after blackout

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m-man

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jul 31, 2006
Messages
78
Location
Orangevale CA
ok, so i had a big GW problem, i did a 5 day blackout and a w/c and it looked great, its been about 24 hours , and its getting a little clowdy, what should i do to prevent GW again.
96W CF 46gallon diy co2
ph 6.8
kh 2
no3 15ppm
po4 .5 ppm
K 20 ppm
csmb to .1 fe

ever since i put plants in the aquarium the water has not been clear, but i cant find the problem.
 

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First off your CO2 is only 10ppm, which probably isn't helping matters.

Green water is often started as a result of an Ammonia spike. It then continues to feed off of the existing nutrients in the tank, which is what can make it so difficult to get rid of.

If you haven't already make sure to clean out your filter, in addition to getting your CO2 levels up. Might want to consider dosing both your Nitrates and Phosphates a bit higher too.
 
Also might want to think about getting some more plants. Is that anacharis in there? If so you can probably just propogate it as it should grow very quickly in your tank at that light level. Carbon is definately your limiting reagent right now. Your DIY system is either not functioning properly (leak in the line, poor delivery into the water), or your mix is old/bad (or not enough bottles). Are you injecting the CO2 by way of the powerhead I see on the right side?

One other thing I would do is a hydrogen peroxide treatment. This has been highly effective for me battling BBA and staghorn algae, and has also been effective for some battling GW. IMO it probably would be even better against GW since its a free floating algae that has all of its surface area in the water column.

I'd do a big water change, and right at lights out dose 3-4oz of peroxide into the tank. Make sure you have maximum aeration (ie powerhead on, filter on high). This level should be low enough not to cause any damage to the fish (plants should be fine as well). By the next morning, you should have killed a good bit of the GW. I would probably do the same treatment the next night as well just to be safe. Then do a water change (to get rid of the dead GW as the peroxide is no longer present in the tank). Just make sure you have a NEW bottle of hydrogen peroxide (3% is the commonly sold concentration), and that you cap it tightly when done using.

Here's a thread I picked up on a quick google search:

http://lists.thekrib.com/aga-member/0502/msg00004.html

And the easiest way to get rid of GW (or any particulate present in the water column) IMO is a diatom filter. In under an hour you can quickly remove the GW which is preferable to killing it, since you don't then have all of the dead algae in the tank to rot. This method obviously does not get rid of the underlying cause which I as well have found to be predominantly from an ammonia spike, made much worse under higher light (I was on vacation and a fish died and rotted for a couple days). But if you have corrected the problems in the tank, it is much faster and better for the plants than a blackout. It's also great for Ich, and if you do a heavy rearrangement of the tank and kick up a lot of crud.

GW IMO is the easiest of all the algae types to rid from you tank. It does no direct damage to plants, can be killed/removed using a number of mechanical devices (UV sterilizer, diatom filter), and performs a service when it is present (by utilizing the free ammonia that would otherwise hurt your fish).

I only wish I could have GW instead of the other more vile forms of algae. Goodluck.
 
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