# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Tips to Prevent Green Water + Such



## Revelation_04 (Feb 8, 2003)

I've been battling with green water for quite some time. I've read all the green water posts and tried the suggested tactics, but they haven't worked for me. I covered my tank for 5 days and the water still had some green water probs. The water is somewhat clear for a while and then it starts to go more and more green. The plants grow pretty good after the water changes, but pretty much stop once the Gw takes over. I'm pretty sure I need to add more plants to help combat the algae. I guess I also have a little bit of a problem with a long, stringy green algae(don't know the term). 

Right now I'm running 2 55 watt AH Pc's over this 29 gallon tank. I've got presurized CO2 injection going also and have no shortage of it. My KH is like 5 and my gh is about 6 with a pH of about 7. Other than that I don't know much about my water. I've been dosing with Leaf Zone,TMG,and some Flourish products. I really don't think I've been using enough of them. 
My main question is when to add the nutrients after a water change. Should I dose them heavily after a water change, or wait a while and then dose them. I'm kind of new to the whole higher light planting so I really don't know the amount of nutrients to dose. I could really use some suggestions. I'm also wondering if I should reduce my lighting to just one 55 watt for a while until the plants start growing better. 
I hope I made at least a little sense. Thanks

Myles


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## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

Are you sure no room light was getting in your tank when you did the black out?
Do you have any jobes/plant spikes in the gravel?
You are a little on the low side for CO2!
I would reduce the light to 55watts until you get the tank under control.


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## Revelation_04 (Feb 8, 2003)

Yes, I'm sure I blacked it out. I put towels,a quilt and an army blanket over it. NO, I don't have any plant spikes in the gravel. The stats I gave on my tank were out of the tap, not with the CO2. I haven't taken the time to test the CO2 concentration. I'm sure the Co2 concentration is fine. I'm gonna get some more plants, black out and water change and then hope for the best. If that doesn't work, I'll reduce the lights. Should I dose right after the water change, or wait a little while and then dose the fertilizer? 

Thanks,
Myles


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## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

It would really help if you post your tank water column parameters!! NH4, NO2, NO3, PO4, GH, KH, PH... are you adding traces, potassium and Iron?

The more you tell, the better the help!

Yes dose after WC!


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## Revelation_04 (Feb 8, 2003)

I'm not sure on my water parameters. I haven't checked them in a long time. I'll probably check them tomorrow. I've been dosing after my water changes, but I read somwhere to not dose after a water change and see if that helped with the algae, but I'm betting that was in reference to normal algae and not GW. I hope to get this mess figured out sometime soon.

Myles


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## chbak014 (Feb 3, 2003)

okay ekim, 
this question is for you. aiight, i just did the 3 day black out. did another fat water change. there is still a little green tinge. i am afraid this stuff is going to come back! what should i do now? after i did the water change i have the CO2 running and that is it. i haven't dosed yet. i was going to start dosing tomororw. right now, the water parameters is this:
GH 6
pH 6.5
KH 6
Nitrate is 3 ppm
phosphorus is 1 ppm
nitrite 0
ammonia 0
2o gallon so, 2.75 w/g
if need more info click on my link.
-charley

http://www.geocities.com/charleybak/aquarium.index.html

http://www.pbase.com/chbak014


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## Jim Miller (Feb 3, 2003)

You've got 110W over 29 gallons or over 3W/Gal. Do you really need that much light? Why not drop back to a single 55w and get the tank stable first?

jtm

Tank specs in profile


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## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by chbak014:
> okay ekim,
> ...


http://www.pbase.com/chbak014
[/QUOTE]

If you see a green tinge it probably didn't work!
Are you sure no light got in the tank? 
I heard/read you got ammano shrimp less than 48 hours ago!!

Anyway, add another 3ppm of N and 20ppm of K and traces/iron. 
We'll see what happens, you might have to try it again if it comes back!

Oh ya, check your test kits.... your fish would be dead if those numbers were right! 58ppm of CO2!


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## chbak014 (Feb 3, 2003)

whoops the KH is 4 and the pH is 6.7 = good co2 levels.
-charley

http://www.geocities.com/charleybak/aquarium.index.html

http://www.pbase.com/chbak014


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## wetmanNY (Feb 1, 2003)

Do you have access to a densely planted tank with crystal clear water that hasn't been medicated in the last three to six months?

Would you be permitted to siphon out a gallon or two of water and detritus?

Would you consider adding this "dirt" and these "nasties" to your system?

...because a founder population of algae-grazing zooplankton would set you on the road to recovery.


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## chbak014 (Feb 3, 2003)

i've heard people putting daphnia in a bag and letting them sit in the tank. i hear that they eat the algae. and when the algae is gone, you can just take out the bagg and voila some fish food with clear water!
any comments on this?
=charley

http://www.geocities.com/charleybak/aquarium.index.html

http://www.pbase.com/chbak014


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## Revelation_04 (Feb 8, 2003)

I finally got my water checked. The CO2 levels are good with a PH of 6.7-6.8 and a KH of 4. I just got some more fast growing algae busters to add to the tank. I'm hoping I'll get rid of this green water real soon. 

