# Green water bloom



## ChadRamsey

ok, i have been dosing my tank (125g) like its heavily planted and well...its not yet. And i now have what appears to be a GW bloom going on.

What i plan to do to fix it:
cut doses in half for the time being
BUY MORE PLANTS (more of a long term fix)
2-3 day black out
massive WC in 2-3 days (50%)

Does this plan of attack sound about right?

Should i continue to dose the tank, but half doses? during the blackout?

Do you have any other ideas?

Thanks
Chad


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## bioniccruiser

I'm in the same boat. we had a nerite snail die and I didn't realize it to remove it. now I can't get rid of the green water. I stopped all ferts and just started my blackout. 
I'll be watching your thread to make sure I'm doing this right too.


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## ChadRamsey

crappy. 

keep me posted and ill do the same for you


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## oscarsx

I had the same problem with my 90 gal.. I didn't do a black out but I did buy a uv sterilizer and it solved my problem in about 3 days.. just throwing that out. that black out will wipe out your plants
Sent from my DROID X2


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## synaethetic

I successfully defeated a recent case of green water in my tank by reducing the light and increasing the C02. I also started running an airstone at night and I'd notice the tank looked clearer and clearer every morning, despite clouding up through the day it'd always look clearer in the morning. After a few weeks of these improved conditions and several water changes the tank looked clear.


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## Kathyy

My very first GW siege was cured by dosing with nitrate. It was pretty neat, dump 1 tsp of stump killer in the tank each day and every morning the tank was just a bit clearer. Alas, that hasn't worked since.

Now letting the floaters build up on the surface works great.

And since I have more biological media in the sump I [crossing fingers AND toes and knocking on wood] no GW for a while now even when I took everything out of the tank and did a major rescape in December.


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## discuspaul

oscarsx said:


> I had the same problem with my 90 gal.. I didn't do a black out but I did buy a uv sterilizer and it solved my problem in about 3 days.. just throwing that out. that black out will wipe out your plants
> Sent from my DROID X2


+1.

This worked like a charm for me as well. It didn't deal with the root cause of the problem, but once you get rid of the green water, reducing your light period &/or moving your lights higher up over the tank, along with some tweaking & adjusting of your fert & C02 regime will likely accomplish that.
A complete black out will rid you of the problem too, but you'll probably need to do a complete re-do of your plantings, as was also pointed out.


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## bioniccruiser

great. I went to fill my CO2 tank today and it needs hydro'ed. it will be back in a few weeks. the airstone is straight air? I can actually run straight oxygen if needed or regular air. one the angel fish is starting to stay at the surface, but oxygen doesn't seem to help and CO2 hasn't been running either.
all other parameters are good. guess I'll wait out the low light and wc's and see how it goes. if they get a UV system in the LFS I'll pick it up. they were out today. man, those can be spendy! I saw $80 and $180.


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## Naekuh

the easiest fix for green water is get a UV sterilizer. 

If you look at truaqua.com, there are HOB versions which wont break your wallet. 
http://truaqua.com/hang-on-filters-with-uv.html

Let the UV run a couple of days... like 2-3 days, and green water will disappear. 
Then remove the HOB and store it for next time you have issues. 

That is the EASIEST fix, unless u want to mess with a blackout and several water changes. 

You dont need a powerful UV to clear green water.


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## WATduh

The best part of the UV sterilizer is that you don't need to keep it in your tank indefinitely. It'll fix the problem, allowing you to make your adjustments, then you can take it out and store it for a rainy day. I've had to use mine twice since I started the tank. Didn't correct the problem the first time. The second time I did. Haven't had the sterilizer in the tank for a few months now.


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## ChadRamsey

what UV sterilizers are you all using?

i like the HOB one on the link that Naekuh posted, but its rated for a 60 gallon, i have a 125.

I dont really want to use an inline one since i have an inline heater and dont want to further hinder the flow of my FX5.


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## oscarsx

ChadRamsey said:


> what UV sterilizers are you all using?


I got mine online from PETCO. its called green killing machine or something to that effect... its cheap too!

Sent from my DROID X2


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## ChadRamsey

well i figured out what is causing it...

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/equipment/167273-fx5-died.html#post1750199

But i still plan to get e UV sterilizer though

Thanks all


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## bioniccruiser

thanks Naekuh for the link. I ordered one of those for mine. should be here tomorrow. a 3 day blackout has certainly helped. I uncovered the tank this morning and did a water change. no green at all, just a bit cloudy. we'll see how this goes. although both angel fish died. I wonder if the gills got covered or blocked. I noticed when this GW bloom happened that string algae was on one of their fins. I didn't feed for a couple days as well and the Ctenopoma was hungry. angels wouldn't eat, then died within a couple days. 
plants are pointed straight up, looking for light. I'll see if/how they recover. the wife (it's technically her tank) is thinking of changing it over to cichlids, since I killed all but one of her fish.:icon_frow


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## ChadRamsey

ah man, sorry to hear about the angels.


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## bioniccruiser

that didn't hurt near as bad as the Black Ghost Knife. he was 6.5" and we had him 2 years. he died before the GW outbreak. I believe unrelated to the angels. Leopard Ctenopoma seems golden though. I don't think he'd do well with even dwarf cichlids though.
the wife ran the tank for 2.5years with algae and dying plants. I took over and got the plant thriving, and killed 3 of 4 fish...


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## JoraaÑ

Diatomaceous earth will take care of GW...Also if you happen to find Trapdoor snails..Gw willl go away in 2-3 days after you introduce them in your tank.


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## ChadRamsey

Joraan said:


> Diatomaceous earth will take care of GW...Also if you happen to find Trapdoor snails..Gw willl go away in 2-3 days after you introduce them in your tank.


 
Nice, thanks Joraan

How do you apply the Diatomaceous earth to the tank, in the filter maybe?

And how do the trapdoors eliminate the GW?


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## bioniccruiser

I had heard of the Diatomaceous earth in a diatom filter or in a filter with the option of a super fine element (like the magnum 350). the problem I found was nobody carries a diatom filter anymore. there's probably some on line. also hard to find the Diatomaceous earth even. it was suggested to look at a pool supply store, which I haven't done. the UV filter should be here today. 
trap door snails is interesting. I hadn't heard that one.


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## JoraaÑ

Magnum 350 using Micro cartridge. DE can be purchased easily in EEbayy..for few $. Trap door snails devour algae and green scum from water and thus help to keep the water clear. In Past have also poured DE over Filter outflow directly: as if there is a bomb blast in the tank but will clear in few hours taking care of GW as well.. 4 treatment took care of my tank in 6 days time...Oh it not a small tank...220 gal BTW.


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