[APD] RE: A cheaper effective way to kill Green water.....UVeffects lo ng term?

["Dicosola, Victor" <victor_dicosola at lmco.com>]

Tom and others,

After a high dosage of UV light...lets say a week or two...What impact does
UV light have on plants?  I've heard the UV light oxidizes any
nutrients/ferts in the water. So I would guess, good water changes during
the UV dosage AND keep dosing the KNO3'3 etc. or should one NOT dose ferts
during this time?  Also (very important question)...If one uses UV light
(every other month or so) what effect will this have on the long term health
of plants?  Of course (I know) all this could be eliminated when one clears
the issue to begin with of the green water and such. Cut back the lighting,
good ferts, water changes etc.  Thanks all!  Take care,

Victor Di Cosola

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Message: 1
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2004 12:24:39 -0500
From: "Thomas Barr" <tcbiii at earthlink_net>
Subject: [APD] A cheaper effective way to kill Green water/cladophora
	and	others 
To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com


I had a person that wanted to kill green water that kept coming back but had
no funds for a Diatom filter/UV etc, had high light PC's. 
Daphnia were out(fish eat them), water changes did not work, blackout would
work .....for about a week.

So I tried another approach and use for Copper sulfate.

Say like Copper safe(Mardel labs). The point is to kill what's there in the
water, then correct conditions and not have the reoccurance. But we first
have to killl what's there already. Many understand how __tenacious__ green
water/Cladophora is/are. 

But _if_ removing the plants is not out of the question, placing them in a
bucket for a 3-5 days, then this should work for any algae/snails/inverts
left in the tank. 
Add 1/2 dose for the ich treatment. Wait 3-5 days.
Do 2 x 80-90% water changes. This will remove virtually all of the Copper,
any left overs will be used by the plants(plants need a small amount of
copper), roughly 1.5% to 1% of the orginal concentrration,(1ppm of Cu
diluted by 90= 0.1ppm => diluted again by 90=> 0.01%) you can do another
water change to be safe but I think this is low enough to not cause any
issues with plants/critters. 
This is also a good chance to remove any excess detritus, adjust the
substrate slopes etc, redesign things. 

Rinse plants every couple of days with tap water while in the bucket, rinse
very well before returning the plants to the tank. 

Some might find this more acceptable than paying 80$ or more for a UV/Diatom
etc. 
It'll kill most algae spores, any algae on equipment etc. 
If you do a dip in bleach, peroxide, alum/lime etc after the treatment with
the plants, this should really clean out a tank well. Some folks spend a lot
of time pick algae off gravel/driftwood/equipment etc, this is a pretty good
method since many times if algae has become an issue, you need to preen and
prune the plants anyway, so you are going tom remove/uproot them often
anyhow.

It's easier than complete tank tear downs etc and it's safer than bleach etc
on bacteria/fish(don't need to remove them) etc.

Also, the change to the plants in the bucket with mild Chlorine/less
light/pH/Temp shock will hurt the algae on the plants also, you can put the
bucket in a dark place like a blackout also.

So if you have pulled some hair out over green water, Cladophora etc, you
may try this. Be careful upon returning the plants back, pick them clean and
make sure to correct the problems you had prior in the tank.  

Many folks have troubles with Cladophora so this might help them also but I
have not tried it on it yet. Cladophora does not attach to plants really,
but gets entangled very well. As always, read precautions on the product
before adding it. Copper will kill the shrimp/snails also. 
FWIW, You likely could use a milder dose of copper to get good results than
1/2 dosages for ich.

Regards, 
Tom Barr
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