# Green water



## relaxedfish (Apr 24, 2010)

For some reason the water in my tank has turned green since the last time I did water change and I dont know why.
Any ideas why this happenned? My plants are doing ok but is just the water that has changed color.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

do a 50% water change, make sure the tank isn't gettin direct sunlight (not a worry this time of year), and feed your fish every couple days sparingly for the a week or two, see how it goes.

Normally its excess light
excess food
or lack of water changes


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Is this a new setup? Can you tell us how long it's been setup and your setup such as lighting (and number of hours), fish load, CO2/Excel, ferts, substrate, and also how you cycled it and what the current water parameters are? That would help us to narrow down the problem a bit more. Does the tank get any direct sunlight?


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## relaxedfish (Apr 24, 2010)

I've had the tank running for about 5 years, but i just put plant in it about a month ago. The lights that I have are a double glo HOt5 108 watts fixture which runs for about 8 hrs. a day.

For fish I have 7 angels and one cat fish. They're all about 1 half year (+-).
I did a water change yesterday and changed about 50% of the water but the water still
green, but not as before.

I dont have CO2 I just used Flourish for the plants.
The tank gets some sun light but it was fine during the summer.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Was it not planted before? And was the Glo fixture always there? My guess from what you posted is:

Tank was not heavily planted before and you had a T8 light on it, and you were not dosing anything.

You got a new light because you wanted to grow more plants and then started dosing Flourish. Is that about right?


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## Captured Moments (Apr 22, 2010)

Yeah as 2wheelsx2 mentioned, it would be useful to know a bit about the history of the tank and the before and after setup in terms of bio, equipment, plants, etc..
I suspect the green water has been triggered by the water change. Now, that it has taken hold, it will not go away by mere water change alone.
2 Hagen Glo 54W each T5HO is a lot of light for a 4ft tank. A lot of light if you:
1) don't provide a source of carbon for the plants (Flourish Excel or Co2 injection)
2) Fertilizers. Flourish is micro and is not going to do it alone for that much light. Consider EI dosing (see sticky thread in the plant section)

You usually have green water in a new tank setup or something has drastically changed in the environment, high light, poor Co2, or you suddenly added ferts which you never did before and all of a sudden you have removed one of the limitation factor for plants. A plant would say: Ohh, there is ferts in the water, let's use it but wait I have used up all the available Co2 or carbon and so now I am not happy because I cannot grow properly and I am stressed. In this situation, you are inviting algae to sprout out of dormancy. There is somehow a direct relationship where healthy plants and healthy grow environment = less algae issues and even very minimal or none and poor plant health, poor conditions = invitation for algae to come.

I had green water on 3 separate occasions before. The easiest way perhaps is to borrow or buy a UV sterilizer, hook it up, and let it run for a few days. It would clear the green water but you really should address the potential cause of the green water.

Another solution which I have done with success on one occasion is to reduce the light (raise the light higher up above the water, or shade it partially) to reduce plant demands and growth rate. With lower plant demands, you have greater margin of error in terms of carbon requirement or lack of and fertilizers or lack of. Focus on fixing any lacking requirements that the plants would need and the green water should dissapear by itself.


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## MadgicBug (Apr 22, 2010)

Captured Moments said:


> You usually have green water in a new tank setup or something has drastically changed in the environment, high light, poor Co2, or you suddenly added ferts which you never did before and all of a sudden you have removed one of the limitation factor for plants. A plant would say: Ohh, there is ferts in the water, let's use it but wait I have used up all the available Co2 or carbon and so now I am not happy because I cannot grow properly and I am stressed. In this situation, you are inviting algae to sprout out of dormancy. There is somehow a direct relationship where healthy plants and healthy grow environment = less algae issues and even very minimal or none and poor plant health, poor conditions = invitation for algae to come.
> 
> I had green water on 3 separate occasions before. The easiest way perhaps is to borrow or buy a UV sterilizer, hook it up, and let it run for a few days. It would clear the green water but you really should address the potential cause of the green water.
> 
> .


x2

If you are not using CO2 injection, metricide is a cheap source.

OR

You can consider using a multi-cycle timer with a siesta for a few hrs in the middle of your lighting cycle for the CO2 level to recover in your tank. i.e 4 hrs light 3hrs dark than 4 hrs light.


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## user_error (Aug 15, 2010)

Maybe cut down on the light as well, drop to 6 hrs and see how your tank fares after continued regular water changes...?


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## relaxedfish (Apr 24, 2010)

Thanks for all your sugestions, I'm new at this whole planted tank thing so I'm still learning.

To answer to 2wheelsx2: the tank has been running for just over 5 years and I just had fish in it until about a month ago. I had 2 13" 15 watts bulbs for lights. When I decided to put plants in it I got the new fixture and then the plants and the flourish chemical that I add to the water.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

relaxedfish said:


> To answer to 2wheelsx2: the tank has been running for just over 5 years and I just had fish in it until about a month ago. I had 2 13" 15 watts bulbs for lights. When I decided to put plants in it I got the new fixture and then the plants and the flourish chemical that I add to the water.


That's your answer right there. You went from 30 watt T8's to 100+ watts HOT5. With the efficient reflectors on that GLO, you've probably at least quadrupled the light getting into the tank in terms of PAR (useful light) and then you added Flourish, so now you have nitrates and phosphates from fish waste, trace from the Flourish, 4x the light, but no CO2. I'd definitely cut the lighting hours way back, maybe to 4 - 5 hours until you have this under control.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

considering you have a 55 gallon tank, likely 21 inches deep, 2-3 inches of substrate, you need to raise the lights around 6-8 inches to put yourself into the medium light category and make your life a lot easier.

You can buy a light hanger, or if you know an electrician, as them to make you one out of EMT, as it is a hell of a lot cheaper and just as good.


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## relaxedfish (Apr 24, 2010)

Thank you very much, Ill do that. Man this whole planted tank thing is not as easy as I thought.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

I think the GLO already comes with a hanging kit, does it not? You would just have to rig it up. Cutting back the amount of light by raising and the hours back would help you a great deal.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

the hardest part is getting the lighting just right, then it gets easy from there


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## relaxedfish (Apr 24, 2010)

Again, thanks for all your suggestions.


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## Captured Moments (Apr 22, 2010)

relaxedfish said:


> Thank you very much, Ill do that. Man this whole planted tank thing is not as easy as I thought.


Don't worry too much. This whole planted tank thing is not as complicated as it seems. You just have to learn and remember a few basic rules. When I started, I was overwhelmed by all the info and it was frustrating at times when I had algae break-outs and the why the $##@! certain plants wouldn't grow, etc..
Just keep at it and it will only become easier.
I like to think of it in this order:
1) Light intensity 
2) Carbon requirement (you need Flourish Excel or Metricide-14 (another substitute for Flourish EXcel, same stuff basically), or you can inject Co2.
3) Nutrients - read the section on EI dosing. That's probably the cheapest method.

As some previous posters said, raise the light to reduce the plant activity and demand. It's easier to learn and start growing plants when you are driving at low speed rather than at over 100 mph.

If you have questions, feel free to post and ask. There are a number of people who can help you. I have learned a lot from reading what others have said and from doing research. That's how we all learn. Cheers.


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