The JBJ Submariner and pea soup green water

[Nyquil Junkie]

HIya... nice site ya have. I like it.


I did a search for "Submariner" and seems like no one has tried one so, since I have been trying every way imaginable to end my green water algae problem, I decided to try out the JBJ Submariner 9w.

I have a 40 gal tank, and the model 9 is rated for 100 gallons. it's only a few bucks more than the model 7 rated for 50 gal and its the exact same housing/size/pump, so why not make the most of the investment.

Ok, the tank has 2 sandwich sized goldfish (as big as your fist... fat stubby ones with big tails.) one Pleco that I got when he was about 2 inches long, now he is nearly a foot long. I didn't bargain on a foot long algae eater but hey, he's a peaceful fish who sleeps alot it seems. There is a few skirted tetras someone gave me years ago in there and a pair of black mollies.

yep... I know... coldwater goldfish and tropicals in the same tank. the big goldfish dont seem to mind 78 degree water. They too have been there for years.

Anywho.... once the greenwater set in, I was screwed, nothing I did got rid of it. I even drained the tank and scrubbed it.... the greenwater came back in a few weeks.

So I looked at all the UV steriizers (which I haddnt thought of before or I would have got one yrs ago) and decided the Submariner9 was a good design. Subersible, built in pump, JBJ sez it is designed to flow correctly out of the box to kill greenwater.

We will see. Today is day one with it in the tank.

It has an air inlet on the head you can open and it sucks air into the pump to 1)ariate the water and 2) slow the pump flow down.

So to start out, I got the thing set blowing a nice slow flow of bubbly water.

I'll give it a week. I'll post the daily progress report on it.

To start with the water is so clouded, the fish have to get to within about 2 inches of the glass to see them.

It can only get better from here, so sez JBJ.

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

24 hours....
looks like its clearing somewhat, I can see the fish shadows when hey are in the back of the tank now.

I think their preset flow rate is too fast. it pumps 211 GPH over a 6-7 inch long bulb.
I opened the air pit all the way it slowed the flow down quite alot.

Stay tuned. (I'm not getting my hopes up)

 

[buddha_red]

What are your water readings?
How often do you do pwc's?
How long do you leave your lights on?

sorry for the list of questions, but we need to get to the cause of the algae bloom.

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

Good questions... I'll get my test kit out again.
I checked it a few weeks ago, the ammonia count was 0 and the nitrite/nitrate count was very low, but not at a clear 0.

The green was very bad then so I did a 75% water change and put the goldfish in an isolation tank.

The water change knocked the levels back to 0.25 and less than 5 nitrate/nitrite IIRC
In a few days the green came back.

I've always left the lights on a 12on 12 off timer..... I never had a problem with greenwater.

I figured the florescent tube lights were partly to blame for the green outbreak so I took them off and put a little 13watt cfl on one end to just light it up 12on 12 off.

The green got worse so I did a 50% water change, and checked my bio sponges, they look and smell like they are healthy as always.

I'll go run another water test and get back to ya.
Maybe my biofilters died? (does that even happen?)

I figured since taking the goldfish out did nothing to help I put them back in.

The water is clearing up noticeably tonight, but you are right..... I need to check the chemistry again.

Somethin' aint right fer sure.

oh at some point I dont remember when I dosed the tank with algae killer, I forget what brand and I forget when exactly.
It didn't have any effect. It might have killed my biosponges?

I remember I did run a charcoal filter in the tank for a week to help remove the useless algae killer chemical.

I shoulda just removed the fish and cloroxed the tank clean and started over from scratch I guess.

oh well live and learn.

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

ok here is the data... water temp 75-80F
Ammonia= .50ppm
Nitrate= hard to tell with the test color, its about @ 7-10ppm (I think that explains my algae bloom)
Nitrite= .25ppm
PH= @ 7.5

That's interesting.
I don't get the ammonia/nitrite level, I'm pinchy with the food and all the poop is regularly vacuumed out of the tank. the tank has no gravel to make it easy to clean. and there is a good sized sponge filter perking away in the corner full of bacterial goodness.

I think the nitrate level is acceptable.... IIRC what acceptable is.

I've had no problems for so long I forget some of the basic chemistry.
Good thing I found a good forum site eh?

