# Definitly GW



## nanocube (Dec 6, 2004)

Had the exact same thing happen to me but in my case i know how it started. When i first got into planted tanks i had a few apple snails and an pleco. One day i decided it would be a good idea to sink a peice of honey melon into the tank and let the fish/snails snack on it. Well, i forgot to remove it and it landed up staying in the tank for about 15 hours. I came home from work to find cloudy-kinda yellowish-water and 12 dead tetras. Every single tetra died, but nothing else did, including my blue ram. Did a quick water change, added some activated carbon, and the tank cleared up withing a few hours. Weird


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## andyg (Oct 9, 2004)

Nanocube. Sorry about the fish loss . I was thinking of starting some veggies in there for the bottom feeders. Have to keep this in mind.

Well day three and the same routine. I know there is some fuzz algae in there as I can see some on the driftwood and the roots of the Java Ferns. The water is greenish in the am then turns to a white haze after a few hours.

Tank Stats: 50Gallon, 130W Aqualight, DIY CO2, NO3 5ppm ( last night before adding 1/4 tsp KNO3 ), PO4 .25-.5, PH 6.8, KH 10.8, GH 13.4, Iron .5 ( last night before 25% water change ). 

Tank setup is 10 days old with plants and fish ( ran 5 days prior to that without anything but ceramic nooddles from my other tanks )
Dosing Big Al's liquid ferts every second day, KNO3 every alternate.(started jan 21st )
Jan 24, 8 PM


Jan 25, 8 AM


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## Rex Grigg (Dec 10, 2002)

Put some water in a white bucket. If you detect a hint of green in the water in the bucket then it's a green water outbreak waiting to happen.


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## andyg (Oct 9, 2004)

Rex Grigg said:


> Put some water in a white bucket. If you detect a hint of green in the water in the bucket then it's a green water outbreak waiting to happen.


Thanks Rex. Now why did'nt think of that. :icon_redf


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## andyg (Oct 9, 2004)

Well, did the white pail test...Definitly a green shade. :icon_frow 
So new title for the tread.
Thanks again Rex. :thumbsup:


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## ayrsayle (Jan 9, 2005)

Glad you finally got it figured out!


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## andyg (Oct 9, 2004)

ayrsayle said:


> Glad you finally got it figured out!


Yup, same here.
Guess your off work for a few days now. ( Caught the news this am )


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## ayrsayle (Jan 9, 2005)

Yep.... but thats ok.. Plenty to do around the house.


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## andyg (Oct 9, 2004)

*Extending light period?*

I'm still confused about the effect of light on the GW.

First thing in the morning the water is nice and green ( about 2-3" visibility into the tank )
After 10-12 hours of lighting (130W) it has cleared up considerably to the point where I can see the back of the tank.

Why is this?
Is it a direct result of the light intensity or the increase in O2 level from the pearling plants?

What would be the effects of leaving the light on for a couple of days?
How would that affect the fish and the plants?


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## JSCTech (Oct 11, 2004)

I have a very similar problem here and have asked for help at the Barr Report web site, but nobody seems to be able to help. I'll paste in the 2 messages I have written.


Green water or maybe not!! 

This one is baffling me. Have a 55 gallon fairly heavily planted tank with a JBL CO2 injection kit and 2.8 wpg T8 lighting. Have had this tank running for about 6 months now and have always tried to keep NO3 and PO4 at 10ppm and 1ppm using test kits. CO2 was at about 20-25ppm. I seemed to have a problem with dust algae settling on the leaves, so I decided to do the EI method to save testing all the time and hopefully get rid of the dust algae. Did the water change on Sunday and followed the EI method and also increased CO2 to about 30ppm.

All was well until I came home from work on wednesday and I could hardly see the back of the tank. The tank was full of little green particles, like a suspension. When I've had green water in my pond it was like, well green water, and not like what I have now which is clear water with lots of green particles in - does that make sense?

Strange thing is by about 9 O clock at night the tank is crystal clear without any sign of the green particles. This has now been going on for a week and a half without it getting any worse or better. Did a 50% water change after week 1 and lowered my dosing by leaving a day between the traces and NO3, PO4 dosing in case I was over dosing.

Today I watched what was going on. First thing in the morning the tank is crtstal clear, then as the morning goes on it starts to get cloudy (room is not that bright and tank recieves no direct sunlight). By the time the lights come on at 1 it is very cloudy. Seems to get worse for an hour or two but then starts slowly to clear until about 9 when it is normally crystal clear. Lights and CO2 then go out at 11. CO2 comes back on at 6.

The plants are growing like crazy and pearling away, so am not sure what is going on and what plan of action to now take.

