Please help with Green Water!

[harvey]

guys pls help me my newly setup planted tank gets green water right away i just change it last 3days ago now its green again.. Wel semi green not that much.. and i just suspected small white worms in the glass of the aquarium, very small like as big as an ant!.. there alot of them just sticking in the wall. help! i dont even have fishes inside! but i saw some baby snails. there was a spiral shell and there was a elongated shell... i need ur advices pls help me!

[jason6142004]

green water = nutrient overload. > just keep doing water change. i personally use a product to clump all the floating algae and my otos enjoy them.

[harvey]

whats an otos sir? sorri for my ingnorance am really still new.. how can i make the tank balanced again? how can i get rid of the worms

[Aquaculture]

Oto is the short form of Otocinclus, one of the friendliest pleco. Great for algae control and highly advisable to have a couple as your cleaning crew.

Green water is usually caused by too much light, usually direct uncontrollable sunlight is the culprit. If you're practicing EI method, you don't really have to worry about dosing too much as its being reset when you do wc. You may rid of green water by reducing the amount of light or via usage of a UV.

[meerkat]

Oto (Scientific Name: Otocinclus affinis) fish is a type of peaceful vegetarian catfish that eats algae. A good addition to any new aquarium.

As to the worms, do not worry as they are mainly harmless. If you are going to keep fishes later, these worms and other parasites will end up as their food

Snails will always be a problem, especially if you have new plants.Just remember to " sterilise" any new plants next time before you plant them into your tank. One way is to prepare a solution of bleach/water of about 10/90 proportion and soak the plants in there for at most 10mins. Then thoroughly wash the plants with water and soak them in plain water for about 30mins before introducing them in the tank.

For your existing snail problem, there are a few ways to get rid of them:

(i) Manual

Just use your hands to catch them. You can then either throw them away or squashed them against the tank wall.

(ii) Organic

Introduce clown loaches (Scientific Name: Chromobotia macracanthus) that specialises as a hunter-killer of snails.

(iii) Chemical

Since yours is a new tank, you can try this method as there are many chemical solution available in your LFS that kills snails.

Option (iii) is usually not preferred as chemicals and plants/fishes/shrimps do not mix well and even if you do many WC, the residue of the chemical might still be in the substrate and cause some adverse effect on the inhabitants.

[benny]

Hello Harvey,

Please spell properly in our forums. We don't appreciate SMS type of abbreviation in the posts/threads.

Cheers,

[harvey]

Hello Harvey,

Please spell properly in our forums. We don't appreciate SMS type of abbreviation in the posts/threads.

Cheers,

sorry.. ben! am still new here it wont happen again thanks so much! for the welcome!

[harvey]

Oto is the short form of Otocinclus, one of the friendliest pleco. Great for algae control and highly advisable to have a couple as your cleaning crew.

Green water is usually caused by too much light, usually direct uncontrollable sunlight is the culprit. If you're practicing EI method, you don't really have to worry about dosing too much as its being reset when you do wc. You may rid of green water by reducing the amount of light or via usage of a UV.

thanks sir! i just installed a uv light in the filter i hope it works ...! thanks for the help il get an otto too! i was really scared about the worms

[harvey]

Oto (Scientific Name: Otocinclus affinis) fish is a type of peaceful vegetarian catfish that eats algae. A good addition to any new aquarium.

As to the worms, do not worry as they are mainly harmless. If you are going to keep fishes later, these worms and other parasites will end up as their food

Snails will always be a problem, especially if you have new plants.Just remember to " sterilise" any new plants next time before you plant them into your tank. One way is to prepare a solution of bleach/water of about 10/90 proportion and soak the plants in there for at most 10mins. Then thoroughly wash the plants with water and soak them in plain water for about 30mins before introducing them in the tank.

For your existing snail problem, there are a few ways to get rid of them:

(i) Manual

Just use your hands to catch them. You can then either throw them away or squashed them against the tank wall.

(ii) Organic

Introduce clown loaches (Scientific Name: Chromobotia macracanthus) that specialises as a hunter-killer of snails.

