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green water
Thanks to all who kindly repeated their remedies for
green water.
What is really interesting about this is the variety of
methods used to clear up green water, all of which
seem to work, under at least some conditions.
What else is curious is that, the day I posted my
question, I returned home to the green tank, changed
25% of the water, added no fertilizer, added 2 capfuls
of Kent's Pro Clear (a flocculent, tho' apparently not
the best, see below) and three hours later, the tank
was crystal clear. Not just better, but eye-poppingly
clear.
I was surprised, since I had done exactly this set of
things twice before, with no such result. I must have
hit a threshold of nutrient lack and low algae (Euglena,
I am told) population, so that the flocculent did its job.
Merrill, who knows such things, suggested that a
different product works better: Crystal Clear (versus
Kent's Pro Clear).
Some suggested that, while I was on vacation, a fish
may have died; I did lose one Pseudomugil furcatus
female; she was not very big.
Some suggested that I add nitrate, that green water
indicated a deficiency.
This is interesting, because it has been my
experience that blue green infestations indicate nitrate
deficiencies. I actually did add KNO3 twice since the
green stuff started, to no avail, so I remain
unconvinced as to the validity of this remedy. I
imagine this suggestion assumes that one has a
phosphate excess, right? I did test phosphate and
came up with virtually none.
My main concern is: why didn't the System 1 diatom
filter take care of the problem? Did I not run it long
enough? (I ran it for four hours, one time). The
instructions state that you have to turn it off for 45min
every 4 hours, not real convenient. So, I turned it off
permanently.
Sorry for the long post. In any case, my green water
disappeared, at least for now, following multiple water
changes accompanied by the addition of a flocculent.
Thanks again to all,
Roxanne Bittman