# Green Water



## surfnturf90 (Jan 21, 2014)

Hey everybody I'm brand new to the forums as I've been out of the aquarium game for a couple years. 

I have a planted tank that has been up for about 5 weeks, and the water has been getting greener and greener for the past 3 or 4 days, last night visibility was down to about 8 inches. It had already gone through a cloudy phase about 2 weeks ago, but it cleared up after a few days and I assumed that was just part of the cycling process. 

Tank Details
75 gallon tank with 55 gallon tank for a sump (filter sock and diy wet dry using dollar store pot scrubbers are the filtration)
Temp: 76-79 F
PH: 7.8 - 8.0
Ammonia: 0 - .25ppm
Nitrate: 0 - 5ppm
432 Watts from a Tek sunlight system. The bulbs are several years old (although only ran for about a year), and they are a mix of actinic and some other reef-targeted bulb (aquablue maybe?). 

Stocking
About 20 live plants of various sizes and species, all of which have shown signs of growth ranging from minimal to decent (nothing has really taken off in a way that calls for trimming yet though)
10 Harlequin Rasboras
6 Gold Barbs
3 Rose line sharks
1 Male Betta
5 Otocinclus
8 Bronze Cory's (3 are albino)
3 Assorted plecos
5 large snails (with several baby snails/hitchhikers)


I've been doing some research and it sounds like the options are:

1)Blackout: fixes the symptoms temporarily, but not the root of the problem

2)UV system: same as blackout, but can be run as needed to prevent algae from coming back in large numbers

3)Diatom filter: same as above, but actually removes the floating algae from the water, preventing the dead algae from releasing nutrients back into the tank

4)Chemicals: I'm not interested in doing this because of the danger they pose to the fish

5)Fix the nutrient balance/Shorten light cycle: This treats the causes, but the problem is that I don't know which nutrients to add more of and which to add less of. 

6)Do nothing and let it sort itself out: self explanatory, if its a normal part of a new tank then I'll just wait, but that doesn't seem like the case.


Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!


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## Marshall (Jul 8, 2013)

let me take a crack at this

1- a blackout for a few days should fix the green water, but that's a total blackout, wrap the tank in a blanket, and don't touch it for a few days, not even for feedings, the fish and plants should be ok for a few days

2- I don't know much about UV systems so I cant comment here

3- diatoms are the brown, easily removable algae that comes with any new tank, they will decrease over time as excess silicates from the substrate decrease through water changes

4- some chemicals can help plant growth and are safe when dosed as directed, flourish excel (a carbon supplement which can be used as a replacement for CO2 in moderate to low lighting)and flourish comp (a comprehensive, well rounded liquid fertilizer) are fish safe nutrients that will encourage plant growth thereby reducing the nutrients left over for algae, slowing it down. 
stay away from commercial algae removers though

5- it seems to me that you have a huge amount of light with no CO2 injection, you need to cut the lights back substantially, that's why blackouts fix green water. those lights are also not the right spectrum to encourage plant growth, you need something in the 6500k to 10000k, 6500-6700k being the best. Actinics wont do much for plants. 
for ferts see #4

6- green water isn't going to go away on its own so option 6 is out, only diatoms will go away on their own.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

I prefer UV sterilization, though it is the most expensive, because it is THE most effective, IMO. I tried two unsuccessful blackouts in my last green water problem, then caved and bought a UV sterilizer. 3 days later (30G tank w/9W Green Killing Machine UV sterilizer from PetsMart), water was crystal clear and green water never came back.

Plus, you can use the UV sterilizer for thinks like nuking Ich protozoa when coupled with a salt-high temp treatment regimen (but don't use UV with meds, as it will break the meds down to caustic levels).


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

T5 4' bulb = 54W X 4 = 216W And this is the most normally used on a 75g
This also represents high lights and needs CO2 in order not to have algae problems. Moving the lights higher reduces the effect
some so it's a commonly used way of reducing an algae problem when it's just a small amount. Even though an actinic bulb
produces some light in a spectrum that plants can use, an article I recently read said it should not be counted on to supply
more than 30% of the needed light in a two bulb set up/w one bulb being an actinic.
Many plant grow light fixtures come/w 8 bulbs. If this is what you have you might be able to see if you can remove some of
the bulbs. Often they are in pairs for the ballast. So if you want to, try taking out different pairs till you find ones which are
actually in a pair which is for one of the ballast which don't cause the others to go out when removed. Just a suggestion if
you don't want to be forever trying to fix the algae problem. I can see that to most it might not make sense to buy a fixture
which holds 6 or 8 bulbs and only use 4 slots but since you already have it, you can save some bulb money by only
using 4 slots and have the benefit of spreading out the bulbs as well. But it's your tank so still only a thought.
A Diatom filter is expensive.
Flourish Comprehensive is fairly complete though lacking in some needed nutrients and I used it exclusively when I first
started using ferts...would be a good starting point to cause the plants to grow better just as Marshall said which would
cause them to take up more of the nutrients. Actually if your not using any at the present, this may be the least of
what is causing the problem over the excess light, but still worth taking a look at.
Indirect sunlight is neglegable, but does count er go the blanket in a blackout. But direct sunlight causes algae a lot.
I had a ten G tank/w that and it was so thick you had to touch the glass with your hand on the inside of the tank in
order to see it. Only reducing the amount of light had any effect on it as I wouldn't use chemicals either. That tank had
direct sunlight on it. Once when it was like that a friend came over and looked at it and then looked at me and I said
not to worry cause it's just my science project...LOL...


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## surfnturf90 (Jan 21, 2014)

Thanks for the replies everyone!

Right now I think my plan of attack is going to be to reduce the light cycle from 12 to 8 hours, and possibly only run 4 of the 8 bulbs as Raymond suggested. I'm dosing Seachem Excel which I believe is CO2 so I'll up the dosage of that and see if that helps the plants outcompete the algae. 

If there isn't any improvement within a week, I may cave and buy a cheap UV unit.


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Your plan will not work if you have green water!
Lights out 3-7 days(Idon't think it needs to wrapped).
Excell is not co2,but an alternative carbon source for plants,and has some algae killing ability.
You are best with lights out and a uv steriliser will work on the green water also.
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f2/green-killing-machine-41327.html?highlight=green+water+UV


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## NotRightNow (Jan 23, 2014)

Eeh! Thanks for posting this and for the responses! I'm having the same problem and just looked up a UV sterilizer. Only $19.99 for up to 53 gallons. I'm heading out to get one right now! Thanks again!


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