UGF filtration.
 
Yes, green is correct. Besides a new tank, algae problems are due to an imbalance. Doing a blackout is a way of clearing the algae without finding the root cause. However, I have had planted tanks that could not be fixed without a blackout.

Your tank is not in any direct sunlight right? If so, move it, or prepare for a blackout once a month.

Even with that said, I am not against blackouts in anyway. You can do a blackout and then start doing prevenative measures as green explained.
 
Mike469 said:
However, I have had planted tanks that could not be fixed without a blackout.

planted tanks are a diffent story, thats a chemistry ballancing act.

NO3:pO4 ratio 10:1 (less then 10:1 would be fine but the plants dont grow as well)
That being out of wack is the #1 cause in planted tanks.

And you can use a blackout for a quick fix, the only problem is that it will come back without the cause being taken care of.
 
Algae

So you are saying in a non-planted tank that to much algae is not an imbalance?[/quote]
 
Re: Algae

Mike469 said:
So you are saying in a non-planted tank that to much algae is not an imbalance?


I'm confused as to what I posted that caused this confusion :?

No I didn't say that, I was explaining the imbalance that caused greenwater in planted tanks.

The presents of alage or green water in any amount is not really a problem in fish only tanks (fish don't need the nutrients that algae consumes to survive unlike plants; not to mention it blocks light from your plants) and really become a natural filter, just an unsightly one ;)
 
Back
Top Bottom