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Re: Tank Imbalance
In a message dated 7/11/2000 01:21:32 Pacific Daylight Time,
Aquatic-Plants-Owner at actwin_com writes:
> Now my problem: Green water. My plants seem to be growing well and are
> pearling every day. I just have this persistent green water problem. It's
> not the consistency of "pea soup", but green none the less.
>
What you are forgetting is that green water (algae) is not necessarily
"unnatural." In nature, green water is everywhere. Algae serves its purpose
in nature by consuming nitrates and other waste byproducts, as food for
certain other members of the food chain, etc. I don't have a magic 1-word
answer in my pocket to get rid of it, but green water's major cause is
usually excess nutrients, and excess light is also a contributor. Algae
cannot be filtered out with an ordinary filter because the individual
particles are too small. A Diatom filter will remove it well, but unless you
solve the underlying problem, it will return. Inline UV sterilizers can help
a great deal, and are easy to install in the filter hose. The correct size
of sterilizer would depend on your tank size. Finally, green algae can
sometimes appear suddenly, and a few weeks later disappear just as suddenly.
Some things you can try would be to increase your water changes (to more
completely remove wastes), cut back on feeding (to reduce nutrients), make
sure the tank is not receiving direct sunlight during the day, and consider a
UV sterilizer. A combination of attacks should resolve the problem.