# Will Green water clear up in time w/plants?



## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

Hello
I set up a tank like 3 weeks ago . I am in no rush to add shrimp and willing to wait a few months if green water will clear up in time as the plants grow.


I am only interested in water sprite for this tank and planted plenty under the gravel, it is growing now even though water is greenish .

My plan is just to let the plants absorb the green water and not do water changes for a month or so . Good idea/bad idea?



Thank you


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## kcoscia (Jul 24, 2013)

green water is usually algae i think, so plants won't take care of that. I've used algaefix with success in clearing green water. it's no safe for shrimp however, so take precautions


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## jeepguy (Jul 24, 2013)

Green water is usually caused by excess ammonia. Plants, if enough will absorb ammonia, but u will need a lot, lot more. Find the source of ur ammonia, probably decaying plants. Remove it, turn the lights off for three or four days. Green water will be gone, plants will look bad, but will recover.


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

kcoscia said:


> green water is usually algae i think, so plants won't take care of that. I've used algaefix with success in clearing green water. it's no safe for shrimp however, so take precautions


 
Thanks , considering shrimp will be going in that tank going to try non chemical solutions first.


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

jeepguy said:


> Green water is usually caused by excess ammonia. Plants, if enough will absorb ammonia, but u will need a lot, lot more. Find the source of ur ammonia, probably decaying plants. Remove it, turn the lights off for three or four days. Green water will be gone, plants will look bad, but will recover.


 
The room is not in total darkness because I have 3 other tanks with lights but the tank will stay fairly dark without its own light so will try it .

I tried lots water changes but to no avail so this sounds good.

Thanks


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## jeepguy (Jul 24, 2013)

It sounds like u have a source of ammonia brewing from somewhere. Try and figure out from where. The thing is, the algae is utilizing the ammonia before ur plants or good bacteria can.


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

jeepguy said:


> It sounds like u have a source of ammonia brewing from somewhere. Try and figure out from where. The thing is, the algae is utilizing the ammonia before ur plants or good bacteria can.


 

The only thing I can think of is that as of right now I don't have enough good bacteria . I am going to go with 3 days of no light to see how that pans out.

Thanks


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## Zorfox (Jun 24, 2012)

Green water is fairly common in new tanks primarily from the ammonia spikes. You may have too much light but from the image I would doubt that. Unfortunately, once it's present it can be difficult to eradicate without a UV filter which is the gold standard for this algae problem. Micron filtration is also a good option.

You can try huge (50-90%) daily water changes and a blackout for a week. Blackout meaning NO light. This does not mean simply leaving the light off. Cover the tank leaving only enough room for air to enter.

If this fails and you want to not use chemicals (I agree on that aspect) a UV filter can be had fairly cheap.


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## Luminescent (Sep 13, 2013)

Drop two bayer plain aspirin per 20 gallons.


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## fplata (May 20, 2012)

Water changes usually work 


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

fplata said:


> Water changes usually work
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


 
I found that the water changes only "fed" the algae but going to do them while the tank is dark to remove as much green water as possible.

Thanks


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

Zorfox said:


> Green water is fairly common in new tanks primarily from the ammonia spikes. You may have too much light but from the image I would doubt that. Unfortunately, once it's present it can be difficult to eradicate without a UV filter which is the gold standard for this algae problem. Micron filtration is also a good option.
> 
> You can try huge (50-90%) daily water changes and a blackout for a week. Blackout meaning NO light. This does not mean simply leaving the light off. Cover the tank leaving only enough room for air to enter.
> 
> If this fails and you want to not use chemicals (I agree on that aspect) a UV filter can be had fairly cheap.


 
I went with the no light method , if it doesn't work will 'rent' the petstore diatom filter (Vortex) . 

I might even buy one because a friend in another state has one and loves it . He uses it in his marine tank now and than .

Thanks


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

Luminescent said:


> Drop two bayer plain aspirin per 20 gallons.


 
What about Motrin? Lol kidding.


I read about people who have used aspirin because one of the ingredients is the same or similar to algaecide .

I am going to go with the natural method but I know that some have used aspirin and liked the results and some did not .

