# Is green water bad for your plants?



## GDominy (Jul 30, 2002)

Well, thats kind of a loaded question, heres why....

No, green water itself isnt harmfull to the plants... But, the nutrients it is consuming will not be available to the plants so the plants "may" suffer as a result.

Genereally speaking I find Green water is less of a plant killer then other kinds of algae that might form on the leaves themselves, but it may have some effects if the bloom is a long term prolblem.

I had a bloom last for a month that didnt do any noticable damage (except for some ground cover plants that couldnt get enough light).


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## sean (Mar 26, 2003)

If the algae is "Caked" (probably a bad term) on the plants, what is the easiest way to get it off?

Thanks for the response,

Sean.


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## GDominy (Jul 30, 2002)

Well, you need something that will eat it, or you need to remove it manually. Aside from that I havent found another way


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## sean (Mar 26, 2003)

Manually, meaning scrubbing the plant?

If I put something in there to eat the algae, I'm afraid when it was done, that fish would have to go "Jarod from subway" I wouldn't want to do that to any fish.


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## GDominy (Jul 30, 2002)

Scrubbing the plant and/or removing heavily infested leaves. What do you have in the tank for an algae clean up crew?


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## sean (Mar 26, 2003)

Nothing yet. This was a temporary tank. Long story. I'm setting it up full time in the next week or two and don't want to add all that algae into my new tank to start.


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## BonesCJ (Jan 13, 2003)

A critter i still use for algea cleanup are Nerite snails, they are absolutly plant safe and are almost little living lawn mowers when it comes to algea, i know they will eat black beard algea, green and brown algea. I find them at a local store for .99 cents a pop and 3 are usually enough in my 25 to keep it healthy and relativly algea free, the only other cleaners i have are 2 otos and a rainbow shark.


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## GulfCoastAquarian (Jul 30, 2002)

I've never heard of Freshwater Nerite snails. I used to have Margurita (Nerite) snails in my reef and they did a great job on algae, though. How in the world do you guys find these great fish stores with all this stuff? I'm lucky to find a healthy pleco at my local fish stores.


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## BonesCJ (Jan 13, 2003)

Often I find the best stuff not at the big chain stores but at the local stores usually owned by mom and pop. Freshwater Nerites are sometimes refered to as Black marble snails, here is the scientific name Neritina reclivata. Goto http://www.azgardens.com/index2.htm and look under algea eaters and you will find them.


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