Tavel

Seriously, how do you get rid of green water I've been doing weekly water changes and I even did a full (80% or so) change yesterday...and it's STILL clouding up.



it's a 10g. It used to hold a goldfish and 2 ottos, but the goldfish got sick and went promptly into the turtle's belly.

So it's just had the 2 ottos for the past 2 weeks, I haven't fed the tank at all and the nitrates read between 0 and 5, closer to 0.

My tanks always have a little bit of green haze, only viewable in the white bucket, but this is like veggie juice.

Dino

Have you tried using filter floss to physically remove the algae?

Tavel

yes, it can't seem to keep up...or it clogs and the filter just bypasses. I just gave up as it didn't seem viable, maybe I'll give that another shot.

mathas

Here are quotes from two good pages on algae, which should give you several things to consider trying:

Dino

Sponge prefilter on the filter intake, rinsed 2, 3 times a day, maybe?

Willow branches would be an easy fix.

Nice post above.
Good info.

sirdarksol

Agreed that the willow idea is good.

I've got one question: Is that tank near a window? I can't really see its surroundings, but if it's getting natural sunlight, that could be feeding an algae bloom.

Butterfly

Green water is unicellular algae that will sometimes reproduce so rapidly that the water will turn green. Excess light(usually sunlight/bright outside light) and excess nutrients will usually cause this. Do you have phosphates in your tap water or the fish food your using?
The willow branches are easy to root and will suck up excess nutrients fast.
If you have any fry they would love the green water. Everybody can grow green water but me. I tried to grow some for my ram fry and had no luck
Good luck

Tavel

I'll send you some

I'm trying the willow branches, luckily they didn't go beddy-bye for the winter yet.

the lighting specs are 15w fluorescent tube running for 6hrs a day. I'm afraid to do a blackout because the ottos need some munchies (i could feed them wafers but then they can't graze all day like they should). I also didn't want to change my lighting scheme because I was adjusting the water-change schedule...I adjust one thing at a time to reduce stress on the tank and illustrate which change had the desired result.

It doesn't get ANY ambient light, it's in the basement. So when the lights are off, it's DARK.

Butterfly

SEE! You can even grow green water in the DARK!
Carol

Shawnie

poor carol..you been trying for green water/algae for how long?

Tavel

I'm recounting how this happened and I can only conclude the Ottos did it. Before I had ottos, it was just the goldfish and there was a lot of algae on everything. the tank was practically green (but with crystal clear water!). Put the ottos in and they had it cleaned up in about a week...then a few weeks later the water turned green.

I left it for a couple months thinking it was just a phase and would correct itself...but no. My theory is the ottos cull the population of "good" algae so much that the floating algae has free rein over all the resources...which ultimately chokes out the "good" algae.

So for you, try that. Put a goldfish in a tank with some ottos, if i'm right you should have green water in no time.


Anyway...thanks for all your help guys. After I knock the algae down I'll start doing the blackout method. I don't think I should do it right away because all that algae would die, rot, and cause havoc with my chemistry. Hopefully the diatoms can grow fast enough to feed the ottos.

Peterpiper

Ok that is one green tank.
IMO First look at the filter, you said that its is getting clogged quickly ( no wonder )
You can use a funnel ( clean never used ) and fill it with filter floss, get a small power head and pump the water through a UVS then to the funnel, change out the floss as required. can you add a phosphate remover to the filter?
Pete

sirdarksol

Peterpiper brought up a good point.
Check your municipal water supply's phosphorous levels (you should be able to find a relatively recent test online). I have a phosphorous problem because of fertilizer use in the area. Hopefully that will change now that phos in fertilzer is illegal.

Tavel

the city doesn't test for phosphorus, so I don't know the levels. However, I think it's irrelevant because this doesn't happen in any of my FOUR other aquariums. Green water wouldn't be isolated to one tank if the phosphorus was a contributing factor.

sirdarksol

Phosphorous is a contributing factor. There's no question there. Algae needs it to grow (that's why it's illegal in fertilizers around here).

