A newbie on a 2 ft tank

[ryangiggs]

To fight green water... best way is to get a UV sterilizer...

I tried a lot of methods... introducing boon... getting lots of frogbits... reducing light... major water change every 2-3 days... fight it for 3-4 weeks... dosing it with those green water treatment solutions... no signs of winning against the green water...

in the end bought a eheim uv sterilizer... it clears the water in 2-3 days...

[tetrakid]

G

try daphina or water fleas or boon to combat green water ..
they love green water...

Boons love green water but using boons to a clear a tank is not a practical solution, as one would need a high density of boons to do the work effectively, which means the fish will be adversely affected.

[j.c.koh]

@jackychun,

Ya they spreaded better than expected.

I think the water looks okay is because I did a lot of water change, so far I haven't tried 3 days 1 water change yet I don't know what will the color become..

[j.c.koh]

@ryangiggs,

I'll give it another 2 weeks before I bring in the big guns.

But the ehiem uv sterilizer that you are using really cost a bomb! I don't think I'm getting that one.. but it does look rather cool.

[j.c.koh]

@fireblade, tetrakid,

I dont think I'm going to use the daphina method,
Reason is I don't plan to have big fishes in my tank, if there's nothing to control their population I scare tank can get overun by them.

I don't know what a boon is, try to google them but can't find anything.

[aza]

@fireblade, tetrakid,

I don't know what a boon is, try to google them but can't find anything.

Boon is the local term for daphina. I hope your green water clears soon.

[simonyeeklang]

I think when you wash the stone too much you inadvertently introduced extra phosphate etc into the environment. For me just wash off the dust and soak it would do. Doing too much don't help and can be detrimental to its future

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[simonyeeklang]

The thing is this. Don't mess around especially the filter, the environment, if you can use seachem stability more. And don't obsessively clean the filter too much after establish. Don't clean the surface of the filter wall and tank let the anaerobic and aerobic bacteria alone

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[Cmlee]

So when mc grows upwards means too much light?

[Ivan Choo]

So when mc grows upwards means too much light?

The opposite. They are reaching for the lights.

[tetrakid]

The thing is this. Don't mess around especially the filter, the environment, if you can use seachem stability more. And don't obsessively clean the filter too much after establish. Don't clean the surface of the filter wall and tank let the anaerobic and aerobic bacteria alone

I agree with Shifu Simon.
I never clean any of my filters at all once they are seasoned. Bacteria take hellova long to establish, so there's no way I will eliminate them. Bacteria cling on to any surface they can find, including on the muck and detritus formed out of fish poo after their decomposition. But since too much detritus is unsightly, removal by syphoning out some is in order.

[j.c.koh]

I went over to polyart yishun to check out the pricing for a uv sterilizer yesterday. One of the uncle asked me why would I wanna use it, I told him the green water issue and he gave me some advices that are very different from what I know so far so I figure I shared it here for some opinions.

He told me without fishes in it I shouldn't on the uv for for more that a day at a time as it will kill off my plants also, he added that my tank is not yet cycled. I told him that the tank has already been cycled but he insisted that without fishes it wouldn't be a true cycle. He said to on uv for a day, off 2 days before switching on again...

his theory is algae are plants too so by harming the algae you are also harming the plants.. Can anyone confirm this? From what I understand uv should not bring harm to plants, if anything it should be the bb to worry about.

Then he recommend buying the seachem phosguard to bring down the phosphates then the green water will be gone. He said phosphates is the no.1 culprit for algae, Told me to put the whole 250ml in the filter and wait three days for the Magic to happen.

That confuses me because from every article I read, no one has ever recommend phosguard to remove green water. I thought plants needs phosphates to grow healthy too? If I remove it too much wouldn't it hurt the plants?

I end up buying the phosguard from him as its not expensive and maybe I can use a little of it or in future. I don't dare to use it now because I do not have a phosphates test kit yet and reducing phosphates without knowing the reading seems dangerous.

Can I take his advices? They all seems to contradict the things that I learned..
Phosphates is a new subject for me and I'm still learning.

[aza]

Not sure if this would help your learning:

Dennis Wong's excellent algae in planted tank video:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KDdpUe4Olcg

[aza]

He said phosphates is the no.1 culprit for algae...

I believe this has been debunked by Tom Barr with his EI method of plant fertilisation.

http://www.barrreport.com/forum/barr...-for-test-kits

More back-log reading to catch up for you. Hope these helps

[aza]

The thing is this. Don't mess around especially the filter, the environment, if you can use seachem stability more. And don't obsessively clean the filter too much after establish. Don't clean the surface of the filter wall and tank let the anaerobic and aerobic bacteria alone

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While one must not clean their filters obsessively clean, 100% sparkling clean, it is still extremely important to clean your filter.

A filter functions like any other filter, e.g. Aircon filter or air purifier filter, that is to trap impurities (particulates) from the medium the impurities resides in, i.e water in the case of our hobby.

Being lazy with filter maintenance would lead to filter inefficiency, meaning that impurities will most likely stay in your tank more, giving rise to higher DOC and nitrate levels. Additionally, it could also impede flow which, in a planted tank, is crucial since that is the only way CO2 and nutrients can be distributed to plants. This would ultimately lead to algae attacks; when plants fail, algae flourishes.

There are ways to minimise BB loss during filter maintenance: using tank water to wash the filter media or chemically treating tap water with anti-chlorine like Prime.

Personally, I conduct filter maintenance once every one or two months, depending on how much I feed my lifestock.

[ongxt]

DOC stands for?

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[aza]

DOC stands for?

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Dissolved Organic Compounds

[tetrakid]

There's so much to learn in fishkeeping that one can easily spend a whole lifetime at it and still yearn for more.

But unlike any other hobby, there are so much variables to contend with that complete mastery is elusive at best.
This being the case, it is thus not advisable for beginning hobbyists to 'jump in at the deep end' so to speak.

[aza]

There's so much to learn in fishkeeping that one can easily spend a whole lifetime at it and still yearn for more.

But unlike any other hobby, there are so much variables to contend with that complete mastery is elusive at best.
This being the case, it is thus not advisable for beginning hobbyists to 'jump in at the deep end' so to speak.

Agreed upon. I did read a lot before I started, am still doing so now. Some info hits and some misses.

I'm currently testing EI method. Spent half a year doing PMDD previously. I'm interested to see if in my tank adding phosphates causes algae because in the past, my PMDD macro solution had no phosphates.

It's good to learn more theoretically but you must also experience by applying what you think you know (or what others tell you what they think they know)

[simonyeeklang]

DOC is dissolved organic compound. I don't clean my flat unnecessarily because it have anaerobic to convert certain harmful substances to other elements

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