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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #402>>Tank Imbalance



In a message dated 07/11/2000 3:21:31 AM Central Daylight Time, : Phil 
Behrends <macsrock at mac_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.
 
 So, my diagnosis is some sort of imbalance. I believe I understand the
 concept of a balanced aquarium, but perhaps not the implementation thereof.
 According to my test results, the aquarium should be close to being
 balanced, right? What am I missing? How do I know when an aquarium actually
 is "balanced"? >>

Green water is usually a form of algea.  In that case there are two strong
factors that come into play.  First off is Phosphates in the water which is
usually caused from over feediing or using non-aquarium fertilizers.

The second element is excessive light.  Especially in the wrong ends of the
spectrum.  You noted that your using a 96 Watt PC plus a 30 watt Triton.
To me for a 40 gallon tank this is a bit powerful unless your really trying
to work with some plants that have super high light demands.  

Also what is the color balance of the pH unit?  How long are you using your
lights?  With that type of wattage I'd say 8 hours a day should be max.  On my
55 gallon tanks I only use 80 watts of light for 10 hours a day, and on my 120
gallon only 160 watts 8 hours a day.  On a 30 gallon breeder I only have 40 
watts
of light and whenever I run it over 12 hours a day (like when I have spawning
going on) I get a real bad bloom of green water.

Dennis


Dennis