# green water wont leave my tank



## freshreef (May 14, 2004)

Its a 3weeks old 30L tank with hamiantus calitrichoides foreground and stem plants on the back and about 15 small fish among them only 6-7 oto's no other cleaners. 
since day 4-5 i have this nightmare. it wont leave me even after 40-50% w/c every other day and 3 days dark period. 
cant use UV light there as it is too small. 
is there any other solution, maybe chemicals ?

no3 - 10
ph - 6.4
co2 every 1 sec 
amano aquasoil and 18w sylvania gro-lux+18w philips aquarelle


----------



## pineapple (May 4, 2004)

Have you tried:

- aeration during lights out
- cleaning the filter

Andrew Cribb


----------



## freshreef (May 14, 2004)

nop! 
ill give it a try - why aeration during lights out could help?

by the way it a "water fall" kind filter - dont know its name but it hangs on the side glass , sucking water from the tank to its body and they are falling back to the tank.


----------



## freshreef (May 14, 2004)

this is the filter in my tank


----------



## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

You are not going to "water change" it out.
There are about 6 methods to deal with green water.

Blackout, I really don't find this particularly effective, often comes back later. 5 days, often makes foreground plants leggy.

Daphnia, might work in your case.

Add some mulm from the start, you'll never have GW, don't add NH4 or do fish less cycling.

UV(they make small ones and a small power head is all you need to run it).

Diatom filters are too large, but a small 9 3/4" caritage filters work, they have 1 and 5 micron pleated caritages that will work.
Hagen quik filters are also 5 microns.

Copper kills it but need to be careful not to overdose to kill plants.
You can remove the plants/fish/mulm, then bomb the tank, rinse the plants 3-4 x with tap, then return to the tank. H2O2 can be used also etc.

GW will be gone once you kill/remove it, make sure the CO2 is good, plant health etc, don't starve your plants in effort to kill GW.
Never works and only causes reoccurances(from stunted plants).

New tanks get it becuase of high light, NH4 and non cycled tank, or NH4 dosing from fishless cycling. Adding mulm from the intial set up, less light etc works well.

I've never had GW form without dosing NH4. 

Regards, 
Tom Barr


----------



## freshreef (May 14, 2004)

thanks tom 
from all the above i can only try copper or h2os - dont have diatom (realy expensive here in israel), my UV is too big and ive tried to darken the tank. could u give me dosage and tips how to kill it with h2o2 in a small tank"? 
in case nothing is working - how do i start all over with out getting it again? how do i clean the substrate (aquasoil) ? should i recycle it again?


----------



## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

You can bomb the tank, but you need to remove the critters/plants to another holding place.

H2O2 will work.

100-200mls per 10 gal should do it for a day or so.
Clean the plants well before returning, dip the fish etc in salt bath (2 tablespoon per gal etc).

You can check around for different dosings.
Most levels are not written in stone nor precise.

But a close level should work.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


----------



## freshreef (May 14, 2004)

ok problem solved - yesterday i could see the fish and now i can c my downey growing slowly... just had to b patience and 50% W/C every other day + a few drops of ferts + K from kcl on a daily basis. full of fast growing plants+floating plants (riccia+duckweed and more) . the plants looks a bit weak but they will survive.
not sure if it had any efffect but i dosed a few drops of h2o2 in the last few days with every w/c


----------



## freshreef (May 14, 2004)

here are a few pics before n after the gw:

before


















after

















sorry dont have a full pic of the tank


----------



## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

You may still have it.
See if you can fine hagen quick filters, they are 5 microns which should be close enough to remove it if you remove the filter crefully.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


----------



## freshreef (May 14, 2004)

hi tom, what do u mean? 
if i dont c it at the moment and the water look clear - why should i care ? 
im sure i have a few other kinds of algae . if they dont bother the plants (look and growth) and if i dont c them - i dont care they are still in the tank.


----------



## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

If it stays clear for the next week afterwards, you have it licked.
The photo's look a tad fuzzy, might be the camera or the images etc.
Regards, 
Tom Barr


----------



## freshreef (May 14, 2004)

u r right, but a day or two after the water was crystal clear.
well not crystal due to the aquasoil, but clear


----------

