Tinted water from new 3ft tank setup

[k0kster]

hi all.

seeking advise from forumers here.

i have a 3ft planted tank that is about 1 month old. its hooked up to a eheim 2217, and is co2 injected, about 3bps.

i set it up with ada aquasoil and powersand, but did not plant heavily. blasted the lights and the water turned brown and muddy the next day.

since then, i have tried many ways to try to get rid of the water.

i kept doing 80% to 90% water changes every 3 days for 2 weeks. it helped, but the water still was brown.

i turned off the lights for 48 hours, didnt help

i then realised that my ammonia and nitrite was high, so i bought a pack of seachem zeolite and threw it into my filter. also bought a bunch of hornworts to throw in. changed my wc schedule to 50% every day for 1 week, then 50% every other day for 1 week, and 50% every 3 days for 1 week.

that helped with the situation slightly, water is not as muddy, but still not clear. i noticed that the water changes will clear up the water a bit, but after a day it goes back to green

about a week, i removed the hornwort and replaced it with other stem plants and added fish. 1 dwarf gourami, 12 rummy, 6 oto. i also bought a cheap submersible UV sterilizer and added it into the tank. also started dosing some ferts

out of all the fauna added, i only have 1 dwarf gourami and 4 rummy left and the water is still green.

can anyone advise me whats going on?
is my water bad?
is my gourami attacking the smaller fish?
how come the water doesnt get clear even after multiple water changes?

here are some of the pics i have of the process
https://imgur.com/gallery/BZ9KcJf (order of pics a bit messed up, cos i forgot the order =p)

[genki89]

1st, your tank is not yet cycled.

2nd, you are using ada soil, which is high in ammonia. For a 2 ft tank, without bb booster, it will take about 2-3 months for the tank to be cycled (there will be cases that are faster too, but i am quoting based on most user experience.) you are 3ft tank, and assuming your soil used are more.

3rd, ada soil usually causes water to turn brown. You should not fix that problem by doing water change. Instead, wait for the cycle to complete. Thereafter, add in funa that will clear the brown/green water. Last resort to chemicals. After water is cleared, add in the uv.

Hope it helps


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[k0kster]

Thanks for the reply.

1st, your tank is not yet cycled.

I used azoo bacteria to kickstart. I tested the water for 0 ammonia and nitrites before adding any fauna so I assumed that it’s cycled.

2nd, you are using ada soil, which is high in ammonia. For a 2 ft tank, without bb booster, it will take about 2-3 months for the tank to be cycled (there will be cases that are faster too, but i am quoting based on most user experience.) you are 3ft tank, and assuming your soil used are more.

I used 9L of powersand, about 20L of Amazonia.

3rd, ada soil usually causes water to turn brown. You should not fix that problem by doing water change. Instead, wait for the cycle to complete. Thereafter, add in funa that will clear the brown/green water. Last resort to chemicals. After water is cleared, add in the uv.

What kind of fauna should I add to clear the water? I currently have amano shrimp and nerite snails. Should I remove all the fauna?

[genki89]

Thats the usual case whereby your tank is not cycled. Ammonia might be 0 but it does not mean your nitrite are 0.

For green water, you could add daphnia, which is source of food for fish. Once the green effect is gone, add your fishes in by batches (ie guppies x 10-20 pcs week 1, tetra x 20-50 pcs week 2). This will reduce the chance of ammonia spike.

If your funa is in, just leave it as transferring them to another tank will cause them stress again. For snail, they are very hardy and if they die, remove them immediately. Just monitor the situation and if your shrimp managed to pull through 3 weeks, most probably you will be fine to add in your fishes/daphnia.


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