# [Wet Thumb Forum]-serious green water problem



## Amy (Mar 1, 2003)

okay i don't know what happened here! i woke up this morning to a tank of gw! the tank's only been up and running about two weeks, so i'm not too sure what's going on to create this problem. i thought it was too early to be seeing algae at all, much less an algae bloom! the tank has no direct sunlight, and the lights are on for 10 hours a day. there are no fish in the tank yet. the tank should be fully cycled in about 3 days i'm guessing, so i would like to add some fish then, but first i want to get rid of this problem. 

i'm guessing that a 3-4 day black out is in order here, but i really want to know what caused this in the first place so that i can prevent it from happening again.

tank stats:
90 gallon
pH 6.8
Kh 3
the tank is still cycling actually, so other perameters aren't steady yet.

lighting: 65 X 4 CF 
injected co2, in normal range. 
been dosing with flourish trace until i can figure out what specifically the tank needs in the way of macros, as i'm sure that they're way off at the moment.

thanks for any help!!!


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## Amy (Mar 1, 2003)

okay i don't know what happened here! i woke up this morning to a tank of gw! the tank's only been up and running about two weeks, so i'm not too sure what's going on to create this problem. i thought it was too early to be seeing algae at all, much less an algae bloom! the tank has no direct sunlight, and the lights are on for 10 hours a day. there are no fish in the tank yet. the tank should be fully cycled in about 3 days i'm guessing, so i would like to add some fish then, but first i want to get rid of this problem. 

i'm guessing that a 3-4 day black out is in order here, but i really want to know what caused this in the first place so that i can prevent it from happening again.

tank stats:
90 gallon
pH 6.8
Kh 3
the tank is still cycling actually, so other perameters aren't steady yet.

lighting: 65 X 4 CF 
injected co2, in normal range. 
been dosing with flourish trace until i can figure out what specifically the tank needs in the way of macros, as i'm sure that they're way off at the moment.

thanks for any help!!!


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## Vicki (Jan 31, 2003)

Exactly how is it cycling? Are you adding ammonia, or fishless cycling in some other way?

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## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

How much plant load do you have in the tank? And how much of that is fast growing stem plants?

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## Amy (Mar 1, 2003)

yes, i'm doing a fishlesss cycle. i'm in the middle of the nitrite spike at the moment. it's been cycling for about a week and a half at the moment.

as for plants, i've got wisteria, ludwigia, foxtail, amazon sword, brazil sword, java moss, dwarf hairgrass, pygmy chain sword, large and small vals, cort. vals, and giant sags. i think that's all of it...it's pretty heavily , and a few others that i can't remember the name of at the moment. so the tank is fairly heavily planted.


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## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

Quit placing ammonia in the tank. There is such a thing as a silent cycle that works well with planted tanks. Do some massive water changes, do a blackout and you should be good.

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## Guest (Apr 25, 2003)

Amy,

As for as your GW I would suggest one of the following in order:

- 4-5 day blockout
- Pro Clear by Kent (I'm not a fan of chemicals in tanks but I know this product worked for many people. It binds all the floating microscopic algae which then could be filter out with ease.)
- Diatom filtration

Rex also mentioned Silent Cycle. This is what I mentioned to you the other day.

Planted Tanks and the "Silent Cycle" by Jared Weinberger

Ammonia and Nitrite kits are usually useful when cycling a tank. However, if your tank is heavily planted, the chances are you won't see an ammonia or nitrite spike if you track these parameters when cycling. In fact, the only indication that your tank has cycled may be the appearance of nitrates. Even then you may not get a reading: heavily planted tanks with a light to moderate fish load often test zero nitrates, since the plants take up some of the ammonia before the bacteria convert it, plus most plant species can back-convert both nitrite and nitrate to ammonia (ammonium). If you let a large plant load get established for a week or two in your new setup, it's usually safe start to add groups of fish in weekly increments, but testing for zero ammonia and nitrite first is always a good idea. Remember to put in some fish food while your plant are getting established so they and the beneficial bacteria have some nitrogenous waste for food. In addition to planting heavily, it's wise to start out with a nice percentage of stem plants, which, growing fast, consume more nutrients (fish waste). Once your tank is well-established and in balance, you can start to replace some of the stem plants with slower-growing, rooted ones (if you like).

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## Amy (Mar 1, 2003)

thanks, i actually have stopped adding ammonia since we spoke. especially since i've been getting some odd readings the past few days, so i thought it best to leave things be for a while and see how they stabalize. 

i did a small water change yesterday, only about 10%. i guess that tonight i should do a larger one? would 50% be enough?


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## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

Since you have no fish in the system I would do a couple of back to back 90% water changes.

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## Amy (Mar 1, 2003)

i did a 50% water change last night, and this are already looking a lot better. the water isn't green anymore, it's white! i guess i'm dealing with a bacterial bloom as well. argh..


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## Chilly Fish Man (Apr 29, 2003)

What type of filter do you have on this setup? The water being white is a clear indication that your initial cause of green water is not resolved, and I anticipate that within the next day or so you will have another bloom. Please provide a bit more information about your setup and procedures followed so far and I will attempt to assist you. Water changes will NOT solve the green water problem, it will only give you a false sense of hope; during which time you should attempt to determine your root cause. What are your NH3/NH4/NO2/NO3/pH/kH/gH readings? Let's narrow it down and find that old green water culprit.
Cheers,
Torrance Haggerty[email protected]



> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Amy:
> i did a 50% water change last night, and this are already looking a lot better. the water isn't green anymore, it's white! i guess i'm dealing with a bacterial bloom as well. argh..


If I cannot change the people around me, then I will proceed to changing the people around me.


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## Guest (Apr 30, 2003)

No fish but do you have plants?
You can knock it out by the blackout method or the Daphnia method also. They love to eat Green water. 
Diatom or pleated cartiages will also do well.
You need about 5 micron sizing to remove these algae.

NH4 causes the bloom and then they hang on for dear life and you cannot get rid of them with nutrient control.

Good idea is to pack the tank from the start with plants, use only KNO3 for NO3 for the plants, never NH4. Plants will get any leftover NH4 from the fish waste. They grow fine with NO3 only.

Regards, 
Tom Barr


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