Thanks


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## fplata (May 20, 2012)

Lia said:


> I found that the water changes only "fed" the algae but going to do them while the tank is dark to remove as much green water as possible.
> 
> Thanks


you must have some evil water  water changes usually help with every type of algae bloom (unless your water is the problem), but you have it all figured out and the method you are using should work as well


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## micheljq (Oct 24, 2012)

Plants will help against green water, effectively competing them in time, but you need a lot of plants, fast growing plants.

The best are floating plants, they grow quick, and block the light for the green algae in suspension in water (green water is green algae microscopic in suspension), but you must be careful that plants below get light too.

You can kill green water this way in a couple of weeks.

Or you can reduce light, or do the blackout, like mentionned.

Michel.


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

fplata said:


> you must have some evil water  water changes usually help with every type of algae bloom (unless your water is the problem), but you have it all figured out and the method you are using should work as well


 
I had evil water when I lived in Queens , NY . The town pipes were old lead pipes , the city would pump the system with phosphate to coat the pipes and prevent lead leeching from the pipes.

That water was algae city , everyone who had tanks had either DI or RO.

This water is very good but this particular tank started off with green water and water changes did nothing , if anything fueled it.


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

micheljq said:


> Plants will help against green water, effectively competing them in time, but you need a lot of plants, fast growing plants.
> 
> The best are floating plants, they grow quick, and block the light for the green algae in suspension in water (green water is green algae microscopic in suspension), but you must be careful that plants below get light too.
> 
> ...


 
Thanks, so far the no light method seems to be working as peeked at tank today and already looks clearer.

I have gotten rid of green water in an outside 20 gallon barrel "pond" with daphnia and it worked great but it doesn't have a filter and I didn't want to shut the filter off since it is cycling , plus it took a lot of daphnia .


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## jeepguy (Jul 24, 2013)

R u cycling the tank and if so how are u adding ammonia and to what levels. Ammonia should be kept below 5ppm. This could possibly explain the G.A. Just a thought. 
Also, have u tested ur tap water for ammonia. Ur matured tanks might be eating up the ammonia before G.A. can develop in your mature tanks but this one being new might be struggling.


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## danielt (Dec 19, 2012)

If you do water changes to an uncycled tank you will keep it uncycled forever. Or the ammonia spikes will be present in it. You can start a tank fresh quickly but with less light, way more plants and seeding the tank with filter mulm.

Starting off with so much light is asking for trouble


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## houseofcards (Mar 21, 2009)

danielt said:


> *If you do water changes to an uncycled tank you will keep it uncycled forever.* Or the ammonia spikes will be present in it. You can start a tank fresh quickly but with less light, way more plants and seeding the tank with filter mulm.
> 
> Starting off with so much light is asking for trouble


Do you really believe that?


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## danielt (Dec 19, 2012)

I might have exaggerated a bit 

Not forever, it will stabilize eventually but it will take a long time. 2-3-4 months maybe.

Ammonia spikes might go away then nitrite ones will continue. Still, a bad environment for shrimp.


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## fplata (May 20, 2012)

danielt said:


> If you do water changes to an uncycled tank you will keep it uncycled forever. Or the ammonia spikes will be present in it. You can start a tank fresh quickly but with less light, way more plants and seeding the tank with filter mulm.
> 
> Starting off with so much light is asking for trouble


Not true at all. Most beneficial bacteria attaches it self to something and its not free floating in the water column. You can change the water everyday and still cycle. Look at the ADA method, it calls for daily water changes for the first two weeks


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## fplata (May 20, 2012)

danielt said:


> I might have exaggerated a bit
> 
> Not forever, it will stabilize eventually but it will take a long time. 2-3-4 months maybe.
> 
> Ammonia spikes might go away then nitrite ones will continue. Still, a bad environment for shrimp.


Not sure where you are getting your information from, but if I where you I would look for a new source. 


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## danielt (Dec 19, 2012)

Don't know what the ADA method is. Don't need to look for a new source, the nitrogen cycle is good enough.

Bacteria attaches itself, didn't said it didn't. But how will it feed if you keep refreshing the water? Fishless cycle or not, bacteria needs food to grow. Since it grows slowly being bacteria that needs to consume energy to make energy, it needs a constant supply of ammonia. That's the first level, the second level needs nitrites. Shall I continue?

