I having green water for few months and till now I really don't know what's going on. I had no problem controlling algaes in my previous 2ft and 3 ft tank. So I upgrade to 5ft tank.
My setup as follow
5ft tank is 150cm * 60cm * 60 cm.
Black quartz gravel with root monsters
T5 80W * 2 for 6 hours
Professional II with biohome.
Plants
Frogbit, water lettus, Glosso and HC.
PH 6 APA test kit
KH 1 APA test kit
I dose KNO3 and kH2PO4 accordingly
What happen?
My experience is green water due to too much lights and/or nutrients and/or excess ammonia or incapable filtration. Try this:
1. Change water 50%
2. Ensure your filtration is good (are you using just ONE proII - not enough for 5ft)
3. Reduce lights if neccessary to 2w/g
4. Stop all fertilisers usage for the moment
5. Check for dead fishes/shrimps, plants
6. Alternatively get a UV steriliser (remove only symptoms)
7. You can try algone or those ammonia remover
You did not mentioned how old is your tank or how heavily your tank is planted and how much fauna is housed so I am suggesting these based on a seasoned heavily planted tank with acceptable level of faunas.Originally Posted by blurrblurr
While I do suspect that the main cause of green water is indeed excess lights, I do not recommend you to stop your fertilization. Move your lights higher and increase your fertilization and CO2 instead. Using UVC will address your concern in a few days but unless you are running it permanently, the green water will be back. You might want to increase the lighting period to 8-10 hrs as well. Watch your ambient lights too.
PS: I noticed you are not doing additional potassium?
If I get it correctly, the lights is merely 1+w/g, thus this should not be the case of excess lights, right?
If you are referring to my reply, I am not a firm believer of "3 WPG rules"
Yes, 3 WPG is just a guide and not a rule. Personally I do find that small tank will need more than 3 WPG and big tank requires much lesser than 3 WPG. In this case, with merely 1+ WPG, the cause is likely to be caused by the dosing of KNO3 and KH2PO4. Well, I may be wrong.
Probably, I ain't any scientist/researcher myself either. I noticed he did not dose potassium. I am sure the pathetic bit in KNO3 and KH2PO4 not sufficient. Could that have slowed down the nutrients intake of the plants causing the green water to take over the tank?
The fish load might be high and filter not matured yet to handle the high ammonia or there might be high nitrate already. Thus, no need to add nitrate and phosphate yet. so, I recommend to stop fertilser first. Reset the tank to basic and then slowly start fertiliser when green water cleared. This is what I did when I have green water, hair algae and BBA outbreak. Additionally I dose ADA phyton grit.
You are right with the potassium. It is just that my guess is the lacking of lights that is slowing down the nutrients intake while your guess is lack of potassium.
theres actually a product i bought from polyart. its a blue box and it reads green away.. i was also having problems with green water.. its not bad. i did 2 dosages for 2 days and the water is clear until now. please follow the intructions if you ever buy the product. must mix the product with warm water then pour into the tank.
not trying to push the product but it worked for me..
I have consider the factor that causes green water you guys mention.
My lighting if base on calculation is lesser than 2WPG so light shall not be the cause
My Glosso and HC are not heavily planted as this is a 3mth old tank. I had lots of water lettus and frogbit. They shall suck in all nitrate. or any excess nutrients. recently I realise that they are getting lesser. I do not know why.
My filtration how do you define good filtration? My bottom filter tray is sponge while the top layer with old ceremic,my old ehim sustrate and bio home. I had 300g of biohome according to specs 1kg for 3000l of water. I actually put in more as being kiasu. To improve water circulation and filtration I add in auqabee external pump.
For ammonia level I do not use any tester but live fish/shrimp as my tester. I had only three plati and a yamato swiming around ever since I bought them.
I would like to find out the cause for green water for my tank rather than adding or using any think to clear green water away.
There is a week I try not dosing anything after I do 50% water change. green water still happen. And best thing, Green water happens when the light on on the 3rd hours and after ligh turn off for 10 hours, water is not that green anymore.
Care to share what is the dosage of KNO3 and KH2PO4? Also, how is your glosso doing? spreading nicely or growing upwards?
Some explanation in here regarding green water.
http://www.algone.com/greenwater.php
God will make a way, where there seems to be no way
There were mentions about balance system and so I've decided to achieve that. I do have green cloudy water in my planted tank. Initially I did not supply any liquid fertilizers nor CO2. Did quite massive regular water changes but the green water still persist.
In the algone article, the folks have mention about lesser water change and a balanced system. So then I started dosing liquid fertilizer and CO2 gas and water change restricted to just once a week. And true enough, my tank started clearing up. By the way, mine is a 2ft tank with 24W X 2 T5 light. Bioload is only a pair of fish. These are just my experience to share.
Good luck those battling green water.
God will make a way, where there seems to be no way
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