Green Water

[Rude Bastard]

What options do I have available to rid my tank of green water besides
my current regiment of frequent water changes and the obvious addition
of a UV filter? Are there any? I tried Algone about two years ago with
my first episode of green water. It didnt seem to work very well, but
water changes cured it just fine. This episode of greenwater is being
quite persistant, plus my skimmer was down for several weeks(money &
laziness) making it much worse.

Should I just buy a UV filter? I'm a bit worried that all those
nutrients locked up in the water will be released and cause a hair
algae problem or something else.

If I ran the discharge from a UV filter through a denitrification
filter would that get it? Or do the diatomes need more time to decay?

Or, would a diatome filter take care of it for me?

Thanks

[selgado]

I generally find that green water goes away pretty quickly/efficiently
with the addition of corals ;)

Rude ******* wrote:
> What options do I have available to rid my tank of green water besides
> my current regiment of frequent water changes and the obvious addition
> of a UV filter? Are there any? I tried Algone about two years ago with
> my first episode of green water. It didnt seem to work very well, but
> water changes cured it just fine. This episode of greenwater is being
> quite persistant, plus my skimmer was down for several weeks(money &
> laziness) making it much worse.
>
> Should I just buy a UV filter? I'm a bit worried that all those
> nutrients locked up in the water will be released and cause a hair
> algae problem or something else.
>
> If I ran the discharge from a UV filter through a denitrification
> filter would that get it? Or do the diatomes need more time to decay?
>
> Or, would a diatome filter take care of it for me?
>
> Thanks

[Pszemol]

Do you have a reef tank ?
Do you have any corals inside ?
Any filter feeder organisms like sponges, clams, scallops in it ?

Green water in a reef tank, where there are many animals
feeding on algae in the water is a very unusual event...

[kryppy]

On Mon, 07 Feb 2005 11:24:52 -0700, Rude *******
<rotaourATdimcomDEEOHTEEnet> wrote:

>What options do I have available to rid my tank of green water besides
>my current regiment of frequent water changes and the obvious addition
>of a UV filter? Are there any? I tried Algone about two years ago with
>my first episode of green water. It didnt seem to work very well, but
>water changes cured it just fine. This episode of greenwater is being
>quite persistant, plus my skimmer was down for several weeks(money &
>laziness) making it much worse.
>
>Should I just buy a UV filter? I'm a bit worried that all those
>nutrients locked up in the water will be released and cause a hair
>algae problem or something else.
>
>If I ran the discharge from a UV filter through a denitrification
>filter would that get it? Or do the diatomes need more time to decay?
>
>Or, would a diatome filter take care of it for me?


I wish I had your problems! I have enough trouble making green water
in the sun!

[Rude Bastard]

I do have some corals, obviously not enough though.

My tank is 75 gal with about 10 gals in the sump. I have two tomato
clowns, several hermit crabs, snails and other snail like
creatures(forgot the name, trumpets, crimpets???) and approx 60 lbs of
live rock. Corals include one small cluster of green zoos, approx. ten
mushrooms, two small clusters of green stars, several outcrops of a
red stony tube coral and a couple knobs of this pink stony brain like
coral.

I guess its time for some more livestock...

On Mon, 7 Feb 2005 15:25:29 -0600, "Pszemol" >
wrote:

>Do you have a reef tank ?
>Do you have any corals inside ?
>Any filter feeder organisms like sponges, clams, scallops in it ?
>
>Green water in a reef tank, where there are many animals
>feeding on algae in the water is a very unusual event...

[CapFusion]

If you want to clean out those greeen quickly, you can simply use and
mechnical filter to trap most of it out. Rinse out within 24hrs until clear.

CapFusion,...



"Rude *******" <rotaourATdimcomDEEOHTEEnet> wrote in message
...
>I do have some corals, obviously not enough though.
>
> My tank is 75 gal with about 10 gals in the sump. I have two tomato
> clowns, several hermit crabs, snails and other snail like
> creatures(forgot the name, trumpets, crimpets???) and approx 60 lbs of
> live rock. Corals include one small cluster of green zoos, approx. ten
> mushrooms, two small clusters of green stars, several outcrops of a
> red stony tube coral and a couple knobs of this pink stony brain like
> coral.
>
> I guess its time for some more livestock...
>
> On Mon, 7 Feb 2005 15:25:29 -0600, "Pszemol" >
> wrote:
>
>>Do you have a reef tank ?
>>Do you have any corals inside ?
>>Any filter feeder organisms like sponges, clams, scallops in it ?
>>
>>Green water in a reef tank, where there are many animals
>>feeding on algae in the water is a very unusual event...
>

[Paul Izzo]

I prefer to go about it the more natural way. UV sterilizers are not
found in any natural environment. Adding a UV sterilizer will take out
a lot of other good things out of the water that your corals might
like.

