need help with green water!!!

[frag'em]

Hello everyone, I had a problem with some green hair algae, than once I scraped the algae, after a week or so my water turned a light green color, I just started running carbon, I am looking for help getting rid of the algae and keeping it clear, any ideas?

 

[The Ng Thing]

First step would be a couple water changes. You could do one big water change like 50% or a couple small ones 20-30% spread out over a couple days. Keep running the carbon in the system & make sure you use RODI water for topoffs and your water changes.

Also if you haven't already, I would try to remove/scrub off the hair algae outside of your tank in a separate bucket because the pieces are just going to go right back into your tank if you scrub them inside your tank.

This solution is only temporary because the cause of this is probably somewhere in your maintenane/feeding routine. For a more permanent solution, I would recommend you tell us more about your tank (filtration/setup) as well as your maintenance/feeding routines. From there the people on this forum will be able to offer more advice. Good Luck

 

[frag'em]

I have a 28g cube, sponge filter with carbon and media rack, I feed 2 ounces of mysis to my 2 clowns, scissors tail goby and manderin

 

[tommy6905]

Here's another solution if the one above doesn't work for you, seachem makes a product called clarity, its for clearing algae blooms...tank would be sparkling clear in a day

I have a bottle u can have if your interested

 

[JohnK]

This is the one thing UV sterilizers are actually useful for. Check the classifieds, you might find one cheap used.

 

[frag'em]

Thank you, but I will get a bottle at the lfs

 

[tommy6905]

Ok its reef safe as well, won't hurt a thing.

 

[frag'em]

That's good, I just did a 10g water change, already looking better, going to put the clarity in later

 

[frank180reef]

what does the clarity do? what goes in has to come back out.................

 

[tommy6905]

It clears up algae blooms, all I know is I had a wicked hbad algae bloom in my old tank, put that stuff in, algae cleared right up and I never had an issue again

 

[The Ng Thing]

http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Clarity.html

If you use that product it seems you'll have to change out your sponges after it clears up since it just binds to the particles.

 

[tommy6905]

That's a good point, I forgot I had to do that, been awhile since I used it

 

[alexzobi]

Hey all, I'm having the same problem right now. I have a 50 gal with a 10g sump. I have a small clown fish, a BTA and two damsels and a cleaning crew in there. I have about 15 lbs of live rock, plus filter mesh, chaeto, bio stones and an eshopps 100 in sump skimmer for mechanical and biological filtration. I was doing 10g water changes at least once a week, and constantly monitoring water quality. Everything was fine for the first seven months of setup. Then all of a sudden in a matter of about three days, the tank water became so green, I can't even see the live rock inside. Since then, I've been doing 10g water changes daily. I'm going on two weeks now with no sign of improvement. I've changed out filters and the I cleaned out all debris of anything not living. I don't know what else to do. advice?

 

[stingythingy45]

Hey all, I'm having the same problem right now. I have a 50 gal with a 10g sump. I have a small clown fish, a BTA and two damsels and a cleaning crew in there. I have about 15 lbs of live rock, plus filter mesh, chaeto, bio stones and an eshopps 100 in sump skimmer for mechanical and biological filtration. I was doing 10g water changes at least once a week, and constantly monitoring water quality. Everything was fine for the first seven months of setup. Then all of a sudden in a matter of about three days, the tank water became so green, I can't even see the live rock inside. Since then, I've been doing 10g water changes daily. I'm going on two weeks now with no sign of improvement. I've changed out filters and the I cleaned out all debris of anything not living. I don't know what else to do. advice?

How do you check salinity?
The only time I ever had a green water bloom was during hyposalinity treatment for ich.
Do you feed any type of phytoplankton products?
The best way to get rid of a green water problem is with UV sterilization.
Water changes only seem to fuel it more.

 

[pallobi]

This is the one thing UV sterilizers are actually useful for. Check the classifieds, you might find one cheap used.

agreed... that, and PERHAPS, disease CONTROL, is all they are good for...

if your issue doesnt clear up, a small UV will do the trick...

 

[jamesdong009]

I have a 28g cube, sponge filter with carbon and media rack, I feed 2 ounces of mysis to my 2 clowns, scissors tail goby and manderin

If that's per day, then you've been way over feeding. My fish get that per week if they're lucky.

 

[inverted]

Hopefully the 2oz is a typo Another way to get rid of green water is a diatom filter. Even something like the small Marineland Magnum HOB canister filter would be sufficient, as it allows you to run diatom media. I think having an extra canister filter lying around is probably more useful than UV. UV kills things that pass through it, but diatom filters remove everything; usually too much for a reef. However, if you kill it, you release all sorts of nutrients into the system. If you remove it they are gone. And can also be useful for other situations when there is too much of something in the water. Kid drops a can of fish food in the tank, organic buildup leads to dinoflagellates, as well as bacteria bloom, phyto bloom etc... Definitely not to be run all the time, but really I think they are one of the most overlooked products for a reef.