Green Water & Lightings

[solonavi]

Hi Guys,

Its been confirmed and proven many times that "Green Water" will haunt our tank if its exposed to sunglights. No question abt this.

However, I've been plague with this problem for the past few weeks and I'm very sure that my tank is not exposed to sunlight. Thus I did some reading on "green water" and it is always mentioned that too much lights beside sun light will cause green water. My question, how strong must be the artificial lights to be able to cause green water?

Reason for asking, my tank green water came soon after I change quite a few tubes of T5. Could this be the reason? I have actually did a black out once for 4 days and the water did clear up. But 2-3 days later, the green water made a comeback.

Any opinions?
Thanks
JC

[PeterGwee]

Urea/Ammonia are the main causes of greenwater. You are either having an under filtered tank and/or poor plant growth/plant mass/overstocked tank. You can get some source of ammonia and try in a small glass of water exposed to light.

A UV light is the most easiest method to kill off the greenwater. You need to look at your tank and correct the conditions or else it will just keep coming back.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[bclee]

As Peter mentioned, ammonia is the trigger for GW. The key to have good plant mass. I have my non-CO2 tank next to the window and have never gotten GW.

BC

[solonavi]

Thanks. I also read that ammonia is a key to green water. Interesting, I cannot figure where the ammonia came from. I've since dumped in 3kg of biohome.....

JC