(iii) Chemical

Since yours is a new tank, you can try this method as there are many chemical solution available in your LFS that kills snails.

Option (iii) is usually not preferred as chemicals and plants/fishes/shrimps do not mix well and even if you do many WC, the residue of the chemical might still be in the substrate and cause some adverse effect on the inhabitants.

thanks so much! when you say 10/90 is it like 140ml of water then 10ml of bleech is that the right ratio sir! am so sorry.. thanks for the advice il do that. in terms of the light am using 2 36watts lights with reflectors on them.. should i get one out sir?

[harvey]

Sir if you get a loach dont they destroy your plants too?

[soulfinder78]

A blackout works wonder... Just cover your tank with paper to prevent any lights from getting in. off all CO2 and lights. wait for 3 days. Your water should be back to normal. But this will not cure your problem entirely. you will still need to find out what's the culprit.

[meerkat]

thanks so much! when u say 10/90 is it like 140ml of water then 10ml of bleech is that the right ratio sir! am so sorry.. thanks for the advice il do that. in terms of the light am using 2 36watts lights with reflectors on them.. should i get one out sir?

It's the ratio e.g. 10ml of bleach to 90ml of water.

As to the 2x36w of lights, it depends on your tank size. Generally it's 2W/gallon for moderately planted tanks. So if your tank capacity is 36 gallons or less, it is ok. If your tank size is much less, then it may be a blessing for you as you can attempt to grow high-light requirement plant like Japanese Hairgrass .

The total photo period is also very important. This refers to the period you subject your plants to. Generally it's ok to allow 6 to 10hrs of light to your plants.

Some, like myself, allowed a "siesta" period. This helps to delay/prevent the growth of the algae which is a primitive plant that needs plenty of light to thrive. For example, my photo period is controlled by a timer and the lights are on from 7am to 12pm with a 5 hrs "siesta" period (lights off) from 12pm to 5pm, then lights on again from 5pm to 10pm.

Actually the light requirements for a aquarium is a science itself as there are other factors like light intensity, spectrums and others. You can Google and find out more

[meerkat]

Sir if you get a loach dont they destroy your plants too?

Do they eat plants? Not sure but they are reputedly excellent snail busters.

Some also enage the help of freshwater puffer fishes but you have to be careful with this fish as they will attack other inhibitants like fishes/shrimps after they wipe out the snails

[Aquaculture]

Loach aren't herbivore but being scavengers, they tend to uproot plants while going about their business.

[harvey]

It's the ratio e.g. 10ml of bleach to 90ml of water.

As to the 2x36w of lights, it depends on your tank size. Generally it's 2W/gallon for moderately planted tanks. So if your tank capacity is 36 gallons or less, it is ok. If your tank size is much less, then it may be a blessing for you as you can attempt to grow high-light requirement plant like Japanese Hairgrass .

The total photo period is also very important. This refers to the period you subject your plants to. Generally it's ok to allow 6 to 10hrs of light to your plants.

Some, like myself, allowed a "siesta" period. This helps to delay/prevent the growth of the algae which is a primitive plant that needs plenty of light to thrive. For example, my photo period is controlled by a timer and the lights are on from 7am to 12pm with a 5 hrs "siesta" period (lights off) from 12pm to 5pm, then lights on again from 5pm to 10pm.

Actually the light requirements for a aquarium is a science itself as there are other factors like light intensity, spectrums and others. You can Google and find out more

thanks so much sir!! some of my plants are not so doing so good there slowly changing color but some are fine like some HC are turn ito green instead of yellow green.. is this ok sir?

[harvey]

Loach aren't herbivore but being scavengers, they tend to uproot plants while going about their business.

so what should we do about the snail manual ?? hehe

[harvey]

A blackout works wonder... Just cover your tank with paper to prevent any lights from getting in. off all CO2 and lights. wait for 3 days. Your water should be back to normal. But this will not cure your problem entirely. you will still need to find out what's the culprit.

sir now its clear already because of the uv light i think! its now oki but my other prob is the plants some of them are turning green instead of yellow