Reply With QuoteIs your tank near your window that have direct sunlight shining on through it and onto your tank?
No CO2 kit? Only using excel dosing?
How long is your lighting period?
Hello friends.
Recently i've gotten a new 2 ft tank (17 gallon ) tank. I used aqua gro substrate (plant type) and planted some plants ( do not know the names though but im sure of dwarf sagittaria and dwarf hairgrass. ) Im using an up aqua led light but the cheap $20 one from seaview and im dosing excel everyday. My plants seem to be growing well BUT my water is really green. How do i deal with it? The only fertiliser i dose is dymax's flora plus once every week. There is livestock in there too. What should i do.
Is your tank near your window that have direct sunlight shining on through it and onto your tank?
No CO2 kit? Only using excel dosing?
How long is your lighting period?
The tank near the window but it's like under the window grill so quite little direct sunlight. No CO2 too expensive for me. Lighting is 6 am - 12 am. Too long le?
Wow... 6am - 12am... 18 Hours of lighting...
Normally i would do a 6 hours lighting period, only because my plants mass now are still low. 18 hours is definitely too long.
If you want to clear up green water for now, you need to do a blackout for your tank for 3 days first, cover with paper or black cloth, do not allow any light on your tank.
Your plants will suffer but it's a faster method.
After blackout period, do a water change of 50% and then cut down on your lighting period to 4~6 hours. Slowly increase your lighting period when your plants mass increase. But i think max 8~10 hours.
Just my 2 cents worth of advice. You can google in the net to find out more on how to get rid of green water.
How do you remember to maintain 4 hours to 6 hours of lghts though? A timer is it?
Get an analog timer and set the lighting hours to be anywhere around 6-8 hours of straight lighting. From the looks of it, your tank seems to be on the low tech side, with a sparely planted tank. Too long lighting wont be beneficial for the plants and fishes, algae will love it thoughOriginally Posted by Notanymoreee
Advice from boss Felix
There's alot of plants in it HAHA but damn that green water. Do you think any plants will just die and be unrecoverable?
The hairgrass might suffer abit i suppose but the dwarf sag should do fine.
You can intro daphnia into it or block lights out completely from the tank to remove the green water.
Advice from boss Felix
Hmm. Would a 75% water change do cause my dad's like damn bloody stubborn and dont want let me do the blackout..
Can be done as a temporary measure but you would still need to monitor just incase if the green water might come back
Advice from boss Felix
Okay! By the way. How to use timer uh. I just set 6 hours then it will 6 hours on then 6 hours off then 6 on again is it?
the timer, for example when you set 6 hours = the lightset will switch on for 6 hours, remain off for the rest of 18 hours. Cycle repeats.
Advice from boss Felix
Ohhh! So most of you people on the lights for 6-8 hours per day only?
Yeah, most people only on their aquarium lights for between 6-8 hours a day (at most up to 10 hours, the longer the light period the more difficult to keep the tank in balance and higher chance of algae issues)... in nature, plants don't get 18 hours of sunlight anyways, no wonder your tank get green water.
For a start, just use a plug timer (analog or digital will work) to schedule only a 6 hour period for the lights to be on per day. With a moderated light period, the green water might just clear up on its own after a few days, and the plants will still get sufficient light... since the issue is already diagnosed as due to way too long a light duration.
If it doesn't work, then reduce light period further to 4 hours per day and monitor for a few more days. If still don't work, then have to do black out.
Do more water changes to flush out the excess nutrients that the suspended green algae is feeding on, that will also help speed up the clearing up process too.
Last edited by Urban Aquaria; 8th Aug 2014 at 20:56.
ooh! okay thanks guys! i think this problem solve le! Anyways got any recommendation for ferts? I want my DHG to spread faster. Got to get that lush carpet then ill share my tank with all of y'all
If you want a really fast solution, buy a packet of boon and maybe add about half the pack to your tank (dont add to much at once). The green water should clear in two days.
what isa boon?
"Boon" is a common name amongst aquarists for daphnia... tiny planktonic crustaceans that are usually sold in bags at popular LFS as live food for feeding fishes. Daphnia themselves feed on green water so they can also help consume it in a tank.
Some info on them: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphnia
Another creature that eats green water is the mini golden clam, can buy those from C328 (only 80 cents for a bag of 10-15 small ones), they are filter feeders and can help to eat up the green water algae too.
Here is an example of what they look like: http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...890#post769890
If you get them, it'll be better to put them in a dish or container while in your tank, or else they will dig into the substrate and disappear from view.
Oh! Thanks Urban! Very imformative. Do you think Y618 will sell boon?
Yes Y618 has boon at 50 cents a pack, just got from them today. By the way your fish can also eat the boon as food so they wont overpopulate the tank.
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