Regular Member jackson Posted July 24, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 24, 2005 ok, its always above 30 degrees in the room due to hot weather, and it has already claimed the life of my black moore. but even with decreased bioload on the 20 gallon the water still turns green really fast this is the 2nd time i;ve done a 100% water change AND cleaned out the tank but the green water comes back and it gets worse everytime Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member jackson Posted July 24, 2005 Author Regular Member Share Posted July 24, 2005 heres the pic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member smack536 Posted July 24, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 24, 2005 this isnt supposed to be bad for your fish...maybe talk to maniacholic...i know hes a big supporter of green water.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member magickzzl Posted July 24, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 24, 2005 well, dumping the whole thing will make it worse. I had the same problem! what you need to do is cover the tank for 3 days, so no light can get to it. that will kill off a good bunch of it. then you'll get a milky cloud, just leave it alone, and only do tiny little 1/4 water changes at max. NO MORE! the milky will work itself out. as for the heat, freeze water bottles (or soda bottles) and float them in the tank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member fondoo Posted July 24, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 24, 2005 holly crap! thats the greenest water i've ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Gold Ryu Posted July 24, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 24, 2005 Yeah me too but it looks like a healthy tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Anic Posted July 24, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 24, 2005 That's kind of yucky looking. My tank never does that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Donya Posted July 24, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 24, 2005 Boy does that look familiar lol that's a big problem for snail tanks. From my experience/research, green water tends to happen for two reasons: 1. Excess nitrates. Check your nitrites, there is often a nitrite spike associated with it. You will detect little or no nitrate, since the algae is eating it up. Heavily planted tanks rarely have problems with greening, because the plants out-compete the single celled algae that causes the water to go green. Clogs in filtration, mini cycles, and all sorts of things that can raise nitrite & nitrate will give you green water if the conditions are right. 2. High phosphates. I never did figure this one out properly...there was a phosphate spike in my tap water at one point and poof: GREEN. I guess it's basically what happens with fertilizer runoff. I tried curing it to no effect, tried chemicals and waterchanges, water addatives, and eventually it went away on its own...the mystery remains. Never read any solutions to phophate problems. So...unless your water tests out for beaucoup de phosphate like mine did, then it's probably the nitrates. If you read nitrites, it's a cycle issue. If there is no nitrite and water changes make it worse, then there's probably something munged up with the filtration or there are excess nitrates in the tap water. That happened to me once as well, a nitrate spike in the tap water...not fun and bad to drink. Green water is healthy in the sense that it is keeping your fish from having to deal with excess nitrate, and I have left it in one of my tanks where I can't keep plants. It's unsightly, but can be a good buffering mechanism. However, if you have a nitrite spike going along with the green water, that's bad news...usually means the whole thing has to recycle properly and will need help from additional filtration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member maniacholic Posted July 25, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 25, 2005 Boy does that look familiar lol that's a big problem for snail tanks. From my experience/research, green water tends to happen for two reasons:1. Excess nitrates. Check your nitrites, there is often a nitrite spike associated with it. You will detect little or no nitrate, since the algae is eating it up. Heavily planted tanks rarely have problems with greening, because the plants out-compete the single celled algae that causes the water to go green. Clogs in filtration, mini cycles, and all sorts of things that can raise nitrite & nitrate will give you green water if the conditions are right. 2. High phosphates. I never did figure this one out properly...there was a phosphate spike in my tap water at one point and poof: GREEN. I guess it's basically what happens with fertilizer runoff. I tried curing it to no effect, tried chemicals and waterchanges, water addatives, and eventually it went away on its own...the mystery remains. Never read any solutions to phophate problems. So...unless your water tests out for beaucoup de phosphate like mine did, then it's probably the nitrates. If you read nitrites, it's a cycle issue. If there is no nitrite and water changes make it worse, then there's probably something munged up with the filtration or there are excess nitrates in the tap water. That happened to me once as well, a nitrate spike in the tap water...not fun and bad to drink. Green water is healthy in the sense that it is keeping your fish from having to deal with excess nitrate, and I have left it in one of my tanks where I can't keep plants. It's unsightly, but can be a good buffering mechanism. However, if you have a nitrite spike going along with the green water, that's bad news...usually means the whole thing has to recycle properly and will need help from additional filtration. 