# Dry Ferts /Green water



## jtburf (Jul 23, 2008)

Hello all I need some help

I just started dosing with dry ferts 3X's a week 5 days ago, I did a 50% water change yesterday...

And since I started my water is green but not green algae...

I'm using the EI method 135 gallon tank, 2.7 watts per gallon and pressurized Co2...

Is the green tint from the ferts?? 

If so how do I both dose and not get constant green water.

Thanks.
John


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## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

Thats green water. Is the tank new? You have an imbalance of ferts. You can do a blackout, run a UV, or get a diatom filter. Small water changes will help. But dont do large ones, it just makes it worse.


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## jtburf (Jul 23, 2008)

Tank is new, (setup approx 8 weeks) green just started after I started dosing last week. Substrate is Amazonia II, Eco complete and Soil master select.

I'll do small water changes for a while until it clears up. Not looking at buying a UV or Diatom filter yet..

Thanks.
John


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## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

Id try the black out first then. With 8 week old aquasoil you shouldnt really be dosing to much of anything. Unless you used a very small amount seeing how you mixed 3 substrates. I guess you just couldnt choose!


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## jtburf (Jul 23, 2008)

bigstick120 said:


> Id try the black out first then. With 8 week old aquasoil you shouldnt really be dosing to much of anything. Unless you used a very small amount seeing how you mixed 3 substrates. I guess you just couldnt choose!


No I chose the three because I like the properties of the Amazonia II, the Eco-Complete was very nutrient rich and the Soil-Master select was used as a filler my substrate goes from 3-4" thick to almost 7" thick in the rear of the tank.

John


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## bigstick120 (Mar 8, 2005)

The eco complete actually contains very little nutrients. The Aquasoil on the other hand is loaded with the good stuff!


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## wet (Nov 24, 2008)

If you have any plants that are even a little finnicky, I suggest moving them to some sort of holding tank and doing a three day blackout (but read below). Liberally rinse and use more than one intermediary holding container to prevent spreading algae spores!

However; blackout has never worked for more than a couple days for me. The best killer (not having used diatom or uv) is by far daphnia. Plus you can culture it for food later and in case you get more gw. 

Ferts should not induce gw unless you are dosing something like NH3/4+, though I guess there could be some possibility adding inorganic N (such as from KNO3) could be prefered by your plants leaving aquasoil's organic NH3/4 available, but even as I type that out my experience and logic calls BS. You need to still identify what gave you greenwater. (dead fish/invert? Using lfs/hobbyist/any water with spores?) 

Greenwater is a bitch, but don't let it win <3


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## jtburf (Jul 23, 2008)

Wet,

No water clairty issues until I started the following dosing:

100 - 125 Gallon Aquarium 
+/- 1 1/2 tsp KN03 3x a week
+/- ½ tsp KH2P04 3x a week
+/- ½ tsp (30ml) Trace Elements 3x a week
50% weekly water change

Purchased the dry ferts from 
AquariumFertilizers.com

Thanks for the input...
John


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## jtburf (Jul 23, 2008)

bigstick120 said:


> The eco complete actually contains very little nutrients. The Aquasoil on the other hand is loaded with the good stuff!


Lets just say we are going to have a difference of opinion on this and leave it at that.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=9087

Eco-Complete Plant Substrate 
* Complete substrate for freshwater planted aquariums 
* Contains over 25 minerals to nourish aquarium plants 
* Substrate size encourages healthy plant root growth

*Eco-Complete*? 
Contains all the necessary mineral *nutrients* for luxuriant aquarium plant growth PLUS beneficial bacteria to rapidly convert fish waste into natural food for your aquatic plants.

Complete aquarium substrate for luxuriant plant growth. Contains over 25 minerals to nourish aquatic plants. Packed in Liquid Amazon buffered "Black Water" solution, Eco-Complete offers immediate organic water conditioning- No rinsing required. Includes live, Heterotrophic bacteria to convert fish waste into natural food for your plants. Both original Eco-Complete Black and Eco-Complete Red are iron rich and eliminate the need for laterite supplementation and cable heating. Floramax contains rich, natural colors so plants stand out and provides iron in planted aquariums with cable heating systems.


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## LAKA (Feb 11, 2007)

When i first set up my planted tank i also got green water 2-3 weeks later.
The tank like others said needs to be cycled in. 
What i did is reduce the light intensity. I think 2.7wpg is too high this soon
in a tank set up. I also kept up my weekly 50% water changes. Within a week 
the green water vanished. 
I didn't bother with meds or blackouts. Keep fert levels and CO2 levels up.
When the water clears, slowly increase light output.

EI is not the cause of your algae outbreak if you are dosing at the correct levels.

Also make sure you have plenty of fast growing plants.

LAKA


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## wet (Nov 24, 2008)

Like LAKA and Bigstick (and my few years experience wit a few tanks to maturity and many experimental short term tanks), I have a high degree of certainty the typical dry fertilizers you are dosing did not induce greenwater. Mind you, I am of the opinion coincidence is BS and see why you are relating the GW to dosing, I'm just saying it was coincidence and a spike in GW friendly nutrients (like Ammonia or Ammonium from a dead fish) or someone else's GW induced your GW. The tricky part about GW is single celled algae is silly adaptable and even without NH3/4+ (say from plant uptake and water changes) it will just consume something else and survive. At this point dosing hurts you but for gods sake care for your plants. Still, LAKA posts goodness and you should put much weight behind that advice.

If still skeptical, get some cups and dry dose into them, then put it out in sunlight, then put a plain water cup out there too. Decent trims of good plants says if you get no GW in the plain water sample you ain't getting it in the dosed samples either. Regardless, if you have spare Aquasoil type II, too, thats an interesting test you should post pictures of.

And continuing that tangent, please forgive my continuing the troubleshooting: In another forum (AA) someone suspected KNO3 dosing of causing his/her cloudy water. I've used KNOW from Greenlight Stump Remove, the grainy stuff Greg Watson used to sell, reagent (4 9's) stuff, 1337 dusty stuff turbomkt scored, and the small granuled stuff Rex currently sells, and just about as many K, P, and Ca sources, and TMG, Flourish Comprehensive, CSM+B, and Microplex (the green is so pretty!) over the years, and none of them cause GW. (The only fert I have used that has was agricultural grade Calcium Ammonium Nitrate.) These were pics proving this point with the stuff I currently have on hand:

http://wet.biggiantnerds.com/logs/images/stuff/kno3_po4.jpg
http://wet.biggiantnerds.com/logs/images/stuff/k.jpg
http://wet.biggiantnerds.com/logs/images/stuff/fe_tmg.jpg
http://wet.biggiantnerds.com/logs/images/stuff/csm_fe.jpg

We all really really want you to beat GW because most of us have been there. It's probably not the ferts 

I have never used Eco-Complete, but as I understand, it contains no macros and only has rich amounts of certain micros and high CEC (the ability to grab abd eventually make available to plant roots ions, for example Fe+, Ca+, etc from the water column). Bigstick is right. (From Bigstick's plants and my old days on APC, fwiw, you should listen to guys like him. No offense, just typing  )

I hope this helps. Beat it.


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

jtburf said:


> *Eco-Complete*?
> Contains all the necessary mineral *nutrients* for luxuriant aquarium plant growth ....


Does it mean we don't need fertilizers any more?


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## jtburf (Jul 23, 2008)

Edward said:


> Does it mean we don't need fertilizers any more?


Once your plants pull all the nutrients from the substrate you must replace them with ferts...

John


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