MGilchrist Posted October 6, 2004 Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 Hi All my tank is green, this seems to be due to its position as it gets a lot of direct sunlight (unfortunately the only place I could talk wife into having it.) tank is recently cycled, thought the G/W was part of this but it persists, have been doing lots of water changes all through the process. nitrates very low lots of plants in hope of them outcompeting the algae and am feeding flourish excell to encourage algae killer helps but not a long term solution. have thought of getting a uv steriliser but seem to be very expensive, any comments on cost and availibility or diy options if anyone has done. thanks for any comments Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brianemone Posted October 6, 2004 Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 curtains? do uv sterilisers stop algae?? i didnt think they would interesting if they do Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_from_nz Posted October 6, 2004 Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 yes U.V. steralizers do stop algae but you need a higher power than they say I think algea can only multiply in a stagnant situation maybe a couple of power heads would give you better flow and reduce the algae. also JBL do a package for canister filters that gets rid of green water they are little brown balls in a netting (like activated carbon) i think they are clay based and that keeps the water quite clean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGilchrist Posted October 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 brian, yes curtains can be closed, but lots of natural warmth for house from sun, so loath to keep them closed dan any chance you have a name for the jbl product? what does it do? kill, filter, remove nutrients, or something else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brianemone Posted October 6, 2004 Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 yeah sorry the curtains was just a joke :roll: i was really only interested about the uv killing off the algae :lol: how do people with ponds prevent algal growth? (if the answer is really obvious someone can just pm me a slap) (probably the uv units?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGilchrist Posted October 6, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 thought you might have been jesting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted October 6, 2004 Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 Get a phosphate test kit. The reason you have green water is not due to too much light, it's a nutrient imbalance. The most common problem causing green water is too high phosphate and/or nitrate level. I've had tanks in deirect sunlight before and haven't had algae problems as long as the phosphates and nitrate are under control. Typical values required are less than 0.05ppm phosphate and around 10-20ppm nitrate if the tank is in sunlight. With bright artificial lighting you can get away with 0.1ppm phosphate and still 10-20ppm nitrate. The high phosphates could be coming from tapwater or overfeeding. Some additives for pH have very high phosphate content. Also most activated carbons release more phosphate than they adsorb. Here is some links that may help: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/filtration.0.html http://www.fnzas.org.nz/filtration-2.0.html http://www.fnzas.org.nz/filtration-3.0.html http://www.fnzas.org.nz/aquarium-conditions.0.html http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilize ... onlin.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_from_nz Posted October 6, 2004 Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 Brian yeah the U.V units are what they use mgilchrist, sorry I tried to find the box but i must have thrown it away. It filters out the algea (along with tank clouding) and lasts about 3 months i think Two three moth lots come in a pack (about $30) Next time i go into wet pets i will get the name for you (probably saturday) can you sheild the tank from the sun any more (maybe a more atracktive way than leaving the curtains in that room closed 24/7) what lighting do you have if the bulb colour temp is too low (kelvin rating) the algea will grow alot more i have 2 x 30w 10,000k and 1 x 30w 7,800k the higher the K i think the closer it moves to the blue spectrum (i dont think this makes scence as the actual colour is based on wavelength and is measured in nm's i think but i know 10,000k is a much "bluer" white light than the 7,800k which comes out "green") There might be someone more experienced in this scence that can comment. 'ajbroome' is a good plant grower i have heared and he might be able to shed some light on what lights should be used (no pun intended).also there are certian nutriants that promote algea growth and if you starve your tank of these they wont grow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted October 6, 2004 Report Share Posted October 6, 2004 I've had the same problem with algae when my tank was next to a window. I was told to use phoszorb which you place in your filter and it takes out the phosphates in the water. worked a little bit but because of the direct sunlight had problems getting algae under control. I eventually moved it away from the window. so not problem now. another idea is to chuck some daphnia in to the tank. They supposedly enjoy the green algae and the fish enjoy the daphnia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petplanet Posted October 7, 2004 Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 If the actual water is green then the best thing you can do is kill all light