Thanks for any input on this... it's making me crazy.

but my new UV toy seems to be working anyway.... slowly.

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

day 2
About half as green as it was to start with. I tossed in a bunch of cheap plant bundles maybe that will help too.

 

[roka64]

How old are you bulbs?

 

[buddha_red]

Anywho.... once the greenwater set in, I was screwed, nothing I did got rid of it. I even drained the tank and scrubbed it.... the greenwater came back in a few weeks.

how long ago did you drain the tank? you killed your biological filter. Your tank needs to cycle, i would cut the lights and see if a blackout would help. Increase your pwc's since you have fish in there. Your aquarium is cycling by the numbers you posted. please post fresh test results.

 

[bluerose]

Yep-- you're cycling again.
Nitrate is fine to 40ppm... so your 10ppm reading is no problem.

Keep that ammonia below .5ppm-- preferably .25ppm or 0ppm. Same goes for nitrite.

No draining/scrubbing/bleaching your tank... kills your biofilter! A large PWC/several day blackout (complete, not even to feed fishy, he will be fine)/another large PWC will help... although if you're running a UV sterilizer you may not need to.

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

I'll run the tests again in a while.
I didn't think I killed the bio filter, I removed it before I drained the tank.
but that does make sense that it's cycling.

On the upside I can see the back wall of the tank now, the water is clearing up.
I'm gonna guess its the UV filter working the way it should finally.

mm I've lost track of when I drained it.... it wasnt to long ago.

I just dosed the tank with stress-zyme to give the bio sponge a kick in the butt.

If the UV filter is clearing the tank now (it was really dark green when I put it in and I havent changed the water since) I'm impressed with this thing.

Ok, why would doing a 75% water change kill the bio sponge?

I thought once they were full of bacterial goodness they remained that way even if you put them in another tank of fresh water.

ya learn something every day.
lol

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

How old are you bulbs?

which bulbs?

The UV filter is brand new.
The shop light above the tanks tubes are about a year old.

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

ok today's reading is :

Nitrate = 10

Nitrite = 1.0

Ammonia = .25

 

[buddha_red]

yep thats a solid cycle underway. you will see the nitrites and ammonia spike then drop to zero. Im guessing your levels have already spiked and your almost done with the cycle.

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

Trippy.

Thanks for the input!

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

on a lark I tested the tap water.... since I have a deep well I wondered what the reading were right out of the tap.

Nitrate = 10
Nitrite = .25
ammonia = 0

That's interesting.

 

[Nyquil Junkie]

Today...
nitrate = 20
Nitrite = 1 or 2, the colors are so close and my eyes are so old.... lets say 1.5
Ammonia -.25

I took the sterilizer out of the tank, since it is no longer green, I can see the back of the tank, however the water has a light milky haze to it.

If I'm not mistaken thats a bacterial bloom in progress?
I gave the tank another dose of stress-zyme too.

The other day I ordered a bucket of Anacharis (coon tail) plants. Since the fish will end up ripping them up in time, I got alot of it and I'm going to set up a weed tank in the back room to grow the stuff in.
it will be home to one of the big goldfish, since plants need fertilizer and nothing poops like a goldfish.

The end result of the Submariner 9w UV sterilizer is...
It did exactly what it said it does. it cleared out the green from a 40 gal tank in about 4 days. I'm impressed.

It was worth $100, I'll put it back in and run it for a few days every so often to sterilize the water.

I'll give it 5 stars.

The milky water comes and goes, I'm used to that.... but that green stuff was just a nightmare.

Hopefully a mat of floating coontails will improve the water even more.
I used to have plants (water lettuce, duckweed and coontails) but the goldfish and monster pleco kept eating them so I gave up on plants.

I just made a plexiglass divider for the tank, with 1-1/2" holes in it. I placed it on one end of the tank to make a 2" wide section (in this tank thats 2"x18"x12") where i dropped some plants I picked up the other day at the fish store. I'll fill it with anacharis when it gets here and the little fish can swim in and out of that part and play in the weeds but the giant goldfish and the pleco cant get in to tear em up.

Ok, now for a question.... the nitrate and nitrite level will drop as this milky bloom progresses, right?
(or it should..... right?)