Thanks,
Myles


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## ekim (Jan 31, 2004)

Rev, you won't be able to out-grow the green water IMO!
You need to remove it or kill it!


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## Revelation_04 (Feb 8, 2003)

I did a big water change when I added my plants so I hope that will put an end to it. The water has been clear for 3 days and I hope it stays that way. If not, I'll do another black out and big water changes.

Thanks,
Myles


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## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by Revelation_04:
> I'm not sure on my water parameters. I haven't checked them in a long time. I'll probably check them tomorrow.
> ...


 And you wonder why you have GW??? Your macros could be way out of whack.

Moderator










American by birth, Marine by the grace of God! This post spell checked with IESpell available at http://www.iespell.com

See my Profile for tank details.


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## Revelation_04 (Feb 8, 2003)

I'm pretty sure that my macros are way out of wack, and I'm sure that that is part of my problem. I'm trying to figure out how much of everything I need, but I'm new at this fertilizer stuff. I'll probably get it figured out sooner or later.


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## Chilly Fish Man (Apr 29, 2003)

Revelation_04,
I am new to this forum, and just wanted to comment on your situation here just in case you GW returned. I recently defeated the GW demons using some conventional and not so conventional ways. First, water changes will not end the GW saga because the algal cells are still existent in the aquarium. You have to get to the root-cause of the GW, and this can only be done if you keep the water clear long enough to deal with it. I noticed that with my parameters that my NO3 was not recording accurately; though it was giving me low readings (what test kit were you using? If it was Red Sea of AP, did you use the Advanced Test?), I later found my NO3 to be b/w 20-50ppm. To solve the problem of GW, these are the steps that I took:
1. Added NitrZorb to absorb the access nitrates in the water (also inhibited the nitrites.
2. Added a moderate amount of carbon pellets to the Eheim 2028 (remove this after a few days or it will diminish the effect of your fertilizing)
3. If your fish are not overly stressed and your plants are not shocking, make ~ 70% water change.
4. Borrow or purchase a Vortex Diatom filter (D-1 or XL) and get some of the Diatomaceous Earth to strip the water.
5. Depending on the size of the tank, the water should be clear in a matter of hours. It took my 150 two treatments (8 hours charges) to get water clear enough to walk through.

This is just my $0.02. This is not the cure of GW, it cleans up the water so that you can deal with the real nutrient deficiencies that are in your water.
Sorry for the long post.

Torrance Haggerty[email protected]



> quote:
> 
> Originally posted by ekim:
> Rev, you won't be able to out-grow the green water IMO!
> You need to remove it or kill it!


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


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## otherguy (Feb 2, 2003)

Rev, you could try a uv sterlizer or diatom filter to get rid of your greenwater. But to keep it away you need to figure out what is out of whack with your ferts. Just my 2 cents, goodluck.

Brandon

75gallon tank, wetdry filter, pressurized co2 with controller, uv, flourite substrate, 220watts lighting


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## Homestar (Apr 16, 2003)

I finally got my water checked. 

Does this mean that you are not able to check these parameters yourself? If so, for your own sake, buy some test kits!
Good Luck!

Chris from Baltimore


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## Becky Yashin (Oct 30, 2003)

Alright, I'm brand spanking new to this site, as I am an Aquaria Central loyalist







Anyway, I have some pretty bad soupy green water. I have a 10 gallon with 2 watts per gallon of lighting. My micro-fauna is way out of whack because the fry are munching on it! I can't do a black out because then the fish will not eat and they are still fry. I have about 80 zebra danio fry in that tank. I tried water changes and it did not work at all. Right now I have just caught back the amount of lighting time from 14 hours to 4-6 hours. I don't have any plants in the tank, no ferts, no CO2 added. I have two filters on the tank and the temp is 77F, pH 7.6, amonia 0. I don't have a KH or GH test kit or nitrites and nitrates kit, so I can't tell you that. Plz help!!!


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## imported_Svennovitch (Feb 1, 2003)

Hi Becky,

I always heard GW was a good thing when you have fry swimming around. Plenty of food for them.

Maybe you should wait until the fish are grown up enough before starting to black out and other stuff.

Sven


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## Freemann (Mar 19, 2004)

> quote:
> 
> Do you have access to a densely planted tank with crystal clear water that hasn't been medicated in the last three to six months?
> 
> ...


Loved this one.


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## feefeefish (Apr 5, 2004)

chbak, I personally have had GREAT success with daphnia for green water! I bought "Daphnia magna" (they are the biggest, about 1/4" size) and put a breeder cage in my tank and added the daphnia(about 400 I was told by the seller...I didn't count 'em!







About a tablespoonful of them).

In my pea-green water in the 10 gallon, the water was crystal clear in 16 hrs! Maybe before that, but I had gone to bed for the night. I was AMAZED!

