Advice Very Welcome:Flecks, Green water?, Diatom, Daphinia

[The Great White Hand]

I have an AR980 which has been set up for about 5-6 weeks.

The new tank has got little flecks like bubbles (The water looks great until you are about 1 foot away then you can see the flecks) and seems brown/orangey (I believe tannins from a big bit of bogwood) but could also be masking a bit of "green water", I think. I believe it is getting slowly better, the plants seem to be doing well. I have floculant (Algae -fixer) which I refuse to use ( I bought it in case I couldn't stand the water any more)

I don't want to "blackout" the tank for 3-4 days as I feel my plants won't like it?

I don't know where to hire a diatom filter from in Chch?

I've heard of using live Daphinia. How many?, Who has them? How much$?

Do I sit tight? Obviously, I'm mostly concerned that my fish are happy (they have good colour, no diseases, eat well, etc.) Is exposure to "GW"

harmful to them?

It is extensively planted (variety of swords, crypts, cambomba, anubias, java ferns on driftwood, java moss, dwarf saggitaria, pigmy chain sword, saurarus, straight and twisted vals, glassos, and some others) and moderately populated (Blue Ram pair, 1 Dwarf Gourami, 3 Corys, 1 Brstlenose, 1 Otto, 26 neons and 20 harlequins.

I am currently running the AR980 filter and a Fluval 2 plus from my previous "two footer". I have Aqua One CF1200 canister filter almost completely installed (waiting on a elbow tube). The water chemistry appears good (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, Ph 7, low nitrates and phosphates). I do 20% water changes twice a week, use aqua plus to condition water, add "cycle" occasionally (as I'm about to intall a new filter and take the fluval 2 out)) and am using Flourish and Flourish excel for the plants. I have got some new lighting, based on what I've read from this site (Arcadia, 2 x 30, 1 x 25, 2 natural 8000k, CRI 1A, and moonlight)

I would greatly appreciate any advise, members could provide my with.

Reagrds, TGWH

[purplecatfish]

Sounds like a lovely tank, lots of my favourite plants .

The only things I can think of are the amount of time that the lights are on and incidental light from windows.

[Faran]

If the water seems pretty clear but has specks you might want to get some under a microscope to see what's going on. Most likely it's "green water" which is actually a type of algae and doesn't turn the water GREEN, but can be seen with the naked eye, like you're describing.

Daphnia can be found on TradeMe, but I feel that your fish will make a meal out of them before they have any significant effect on the tank... pet shops often have breeding nets that are used for separating fry from adults. That might do the trick.

[Zoban]

I know a couple of the Guppy breeders in the area here that actually use green water for raising the more specialized fry, I could be wrong but I don't think it will harm the fish any, just less atractive for us humans to look at.

[SpidersWeb]

You said brown, so thats tannins from the bogwood.

Leave it alone! You can remove the wood, or boil it etc but dont do anything to the water.

If the water looks a light green from a distance, then yes "green water". If it looks both then the problem isn't big enough to be a problem, so just wait it out.

The little flecks are possibly air bubbles. I'd suspect this is likely due to the quantity of chemicals you are adding. You can test this by shutting down all your filters and any air stones you have for 5 minutes. If the flecks have disappeared then this is your problem.

The benefical bacteria will build up in your new filter by itself as your tank will seed it, cycle may speed the process up but is really unnecessary. If you're concerned, run both filters at the same time for a week or so.

[The Great White Hand]

Hi,

Thank you for the advice, will try to be patient!

Regards, TGWH