James


Re: Green water or maybe not!! 

Well I've still got this strange green water. I've kept up the dosing but it seems to be making no difference. I thought that as the tank was becoming cloudy between day break and when the lights come on, the algae was getting a head start on the plants. So today I covered the tank so no light entered the tank until the lights came on. And guess what - a cloudy tank. Seems that the algae is growing in the pitch black.

I don't really want to spend any money buying a UV unit, but would rather find out what this is. My only thought is that perhaps it is dust algae gone mad as the front glass is becoming covered after only a couple of days. Apart from this all the plants seem to be doing very well.

Has anybody got any ideas?? Until then I shall keep up my dosing schedule and water changes.

James


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## andyg (Oct 9, 2004)

James, like you a UV unit or diatom filter is not an option for me as the budget is already overstessed.
I tried over the last few days running the lights 14-15hrs, and I also cut out the ferts completly for the last four days.
I already see a major improvement in the water clarity. I can now see the back of the tank from morning to night.
I'll keep the ferts out for a while longer unless I see some serious plant degradation.


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## Kris (Feb 27, 2004)

hmmm. i have a very similar situation as those stated here:
* zucchinni left in tank for 24 hours (i wanted to take it out earlier, but nothing had eaten it and then later it was covered in critters and i didn't want them to starve...i now know better)
*removed the biowheel on the same day
*did a water change and the first bucket was green, green, green. the second bucket was less green.
*i squished clean the filter floss (which was gross, gross, gross)

after a 50% water change, the tank was less cloudy but today (24 hours later) it is getting more cloudy.
so, am i to understand that water changes and some activated carbon will clear this up? should i continue to dose or no during this time? fiddle with the temp??

just when i thought things were getting under control....
:icon_ques


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## andyg (Oct 9, 2004)

Kris, keep doing water changes and ferts. You'll get it under control eventually. Have a look at this tread, lots of info on GW.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13328

As far as mine, the reason I stopped the ferts for a while was because my tank was overloaded with nutrients. Even after a week without adding anything I still had over 10ppm NO3, 2ppm PO4 and over 1ppm iron.
Did a 60% water change today using about a 60/40 RO/tap mix ( Finally found some RO without NO & PO4 )
Tonight NO3 between 0 and 5, PO4 .25, Iron .25.
I'll test PH,KH,GH in the morning & restart ferts.
The water is still a bit cloudy, but i just added fresh floss in the filter and wait until the am to see if there is an improvement.


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## JSCTech (Oct 11, 2004)

An update on what I've been doing. I didn't want to cut back on the ferts as my plants seem to be doing so well and algae has all but disappeared except the cloudy water. What I've done it dropped the lighting back to about 2wpg and this seems to be helping loads. The tank is nearly clear all day now. I have tested NO3 and PO4 and they don't seem too high.

I might even keep my lighting at 2wpg now as before the tank looked like a glass of fizzy water, but now is a lot more settled. Will probably have to cut back on the ferts slightly to compensate for lower lighting.

James


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## andyg (Oct 9, 2004)

*update*

This am the water is clearer than I've seen it in the last month. Still a bit of cloudiness but the persistent white haze is gone.
Best of all my KH & GH are now back where they should be.
Stats this am, PH 6.4, KH 5.0, GH 8.9, NO3 .5, PO4 .25.
I restarted the ferts this am with 1/4tsp KNO3 and will do liquid trace tomorrow.
I'll also try reduced lighting for a few days.
Now that I can see all the plants, they all appear in good shape except for the older leaves on my corksrew Val which are melting. The new growth however is nice & green. I also noticed a bit of brown algae on the Anubias.


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## bastalker (Dec 8, 2004)

This is what I did.

_*Did a 90% water change.*_
Dosed 3 tsp of MGS04
3/4 tsp of KN03
1 tsp of K2S04
1/4 tsp of KH2P04
1 1/2 tsp of baking soda

Got the parameters looking like this the next day. My C02 is crankin though.

PH-6.6
KH-4
N03-15
P04-1
C02-27 ppm 
water temp-80

The next day, green water was gone. In 2 days, it looked like I put a diatom in the tank. :icon_bigg


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## Kris (Feb 27, 2004)

i am clearing the gw, but i have discovered why i got in the 1st place:
the lights are on a long power strip with two lines of plugs. the top plugs are hooked into the timer and the bottom plugs aren't.
i plugged everything into the timer-side.
so, the DIY CO2 was going all the time, but the lights, filter and heater were only running from 10:30 am to 8:30 pm. 
duh!
everything is now plugged in correctly and with the addition of some carbon for the next few days...


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