You're right that there has to be another factor, as well (likely the combination of goldfish/otos that you suggested), but there is phosphorous present in that tank. I guarantee it (though it could be from fish food rather than water supply).

The thing with algae is that you've only got to cut off one of its "fixes" to start driving it away. It needs nitrogen, phosphorous, and light to grow. In your case (because of the otos), you can't completely cut any of these off, so you've got to minimize them as much as possible. This means frequent water changes until the tank balances out again. If that doesn't work, figuring out a way to remove extra phosphorous or nitrogen from the tank may be necessary.

Tavel

I see your point. I'm saying there's no reason to adjust the balance of phosphorous if that's not what's actually out of balance. But you might be correct in that I've overlooked something. Perhaps the goldfish food contains more phosphorous than the flake food...

Anyway, I think the willow is working because the water hasn't gotten any cloudier overnight, it may have cleared slightly too. I think the ottos eat it the willow too...so that's good.

here are some pics of the filter...lol





and this one especially, LOLZ.



I took out the extra bio-media and put a bit of filter floss in, and replaced the polishing pad. I'll check it again tomorrow and clean/replace as necessary.

sirdarksol

If it's not the light (in a basement, not likely) and it's not the nitrates (at 0-5, it's not), it's probably the phosphorous. Good news is that the willow is working on that, as well as the nitrates.
And yes, goldfish food is going to be high in phosphorous, because it's a high-veggie food (I have a hair algae problem in my molly tank because of the herbivore food). I let the hair algae grow because it's better than green water.

It's good that it's working. Pulling the stuff out with the polishing pads will help, too, because it's removing the nutrients that the algae has consumed.
I'd bet you'll notice a difference in a couple of days.

Tavel

replaced the polishing pad again today, it looked like green felt. I can't believe that happens in a day.

soldieroffortune1974

The goldfish food contains high phosphates,and so does the flake food.
IS the turtle that ate the fish in the green water? 1 thing you haven't mentioned is cleaning the gravel to remove waste material. You introduce phosphate everytime you feed the flakefood.The fish and turtle excrete phosphate everytime they produce waste. The turtle waste would be rich in phosphates. Water changes remove some of them,along with the algae.I would suggest doing a thorough cleaning of the gravel,along with the water change,and continue filtering with floss,and reduce feeding and the light.I would cut back the light by about 2 to 3 hrs a day (not a total blackout). If all else fails,I would suggest using a phosphate remover.I use Seachem Phosgard,when it gets out of control.

By the way that is some nice looking green water,and could be usable for many different things.

Lucy

He could give it to Carol, she's been trying to get green water for a while now. lol

Dino

I am taking green water to Carol in January so she can have some.

Lucy

Awww, that's really nice of you.

Sorry Tavel, don't mean to hijack. I'm really glad to hear you're getting a handle on things.

Tavel

UPDATE TIME!!!

This is un-freaking believable. I can't believe one week can make such a huge difference.

Before:


After:


You can even see my ottos stuck to the side, they're so cute!

Seriously, it just looks like I dumped all the water out and started over. I showed the photos to my sister and she thought I photo shopped the green tint in, it's just such a dramatic difference. Amazing, thanks for everyone's help. This is a true fishlore community success.

Butterfly

Great improvement Tavel! Good job
Thanks everyone for thinking of me
Carol

Lucy

Wow Tavel, that's amazing, you must be thrilled to see your tank again.

sirdarksol

Awesome! That looks great.

Fishies-for-me

Ok after reading this thread I am very curious how you use willow branches..what kind.. can you just cut them...what do you do with them in the tank??

sirdarksol

Weeping willows, cut them very fresh, shove them into the substrate. The things will root almost any time they have water and fertilizer (I have relatives who started a willow tree from a cutting only a couple inches long). Since water and ferts are found in spades in our aquariums, they're almost guaranteed to work.

Fishies-for-me

Sounds cool...( sorry for the hi-jack) is there anything you need to know...will they rot after rooted? can you grow them in there ?? ( i know they will get to big) but how fast do they grow will they put out leaves underwater??...lol...sorry to sound so dense.

sirdarksol

That much I don't know. I only know about them because I have family that has grown willows from twigs.