Everything in your aquarium is a cycle. You just have to figure out
what part of the cycle to break to get the desired results you want.
Keep in mind that any measure you take can have other side effects.

The water born algae that you have are living organisms that need
food to live. What are the main things algae likes? Light, nitrates,
phosphates. Ask yourself the following questions:

1. How long do you have your lights on?
2. How strong are your lights for your aquarium? Are they over the
recommended wattage for your aquarium size?
3. Does your aquarium in any part of the day receive direct sunlight?
4. How much and how often do you feed your tank inhabitants?
5. Is there uneaten food left after feedings?
6. How often is it that you change your water? How much percentage do
you change?

Some easy remedies to try that don't cost a thing:

1. Reduce the amount of light your aquarium receives. You can try a
complete blackout for a day or longer (this is a good remedy for
freshwater aquariums) but a little bit more complicated when corals
come into play since they also need light. A 1 day blackout isn't
going to kill your corals but it also probably won't do much in killing
the algae either.

2. What is the amount of time that your aquarium lights are on? Most
sal****er aquarists keep tropical fish. In the tropics the amount of
daylight per day is about equal to night (12 hours). However that time
often exceeds that time. Most of us work jobs. We feed our fish in
the morning before going off to work. Leave the lights on all day.
When we come home we want a couple of hours to enjoy looking at our
aquariums. How many hours is that though? Probably more than 12 hours
(keep in mind that 12 is the max. you could play it safe between 10-12
hours.

3. Try feeding your fish less. Almost every aquarist over feeds their
fish in some way or another. Have you ever had elevated phosphates?
Nitrates? Have you ever seen uneaten food in your aquarium? If so you
might unknowingly be over feeding your fish. A good practice to remedy
this is feed your fish only what they can eat in 5 minutes without any
leftovers. Skip a day of the week for feeding. Our fish in the wild
don't have the luxury of eating everyday. They often live healthier
lives in the wild as in captivity. Their not going to die. This can
keep your nitrates and phosphates in line between regular water change
periods.

You might have any combination of the following. What else can you
do to remedy this? Do you have a sump or a refugeum? You can grow
other types of algae there that would compete food (a tip would be to
have the lights on at night when the main lights are off).

These remedies are about as non detrimental as they can get. I've
taken care of this problem before in the past on numerous tanks just
using exactly these remedies. Adding chemicals and using UV
sterilizers are drastic. Mother Nature has plenty of remedies on her
own; otherwise the ocean would look like pea soup right?

Doing water changes might take care of this. That is if you can
remove enough nutrients, algae and algae spores in the process.
However we all know the related problems with doing too frequent water
changes.

Algae is not always a bad thing in the aquarium. I'm sure there are
plenty of people who would want to have your problem. Not all the
pictures of aquariums in books are realistic for the average aquarist.
I keep a little algae growing (under control) in practically every
aquarium of mine in one form or another along with all the benefits of
keeping algae as well.

Well this post is long enough and hopefully can help you out. Let us
know how things turn out?

[Rob Marston]

Maybe brine shrimp will eat them, hatch some BBS throw them in and see what
happens...

Rob

[phflyer21]

Hey, Rude....I have both fresh and sal****er set-ups and only ever had the
"green water" syndrome in the fresh.....my "diatomagic" filter, a diatom
drop-in by tetra....clears the cichlid tank up in about 4 hours....from
can't see the fish murky to crystal.....that filter runs about $80....and
works in salt as well...I used it to clear my murkiness when my snd bed was
disturbed....works great....

The real issue is why the green water in the 1st place...look at feeding
habits, phosphate.....boi-load, nitrates, etc.....a UV will help, but
running one 24/7 gets expensive.

grunfeld in detroit
"Rude *******" <rotaourATdimcomDEEOHTEEnet> wrote in message
...
> What options do I have available to rid my tank of green water besides
> my current regiment of frequent water changes and the obvious addition
> of a UV filter? Are there any? I tried Algone about two years ago with
> my first episode of green water. It didnt seem to work very well, but
> water changes cured it just fine. This episode of greenwater is being
> quite persistant, plus my skimmer was down for several weeks(money &
> laziness) making it much worse.
>
> Should I just buy a UV filter? I'm a bit worried that all those
> nutrients locked up in the water will be released and cause a hair
> algae problem or something else.
>
> If I ran the discharge from a UV filter through a denitrification
> filter would that get it? Or do the diatomes need more time to decay?
>
> Or, would a diatome filter take care of it for me?
>
> Thanks