# dull green cloudy water



## Dr.Nick (Jan 8, 2006)

hi

how can i get rid of green cloudy water?
and why is it caused?

will post photos of my tank after it has cleared.

Thanks 
Nick.


----------



## Bri (Mar 20, 2007)

need more info... size of tank, lighting, how long it's been up and running, how heavily planted, dosing or not, substrate, co2?????


----------



## Dr.Nick (Jan 8, 2006)

tank size 60cm
lighting: 72W
planting heavyish, foreground coverd in hairgrass,wood covered in moss, java fern and aromatic.
ferts :excel dosing every 3days
been running 2months (water is old from when the tank was running before i put new substrate in (ada aqua soil amazonia)
C02 is running


----------



## Bri (Mar 20, 2007)

I would say that you are over due for a water change


----------



## Dr.Nick (Jan 8, 2006)

i already have done 1 :icon_frow do 25% every 2 weeks and little fill ups due to it being open top tank.


----------



## LS6 Tommy (May 13, 2006)

Time for U/V or a Diatom filter. GW will come back again and again. I don't dose anythihg other than Excell and Fluorish Iron & once I got it it came back regardless of massive H2O changes, dosing or not.

Tommy


----------



## Dr.Nick (Jan 8, 2006)

cant afford 1 mate, any other ways to get rid of it?


----------



## Dr.Nick (Jan 8, 2006)

what causes the green water?


----------



## CherylH (Jan 2, 2007)

Have you tried a 3 day blackout?


----------



## Betowess (Dec 9, 2004)

Dr.Nick said:


> what causes the green water?


Many causes, but primarily high nitrates/nutrients or stirring up substrate. Very common with new tanks, unless some mature mulm is introduced.

Can you borrow a UV clarifier/unit (like the Turbotwist) from a pal or fish club? They work fine as a hang on back unit. Take one day and you're good to go. Maybe a pet store will rent one? They rent diatom units at US local fish stores, but I've had GW come back after multiple diatom filtrations. It will never come back with after a UV event, unless you stir up the substrate big time and start a whole new cycle.

If you purchase - the little Coralife Turbotwist is a nice unit.


----------



## Dr.Nick (Jan 8, 2006)

cherylH i was thinking about doing a 3 day black out but didnt know if it would effect it.

Thanks Betowess, i hope its just the fact its a sort of new tank.

Right i have cut my lighing hours to 8 from 10 where it was fine until now.

I have also done a 30% water change to get rid of most of the green water.

Hope this works.


----------



## epicfish (Sep 11, 2006)

WCs won't help. Cutting back the light won't help either. Go ahead and do another 40% WC and then a full 3-day blackout on the tank.


----------



## triple red (May 27, 2005)

if its gw... water changes wont get rid of it....
i used a tt 9watt uv and a 3 day backout ( not a total backout ,just lights off) and it was gone....
ive also read that minute traces of ammonia can induce it
if you want more information on the causes and ways to combat it you can do a search (so much information your eyes will bleed :biggrin: )
good luck


----------



## retoid (Jan 2, 2007)

I would invest in a UV Sterilizer, they arent very expensive and get the job done and quickly.

This is a good effective and cheap one. See if any stores over there carry the AA Brand
http://www.aa-aquarium.com/showroom4.php?id=156&level=1


----------



## sukebe (Nov 6, 2004)

I read a post by Tom Barr where he says that he can induce GW by increasing PO4, but when he increased other ferts without PO4, no GW prob. 

By greatly reducing my KH2PO4 dosing (actually, not dosing at all), I managed to eliminate my GW overnight. This worked for me, but I don't have any livestock in this tank. Now, I dose KNO3, K2SO4 and CSM+B pretty heavily and leave the lights on for much longer than convention says I should, but no GW. 

You might want to consider where the PO4 is coming from and try to fix that problem before applying a $70 UV bandaid.


