# Green Water issue!



## Msapp1 (Feb 11, 2010)

Since the beginning of february i've been noticing my water getting green, this week it turned into mountain dew, and i can barely see 6 inches into my tank. I have set up pressurized CO2 with 30 to 40 bubbles a minute, reduced my light period to only 5 hours, and am feeding the fish basically nothing. The water is not improving at all. 

I've heard about the black out method but i'm a little unsure how to do it and tips. Does it kill new plants?

Any idea/advice? Or even stories/tales of how you got rid of your unsightly water.


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## Glaucus (Oct 11, 2009)

Having green water for more than a month is more detrimental to your plants than a tank black out for a few days. Anyway I had a green water issue a couple of months ago. I got rid of it by doing a couple of massive water changes over the course of a few weeks together with the introduction of floating plants (duckweed and some other species). Then gradually the water cleared.


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## bosmahe1 (May 14, 2005)

Green water is usually triggered by ammonia. Sometimes I get it if I uproot to many plants without doing a 50 % water change. Anyway, you might try floating hornwort on the surface. It will suck up the ammonia and nitrates very quickly. Hornwort can grow an inch a day on the surface.


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## Msapp1 (Feb 11, 2010)

bosmahe1 said:


> Green water is usually triggered by ammonia. Sometimes I get it if I uproot to many plants without doing a 50 % water change. Anyway, you might try floating hornwort on the surface. It will suck up the ammonia and nitrates very quickly. Hornwort can grow an inch a day on the surface.


Does anyone want to send me some hornwort for free?


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## Tuiflies (Jan 21, 2010)

I fixed my GW by doing a 60% WC, a 4 day black-out then another 60% WC. I find adding water sprite helps a lot as well (more so than hornwort).


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## boink (Nov 29, 2006)

Several water changes over the course of the week will help as will the floaters such as duckweed, frogbit, etc.


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## dirtyted (Mar 5, 2010)

I recently had a green water issue. I believe it to come from an imbalance of nutrients in the tank. From my understanding if you have enough plants with the right nutrients they will outcompete the algae. It seems to me though once you have the green water how do your plants outcompete the algae for light? What I ended up doing was getting a couple of test kits for PO4 and iron (I know some will say they are completely inaccurate) I purchased seachem products iron, trace, potassium, and phosphate to achieve a better balance of fertilizer. I however was still left with the green water blocking the light. Water changes did nothing. As soon as i would change the water 12 hours later green again. I only have a 30 gallon tank so I grabbed a cheap uv sterilizer for $70. 28 hours later and two 30% water changes it was gone never to come back. I removed the uv steriler and with a regiment of balanced ferts so far so good.


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