for three of four days to make the algae bloom crash. You could test for phosphate and nitrate but these could well be zero as the algae bloom has already consumed them. Have you taken the carbon (if any) out of your filtration system? If not this will be cancelling out the effect of any algae killers you are using. Check your water supply that is going into the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted October 7, 2004 Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 Of course when the algae bloom dies you'll have a lot of phosphate and ammonia products again - creating perfect conditions for more algae. Water changes with phosphate and ammonia product free water is the best solution. It will take time. Phoszorb will speed up the process but it may take quite a bit to fix the problem. I've had lighting above my tanks in the past that's much brighter and has more UV content than direct sunlight through a window with no problems. It can be done quite easily with a little attention to detail - like getting that phosphate level down... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spooky Posted October 7, 2004 Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 I've had lighting above my tanks in the past that's much brighter and has more UV content than direct sunlight through a window with no problems. The sunlight through the window won't have much UV at all. Glass is very good at blocking UV. Probably the UV was killing the algae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted October 8, 2004 Report Share Posted October 8, 2004 The UV was filtered so the wavelength that kills bacteria and algae spores wasn't present. A little UV still gets through the glass however... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_from_nz Posted October 9, 2004 Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 plastic is about the only product that doesnt let uv light through it perspex in particular i think. but as warren said glass filters out the majority of the uv spectrum and then you just get the yellow sunlight that algea loves Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke* Posted October 9, 2004 Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 When I had green water in my tank I did daily 50% water changes. After about 3 of those I was fine. I also have been fine since, and I have a much better filter, so I think it was a combination of the both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan_from_nz Posted October 9, 2004 Report Share Posted October 9, 2004 the 50% water changes is what gets your phosphates down and in turn reduces algea speeking of phosfates I have noticed over the past week or two an algea boom throughout my tank to start with i thought it was just caused from me not cleaning it whatsoever for two weeks while i had visitors staying but then after two days of getting it nice and clean the algea had taken over again both the brown dirty looking stuff and green spotty stuff. at the same time i noticed my angels spawning that were a spawning pair but havent for over 12 months and i actually thought they were past their spawning used by date now I know that it is the time of year they spawn but the fact that they havent for well over 12 months (and having a very clean tank for this time) and scince moving them into a designated breeding tank with nice live baby guppies for them and their decision that they dont want to spawn now i am wondering if anyone has heared of higher phosphates being a variable in influencing angles to spawn ??? P.S. sorry for changing the subject slightly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGilchrist Posted October 10, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2004 Thanks for the replies all Warren good articles and advice, have tested the tank and water supply for phosphates both showed extremely low levels of phosphate, in the case of the tank I assume this is because all the phosphate is tied up in the green water. Current plan of attack, lots of water changes, less feeding of fish (must be overfeeding to give source of phosphate, hum ho thought I got over that years ago) and when things get better start slowing the water changes and adding fertilizer to kick start plant growth. may still look at making a diy uv steriliser, just cause i enjoy that sort of thing, but as been pointed out it is not really a cure just masking the problem that caused the algal growth one last thing, I have peat under the gravel, could this be a source of phosphate? Thanks Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warren Posted October 12, 2004 Report Share Posted October 12, 2004 It could be but if your phosphates are low to start with maybe not. What was the phosphate reading from the test? Have you checked nitrates too? I'd expect regular water changes while the water is green will help a lot in reducing the overall phosphate level whether it's bound phosphate or free phosphate... What type of food do you use? Maybe you can contact the manufacturer to see if they will disclose the phosphate content... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGilchrist Posted October 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 Phosphate reading was less than 0.1ppm scale gets a bit vauge at that point, probably closer to 0 than 0.1 Nitrates about 5-6ppm neither test has ever been much higher than this. have reduced feeding and upped water changes to 40-50% daily things are clearing rapidly, i only hope i can keep it that way feeding is wardleys total tropical gourmet flake and bloodworms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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