Pea Soup... :(

[Darb21]

And yes, that color is pretty accurate. I did a fishless cycle with a shrimp. Took just over 3 weeks... seeded the tank with gravel from a healthy set up at work. Ammonia at 0, nitrItes at 0, nitrAtes at 10. Water started to get "white cloudy" towards end of cycle... took this to be the bacterial bloom and added 4 Corys and 2 Otos 7 days after cycle was complete. Also added at that time were 2 Crypts and 1 Anubias. Since adding the fish and plants 8 days ago, this thing just gets greener and greener. All the fish seem happy as can be and the water parameters remain stable.

29 Gallon, Lighting is at 1.24 WPG with THISlight.

I've been told to just hang in there and let this run it's course, but the stuff seems to be getting AWFUL thick to me... Is this normal and will it go away on its own, or is it time for an intervention?

[greenmaji]

PO4 ~ 1ppm?

you could black it out as well if you want..
but it should run it's corse..

[Purrbox]

Here's a great link for information on Green Water and it's treatments. If you browse around the site, you'll find a lot of other useful information.

[czcz]

Is there any sunlight hitting the tank? GW can capitilize on ammonia and light -- agree with trying blackout.

Would you like this thread moved to FW planted? There are many others there who can help but may not read this forum.

[Darb21]

Originally Posted by greenmaji

PO4 ~ 1ppm?

Honestly, I don't know. Don't have a phosphate test kit...

Originally Posted by czcz

Is there any sunlight hitting the tank? GW can capitilize on ammonia and light -- agree with trying blackout.

There we keep the blinds in that room closed, so there *SHOULDN'T* be any direct sun hitting it.

Originally Posted by czcz

Would you like this thread moved to FW planted? There are many others there who can help but may not read this forum.

If you think some of them may provide more insight, sure!

Thanks everyone!

[greenmaji]

since you have live plants.. I highly recomend getting a phospahate testkit.

[7Enigma]

I think daphnia is your best bet, which I hear are excellent at getting rid of GW. The nice thing is you could probably just dump the daphnia in because the cory's and Oto's will leave them alone (I assume). Normally you have to have a net to house them so the fish can't eat them, or put enough in that there is too much food (daphnia) that enough survive to reduce the GW.

I think a blackout is a secondary option if the daphnia doesn't take care of it. That GW is so thick that I doubt much light is even making it to the 3 plants you have. So even though a blackout might harm the plants a bit, it won't be much worse than it is now.

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

How long are you leaving your lights on?

Daphnia (aka water fleas) are a challenge to find. at least up here.. but it does have the plus side of feeding the fish when you stock the tank.

[Roach182]

My 29g tank looked like that. I put a diatom filter in it and 20 minutes later it was crystal clear. My problem was phosphates were too high. The addition of a couple of plants and some phosphate absorber in my HOB reduced the phosphate to an acceptable level. I still use the diatom filter once a week to give my water a polished look.

[7Enigma]

Roach182,

I agree that the diatom will do wonders, but I think the underlying problem is the factor here (the GW will just come back). Unlike doing a fishless cycle with pure ammonia, a rotting shrimp will release a great deal of byproducts as well as ammonia (most definately phosphates). Couple the high nutrients in the tank, ample light, and very low plant numbers, and you have perfect conditions for an algae outbreak (you very well might have other algae in the tank right now that you cannot see that will need to be dealt with after the GW is gone).

I'd increase the numbers of plants after the GW is taken care of (if doing a blackout), or get a larger number of plants now (preferably some fast growers such as hornwort, wisteria, anacharis) and treat with daphnia. Large water changes will also be your friend to help get the nutrient levels that very well might be very high, lower.

[Purrbox]

You may be able to get your water tested at the LFS for PO4. This would help you determine an immediate plan of action while giving to time to order your own test kit for future trouble shooting.

[Roach182]

Originally Posted by 7Enigma

Roach182,

I agree that the diatom will do wonders, but I think the underlying problem is the factor here (the GW will just come back). .................

I agree that there is a problem in the tank, I hope that I did not give the impression that a Diatom filter will cure the problem. It will certaintly remove the symptom, but it will not cure the problem. In my paticular case high phosphates were the cause of the problem.

[Darb21]

Thanks for the replies everyone! I'm going to go pick up a PO4 test kit tonight after work and test it hopefully. I've wanted to get more plants in there anyway, so that may be the way to go. Will let you all know what I find out with the PO4...

Originally Posted by 7Enigma

I'd increase the numbers of plants after the GW is taken care of (if doing a blackout), or get a larger number of plants now (preferably some fast growers such as hornwort, wisteria, anacharis) and treat with daphnia. Large water changes will also be your friend to help get the nutrient levels that very well might be very high, lower.

Which plants will work best in this setup? I was under the impression that 1.24 WPG is on the low end and wouldn't be able to support much.

Thanks everyone!

[Purrbox]

Since you're using T-5 instead of NO Flourescents you've actually probably got Medium Low Light rather than strictly Low Light. This does open up your plant options slightly. This is assuming that you've replaced the actinic bulb with a daylight bulb, otherwise you've got Very Low Light.

All the plants listed by 7Enigma should do fine with the possible exception of Wisteria which prefers Medium Light. I was able to get Wisteria to grow under Medium Low Light buy the leaves weren't nearly as pinate as they would have been under higher light, and therefore weren't very attractive to me.

PlantGeek is an excellant resource that will help you determine what plants should grow with your lighting.

[newfound77951]

but it should run it's corse..

How long would that be?? I have the same problem as Darb 21. My PO4 and NO3 are in line (1.3 ppm and 10-15 ppm respectively). I'm trying to be patient....

[7Enigma]

Well, any water change you do IS decreasing the amount of algae in the water. I would imagine you could speed up the removal this way. This won't work if your nutrient levels are not optimal, but if you have your levels in line I'd do several back to back water changes.

I still think daphnia or a blackout would work better, but you can try to wait it out.

I think you could speed it up by doing a combination of these without any detrimental effect to plants/fish. Maybe do a couple successive PWC's, keep the nutrients in the proper balance, add some daphnia, and blackout the tank for a day or two. This will definately be better than just waiting for it to clear up on its own.

[greenmaji]

get a testkit for PO4..
keep your NO3 to PO4 ratio about 10:1 (example 15ppm NO3, 1.5ppm PO4)
Get more plants (the plants will outcompete the GW for nutrients with the correct conditions, NO3:PO4 ratio being one of them, correct lighting and suffecent carbon and K would be other considerations)
changing some water wont hurt..

and give it some time