366941[/snapback] Green water consumes ammonia not nitrate, my green water tanks don't even need filters and the ammonia alert is always yellow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member jackson Posted July 25, 2005 Author Regular Member Share Posted July 25, 2005 well, i thought it was the sun at first, so i curtained the window. Now the only source of light is the room's flourscent lights. i do about a 20-30% water change every week or bi-weekly, depending on how busy i am. i've never had this problem last summer, only this summer, and i also keep my tank empty of decorations to ease cleaning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member MaudlinBlithe Posted July 25, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 25, 2005 dr. fosters and smiths catalogue sells a product... uh ... great I knew the name of it and now I lost it! like phosphate gone or something. I've never tried it or anything... Has anyone used this product? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Donya Posted July 25, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 25, 2005 Green water consumes ammonia not nitrate, my green water tanks don't even need filters and the ammonia alert is always yellow I've read ammonia levels while having green water but never nitrate...nitrate was the explaination I'd always read. Perhaps it's both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member maniacholic Posted July 26, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 26, 2005 Green water consumes ammonia not nitrate, my green water tanks don't even need filters and the ammonia alert is always yellow I've read ammonia levels while having green water but never nitrate...nitrate was the explaination I'd always read. Perhaps it's both. 367281[/snapback] In my experience you can't really test green water for ammonia or nitrate unless it's with one of those ammonia charms for ammonia only, chemicals killing green water may cause the algae to release their ammonia or nitrate that was being processed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ElliotOranda Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 Thanks for asking about the green water. My tank resently started doing the same thing, about a week ago actually. I do water changes weekly, but last night I started to get really worried so I read your posts. I have two tanks and only one of them is doing the green thing. So I don't think it is phosphates. My tank stats are: salt: 2 gh 8/146.2 nh3: 0 Ph; 7.6 Co2: 8 Nitrate: 160 Nitrite: .50 Temp: 76 degrees 30g tank w emporer 330 and 220... lost of filtration lots of aeration. 3 orandas in tank about 4 inches each Tank has been set up for 6 months with no issues and has been cycled for quite some time. I think something is causing a cycle issue, the fish are getting sick and Idon't know what to do. For the past two days I have done 75% water changes, and today I added amquel plus just to kill off some of the nitrates and nitrites. Any advise would be greatly apprecitated. :crp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member jackson Posted July 26, 2005 Author Regular Member Share Posted July 26, 2005 did an 80% water change cuz my grandma kept nagging about the nasty tank, i also put in some zeolite rocks, those things have worked in the past for me as forthe phosphate, the carbon should take care of that no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jimmy_396_jimmy Posted July 26, 2005 Share Posted July 26, 2005 umm..where exactly do you live? 30 degrees is prett cold not that hot, where i live it's 80s and up all year round Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member benno Posted July 26, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted July 26, 2005 Have a look at this thread HERE, specifically the 3rd post by Wynkin. Going by these results a UV Sterilizer should solve your problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest easycruise Posted August 3, 2005 Share Posted August 3, 2005 I have had the same experience. Last summer at our summer house I had murky green water problem. The "trashbag over the tank for a few days" method didn't work. I bought a diatom filter and it cleared up. Stayed clear with AlgaeFix. This year at the house, same tank, same fish, I bought a UV sterilizer and it's been great! No need for diatom filter or any algae medicine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Slugger Posted August 4, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted August 4, 2005 After your massive water change, starve the fishies for about a week. Do another massive water change, then only feed sparingly. Apart from a UV for my 55g, that is how I got rid of pea soup on my 29g. It was just as bad as your tank. Good luck. Slugger PS : I think that green water should help with nitrates, not ammonia. My reasoning is that it is a form of algae that uses nitrates as a source of food, right at the end of the nitrogen cycle. You would also see reduced nitrates in a planted tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member DataGuru Posted August 5, 2005 Regular Member Share Posted August 5, 2005 a UV unit would clear it. daphnia in a breeder net would also clear green water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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