Water changes will partially restart the cycle since bacteria will die of starvation is no ammonia is present or not enough. A tank is never cycled as it's a closed system, it will have variations but it will have also some other buffers to take up any spikes.

Quickest way of reaching a stable equilibrium is to use all the buffers from day one:

- Oversized filtration. Not flow but capacity. Get filters way past the tank's volume.
- Seed the filters with mulm from an established tank, better yet, cycle the filter media for a month or so in another tank.
- Plant densely with fast growing plants
- Have the plants grow in it for a week or two

Put livestock in. If the system is buffered it will not allow deadly spikes and it will stabilize itself silently.


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## Chronados (Jan 28, 2013)

danielt said:


> Don't know what the ADA method is. Don't need to look for a new source, the nitrogen cycle is good enough.
> 
> Bacteria attaches itself, didn't said it didn't. But how will it feed if you keep refreshing the water? Fishless cycle or not, bacteria needs food to grow. Since it grows slowly being bacteria that needs to consume energy to make energy, it needs a constant supply of ammonia. That's the first level, the second level needs nitrites. Shall I continue?
> 
> ...


Water changes will only slightly slow a cycle, if anything. Yes, bacteria needs ammonia to grow, but you are (generally) not removing all the water (and thus ammonia) during a water change. If you do a 50% water change with 5ppm ammonia, you end up with 2.5ppm. 

Any detectable levels of ammonia itself implies that you have plenty of it to feed the current bacteria levels. Otherwise they'd have already processed it and the levels would be zero. And if there is no detectable levels of ammonia, then you're certainly not starving the bacteria by doing a water change because well...you're not removing any ammonia!


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## fplata (May 20, 2012)

Danielt, with all due respect your interpretation of of nitrogen cycle is broken.

Op, I apologize for the derailment 


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## danielt (Dec 19, 2012)

Maybe so. But your confirmation is not needed. I don't post to get confirmation. I post from my experience. If it helps, great. Otherwise, I'll open a thread if I need feedback


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## fplata (May 20, 2012)

danielt said:


> Maybe so. But your confirmation is not needed. I don't post to get confirmation. I post from my experience. If it helps, great. Otherwise, I'll open a thread if I need feedback


Not giving you confirmation, just the opposite, calling your BS and misinformation that's all. You get an A for effort, but you fail the class, better luck next time 


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

I have heard from people who set up fish tanks in my area (store maintenance ) that water changes while cycling was a mistake and I have also heard that it makes no difference or you should actually do water changes.

So who knows , either way the tank since I went "lights off" is 90% clearer now than 2 days ago.


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

danielt said:


> If you do water changes to an uncycled tank you will keep it uncycled forever. Or the ammonia spikes will be present in it. You can start a tank fresh quickly but with less light, way more plants and seeding the tank with filter mulm.
> 
> Starting off with so much light is asking for trouble


 
The Bulb is a LED (white light) that I got at home depot for like $14 . It is rated at 55 watts of light as far as light output and think uses 11 watts of light .I was shocked how bright it was .

My friend who has a 20 gallon long open top planted tank also got the same bulb and her plants are taking off . Her tank is much older and 'established'.


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## danielt (Dec 19, 2012)

Follow the points I detailed and you should be fine. As for the validity of those points, you can look up information just about anywhere on the web as well as this forum if you think I might be wrong.

Research fishless cycling, nitrogen cycle to get you started. You can also follow the ADA method. Whatever works. Just compare what you did with your tank and the info you get. It's best to learn something out of your experience good or bad.

And remember what Yoda said: "Do or do not, there is no try"


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

The tank cleared up . I used the no light method for several days and it cleared up.

The pic looks bit "foggy" because it is a cell phone and the light from the led bulb makes the water look yellow (only in picture) .

The water sprite I planted under the gravel is even starting to shoot up.


Thanks everyone.


Lia


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## Lia (Aug 2, 2007)

danielt said:


> Follow the points I detailed and you should be fine. As for the validity of those points, you can look up information just about anywhere on the web as well as this forum if you think I might be wrong.
> 
> Research fishless cycling, nitrogen cycle to get you started. You can also follow the ADA method. Whatever works. Just compare what you did with your tank and the info you get. It's best to learn something out of your experience good or bad.
> 
> And remember what Yoda said: "Do or do not, there is no try"


 
Thank you


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