Help green water problem

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Koopa_34

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Mar 4, 2006
Messages
51
How do you get rid of green water? I do my water changes every week. Clean my filter when im suppose to. I've tried reducing the time for my lights to be on. I am running CO2 which i keep at 20-30ppm and i keep my temp around 72 to 74. I use seachem potassium, phosphate and nitrogen and i use tropica micro fert. I also have tried using algea fix. Nothing has work. I never had this problem before. It started occuring after i had change my substrate from pebble substrate to flourite sand substrate. What is causing this problem and how do i fix it.
 
The cause for green algae is probably long gone, as Green Water generally resolves the original issue. Most of the time it's caused by a spike in Ammonia. Unfortunately once Green water is established, it can be very difficult to get rid of. There are 3-4 ways to deal with Green Water.

1. Reduce lighting to 8hrs per day, ensure CO2 levels are at least 30ppm, ensure that nutrient levels are within targets, and perform regular water changes. While this method does work, it's not for the impatient as it can take months to take care of the problem.
2. Perform a 3-5 day blackout. Perform a large water change right before the blackout. Make sure the aquarium is completely covered so that no light can get in, no peeking, and no feeding the fish for the length of the blackout. Perform another large water change after the blackout. Ensure that CO2 is at leat 30ppm and dose nutrients to target levels. If the blackout isn't long enough it may not completely knock out the Green Water and may need to be repeated.
3. Use a Diatom Filter. This will filter out the algae. May not completely eliminate the Green Water the first time, so multiple treatments may be necessary.
4. Use a UV Filter. Kills the Green Water that passes through it. Since the dead algae is not removed it may cause another Ammonia Spike causing another Green Water outbreak.
 
should i run CO2 during the black out or wait and run it after the black out?
 
You don't need to run CO2 during the blackout, but if you don't turn it off you may want to run an air stone or lower the water levels to gas off excess levels to ensure that CO2 levels to don't get too high.
 
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