----------



## sukebe (Nov 6, 2004)

also, see http://saltaquarium.about.com/gi/dy...&bts=0&zu=http://www.athiel.com/lib3/phos.htm


----------



## Cheesehead Cory (Mar 30, 2007)

FWIW, I'm in the same boat with you Dr. Nick, I've had green water algae for two weeks now, and read tons of advice on this forum: 
Buy a diatom filter.
Buy a UV filter.
Do lots of water changes (usually someone will chime in and refute this).
Do no water changes.
Just wait it out, doing your usual amount of water changes , it'll go away eventually.
Put some willow branches in the tank to out-compete the algae.
Do a blackout.

I'm trying to avoid buying the UV/diatom filter too. I added willow branches as well as an extra bundle of anacharis to the tank a week and a half ago. The willow branches appear to be sprouting roots. I'm a little skeptical, but couldn't resist trying the willow technique, it sounds too "Voo-doo" to resist! "Place branch of sacred willow tree in tank to ward off evil green micro-spirits."

It's like walking around with a pebble in my shoe to see my green glowing tank every day, but I'm going to give it at least another two weeks. Let us know what works for you. There's lots of threads with the above advice, but the person with the problem doesn't usually say what fix actually worked for them.

Good luck,

CC


----------



## Cheesehead Cory (Mar 30, 2007)

*GW- going, going, gone!*

Woohoo, my green water is gone! I don't know whether to give the credit to the willow branches or just waiting it out, but here's the history:

5/28...First noticed water turning green.
6/1...Added 3 willow branches and decreased photoperiod to 10 hrs.
6/3...Green water reached its peak greenness.
6/4...Noticed small white knobs appearing on stems of willow branches.
6/8...Some of the white knobs have turned into quarter inch long root "spurs" with a pinkish hue.
6/11...Thought tank looked a little less green, but thought it might be wishful thinking. Root spurs now half inch long.
6/13...Green water is gone, removed willow branches. Celebration - bloodworms for everyone!

Wow, once GW starts to go away, it disappears as quickly as it came. Good luck with yours Dr Nick.


----------



## fishymatty (Feb 25, 2007)

That is really weird but interesting. Where do you get willow branches? Off a tree, how big, how many? So many questions????
Today when I came home my water was kind of cloudy and seemed like it could be the beginning of green water so I did a huge water change.
This tank has been running for 8mon or so. Recently rescaped but plants are growing great with minimal algae. The only thing I did was cleaned out all the goo from the inflow and outflow pipes and tubes. There glass and clear hose so they get gross quick. 
Not to hijack the thread but any info about green water is helpful to everyone.


----------



## Cheesehead Cory (Mar 30, 2007)

A coworker has a willow tree in his back yard. The thread that I read where someone else had success with the willow said you want branches with about a 1/2 inch diameter. My coworker brought me three branches, one that was 1/2" diameter, and two that were smaller. I stripped the lower leaves off and put the branches in the tank such that the leafy end stuck out the top, and the cut end just dangled in the middle of the water column. All branches developed the white knobs, but only the larger branch sprouted roots. The smaller ones might have, had I left them in longer.

This was in a 33 gal. low tech tank with flourite substrate, no added ferts, 55W 6700K AH supply retrofit light, with relatively low bioload (5 tiger barbs, 1 rainbow shark, 1 small Chinese algae eater). I think my GW was caused by a big light upgrade (went from 20W to 55W) combined with a lot of substrate disturbance, wonder if either of these would have caused GW on their own. I did no water changes during this GW period. If I remember correctly from advice in the other thread, a larger tank would require more branches. And it seemed that people with high tech/high ferts were not as successful with the willow trick.

I'm still not sure if I should credit the willow with defeating the GW. Anybody successfully defeat GW in a low tech tank just by waiting it out? How long did it take? If willow was the key, it probably means that I have near zero nutrients left in the tank. Guess I better feed those fish heavily so they start re-fertilizing. :icon_lol:


----------



## fishymatty (Feb 25, 2007)

Thats something else. I don't know what was happening in my tank but yesterday I came home to cloudy water with all levels good. 
This was in my 38g, 192w, pressurized co2 2bps and ferts.
I did a huge water change pumped the tank full of co2 re-dosed all ferts and today the tank is crystal clear. I was just worried so I started looking into all causes and treatments for green water.


----------

