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RE:Green water/mussels ands clams
Green water is a frustrating algae eh? It's not like the rest.
>I have been battling a case of green water now for about a month in a newly
>established tank. If I don't do anything about it, visibility goes down to
>about 3 inches. In this state the plants are not receiving enough light and
>can't grow to compete with the algae. I tried changing the water, against
>the recommendations I've read here, and the phosphates in the tap water
>cause the algae to return full force in about 4 days. I tried my diatom
>filter that cleared the water up to 50 % visibility, but the green returned
>soon after I removed the filter. I don't want to wait it out as my plants
>are slowly dying from lack of light. The fish are doing quite well.
>The parameters of the aquarium are.
>75 gallons
>PH 7.0 directly from the tap. Goes to PH 8.2 without CO2 injection. When
>the water is really green the PH creeps up to about 7.4. This is with about
>4 bubbles per second CO2.
>KH=220 ppm
>GH=110 ppm (?)
>Phosphate=.5 ppm
>ammonia, nitrite, nitrate = 0, but I have tried 15 ml TMG with 1.5 gm K2NO3,
>same results.
>lights are currently two 175 MH pendants.
>temp night = 75 deg f, end of light period 78 deg f. duration = 10 hours.
>
>I just read that someone was successful using a diatom filter. I have an
>XL. After about a day, the diatom mixture was pale green, but the water
>would not clear past 50%. I also read in Innes that potassium permanganate
>will clear green water. I don't want to hurt the plants, nor fish.
>
>I was thinking of using an additive to get the PH down into the low sixes.
>I think the CO2 injection can't help below 7.0 because of my water hardness.
It can but you need a better or more efficient method adding it. Still at 12
KH 4 bubbles a second is a lot for a 75 gallon. How about blending some RO
water in there instead? Drop it down to about KH of 6-8 instead. So add half
RO to half tap. Easy and takes care of a few issues. You can use the RO for
drinking water to boot! Cost about a 150$ for a nice unit. Don't be using
them additives! The RO will cost you less in the long run! Do a cost
analysis for a year and tell me what you have come up with. Not such a good
deal eh? Lower Ph won't help though. I tried that down to 6.0.
>There is no surface algae anywhere in the tank thanks to 2 SAEs, 4 CAEs, and
>2 small plecos.
>Any advice would be appreciated. I just want to get over this so I can grow
>plants.
>Thanks.
>Steve Pituch
>Katy, TX
Read the archives. Do a blackout for 3-5 days. Keep the Micron/XL filter
going to help, add UV if you still can't get rid of it. Add Daphnia, these
are the best for it then the filtration, then the Blackout method etc. UV
will work fast but solve the root of your problem which by my accounts and
several others stems from a lack of NO3(or trying too hard to keep up on
things!) in moderate to high light tanks. Your plants might seem like they
are not doing well but GW is a good sign that your tank is close to being
balanced. You just didn't have enough NO3 to keep this GW from coming in.
Add some after this and keep some (5-15ppm) in there or so and this won't
happen again! I add KNO3. I have PO4 of 1.0ppm in my tap. It's not the PO4
that causes this algae. I would be the king of it if this were the case. I
only recently have had some experience with GW. I have never had it in a
RFUG tank or a cable tank either, only the no flow substrates. Anyone else
care to comment?
I recently induced GW to test the effectiveness of Clams and Mussels. They
didn't do so well IMO against GW. Anyone else care to say something about
this? So how did I induce this GW? I added lots of jobes 15-15-15 and had no
NO3 before hand and disturbed the gravel bed lots(just like a new tank might
be unbalanced yet). For removal I had hoped for clams and mussels. They let
me down though on an outbreak of GW. Perhaps they might do well for
preventive maintenance but not to add after an outbreak.
Daphnia still rule! I used UV to remove it and added KNO3 to about 8-10ppm
after a 50% water change. I don't care for blackouts due to leggy growth
resulting from no light in my Glossostigma. It does work though! The UV
method cleared it up in a day. So did the Daphnia.
Daphnia is the best overall method IMO. The nice thing about all these
method of control is they can all work together or alone. Daphnia can get
sucked up in the micron filter though.
I could not induce it in the RFUG filtered tank. I even added the old 50%
water to the tank to see and the tanks have the same lights, dosing, but
different gravel..... which may be why .........but it seems unlikely.
Flourite tanks(the tank that was "induced") seem to have an easier time
getting it. So did soil based tanks. The more aerobic the substrate is, the
less likely it seems, in my observations, the chances of getting this GW
algae. Reaction to bioload demands also seem to be be far greater with
RFUG's also. Sorry, I digress!
Regards,
Tom Barr