I kept the breeder cage in the tank for 3 days just to be sure, and each day the fishies had a bunch of daphnia to hunt and eat because these things breed like CRAZY, so I would just put a spoonful into the tank! Eventually, though, they started to starve because they had eaten all the green water, so I just sank the cage and let the fish finish them off. Best $17 I ever spent! ($5 for the daphnia, $6 to ship, $6 for the breeder cage at Petco))

Actualy, if i had known they were so efficient, I would have cultured some green water in a bucket to keep some alive...who would have thought one would want more green water!









I will try to post pics...
pea soup

16 hrs after daphnia (see white breeder cage on left)

Oh, and we determined that a water conditioner I was using was causing the green water. I can't remember the name of it, but it claimed to get rid of chlorine/chloramine and also provide a slime coat for the fish. It had herbal extracts in it. I have had no problems with green water since using the daphnia and getting rid of the conditioner...


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## Josh Simonson (Feb 4, 2004)

Hmm, some green water just attacked me and I did just get a new bottle of different tap water conditioner. I also added an xp3 filter which dramatically increased the churn in my tank. I do have a tank w/ lots of daphnia,and seeded a few in, but the xp3 may have ground them up. I'll try stopping the xp3, seeding much more daphnia and see if that works.

We also had a heat wave about when the green water occured. Inside the house it was over 80 and the tank was 84' for a few days. It's 82 and steadilly dropping now, but there's not much I can do about that. Before it was 76.

1 week update:
I don't think any daphnia survived, the tank they're in has a ph of 12 and the tank with the GW has ph 4. The shock probably killed them as I've not seen a single daphnia in that tank. However, the green water is almost gone now. I didn't do anything except keep dosing ferts like usual and wait it out. The temp has also come down some so we're down to 78' now. Amazingly some of the plants put out an unprecidented growth spurt during the GW. Other plants languished and suffered from rotted stems, probably due to not enough light.

It seems with with GW, as with most other kinds of algae, the best thing to do is not to do anything if it's occuring in an established tank. Keep up the maintenence as usual and it'll go away on it's own. The GW was probably caused by a meltdown of a. gracilis and hydrocotle, for reasons unknown, that I imagine spiked the ammonia. The remaining a. gracillis has grown several nodes during the GW, so I think it'll pull through. Once I can see well I'll have alot of aquascaping to do to get everything shipshape again.


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## Ben C (Apr 16, 2006)

stop adding ferts! just by reading this, its sounds like you are fertilizing way too often. Green water will seize upon that. You mentioned "dosing heavily" after a water change. This scares the hell out of me, having torn down a tank overcome with GW just last month. 
Reading your posts, its seems that dosing ferts is the only thing that you haven't changed. You might find that there are enough nutrients in your tap water to sustain your plants for a while after a change. 
try reducing (or even stopping) fertilizing for a while, and see if that has any effect. 
Afterall, slow growing plants has got to be better than fast growing algae!!


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## clay (Jul 3, 2004)

i think ben c raises a good point. slow it down, then start small and work your way up from there as far as dosing ferts into you tank. i use a system of dosing certain macros/micros each day during a week. switching between two combinations each day. i never do a huge dosing anytime! this way i may not be overdoing anything. i also do water changes about every 4-5 days to take out any left over nutrients.

i too battled gw, but i think it all comes down to watching what goes in and how much. algae is like cockroaches. you cannot kill them all, but try to manage what you've got.

so take a look at where certain nutrients are coming from. you probably have phosphates from the food you are feeding the fish and small amounts of nitrates from the waste (doubt you have high nitrates b/c you would have sick fish). have your nitrates and phosphates checked and try to keep the nitrates around 5 ppm and the phosphates to under 1ppm. and dose as much potassium as you can.

and last but not least, contact your local water dept and ask them to send you a breakdown of what is in the local water if you are using tap. that way, you are not overdoing anything.

jmho









and good luck!


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## Pat Bowerman (Mar 18, 2004)

IMO, it's harder to get rid of green water once you've got it than it is to prevent it. Here's what works for me, First,I do a large water change (60-80%). Right away, that gets rid of a lot of the problem. Then, I put the diatom filter in the H.O.T. Magnum and add a teaspoonful of diatomaceous earth. Let that run for 24 hours and then repeat the water change if it's still not clear. IME, this has worked every time.

So, what caused the outbreak, and what stops it from coming back? From past experience, too many nutrients combined with too much light is a great recipe for green water. Be especially careful about anything that might contain urea or ammonia. (i.e.-Jobe's Spikes, Miracle Grow, or most other terrestrial fertilizers) If you're going to put that much light above your tank, you'd better have it heavily planted and maintain a well disciplined fertilizer regimine. Will it come back? Maybe, and maybe not. If you'll do the large water changes that I recommended, that should effectively "reset" the nutrients in your tank. What you do from that point forward will determine whether the "green fog" returns.


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