Easy Green

[HH Morant]

I have gradually ramped down my Fluval 3.0 to deal with algae. I am down to 30% for white and green and 20% for blue and red. I understand that blue and red contribute more to plant growth. I have also made the mid-day peek shorter, making the morning ramp-up and the evening ramp-down longer.

[Seahorse]

On 6/29/2021 at 6:28 AM, ARMYVET said:

Yes...a UV sterilizer would kill the free floating algae in the water column as it passes thru the sterilizer.  But that is putting a Band-Aid on an open wound.  If we treat the cause of the wound...no Band-Aid needed...not to mentionUv units are not cheap...the bulbs go bad and have to be replaced and use electricity and also add heat to the water. 

They do have their uses but in this case I know we can fix the problem without going to that extreme.  

I've had the same problem, covered the tank for 3-4 days, no light at all.  Removed cover to feed and recovered.  It cleared everything except a few traces on the white gravel.  Algae needs light to grow, take that away and the algae will go away.

[ARMYVET]

On 7/8/2021 at 11:35 PM, Seahorse said:

I've had the same problem, covered the tank for 3-4 days, no light at all.  Removed cover to feed and recovered.  It cleared everything except a few traces on the white gravel.  Algae needs light to grow, take that away and the algae will go away.

Very true but if you have a heavily planted tank ....plants without light don't grow either and can suffer damage. It is a way to clear up the green water but if you haven't found the source of why it is happening to begin with ....it will return. 

[Seahorse]

I would think people with heavily planted tanks would know that.  How do you suggest people determine the cause of green algae if it isn't too much light?  If parameters are A=0, Ni=0 and Na=20 where else would they look for a cause?

[ARMYVET]

On 7/9/2021 at 11:42 AM, Seahorse said:

I would think people with heavily planted tanks would know that.  How do you suggest people determine the cause of green algae if it isn't too much light?  If parameters are A=0, Ni=0 and Na=20 where else would they look for a cause?

What is the Phosphate level in the tank....most people dont test for it but Phosphates in the tank in excess will cause an algae bloom even with reduced lighting.  

[Seahorse]

On 7/10/2021 at 6:42 AM, ARMYVET said:

What is the Phosphate level in the tank....most people dont test for it but Phosphates in the tank in excess will cause an algae bloom even with reduced lighting.  

I don't know. I test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, GH and KH.  I am sick of testing.  I have just covered the tank and will wait it out.

[ARMYVET]

On 7/10/2021 at 12:12 PM, Seahorse said:

I don't know. I test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, GH and KH.  I am sick of testing.  I have just covered the tank and will wait it out.

I understand completely and I am sympathetic to your situation....I am just concerned that after you have blacked out the tank and the green water goes away.....if what caused it in the first place is not found and resolved I fear the green water will come back.

[Seahorse]

I know, it's just that when you start trying to adjust one parameter, it screws up another and fixing that causes other problems.  Fishkeeping used to be so enjoyable, now it's more an exercise in frustration and a money pit.

[ARMYVET]

On 7/10/2021 at 12:39 PM, Seahorse said:

I know, it's just that when you start trying to adjust one parameter, it screws up another and fixing that causes other problems.  Fishkeeping used to be so enjoyable, now it's more an exercise in frustration and a money pit.

I feel horrible that this has you feeling that way but I can appreciate why.  Dont give up.  we have all been there.  I got so disgusted in my very first planted tank 15 years ago that I abandoned the hobby for 15 years.  It was a huge mistake on my part.   We are all here to help guide you thru this and into a place where you will be able to enjoy your hard work.

[Cyndi]

On 7/10/2021 at 12:39 PM, Seahorse said:

I know, it's just that when you start trying to adjust one parameter, it screws up another and fixing that causes other problems.  Fishkeeping used to be so enjoyable, now it's more an exercise in frustration and a money pit.

@SeahorseI feel your pain, but please don't give up! Do what you know, observe the results, and if it works, try to replicate it. If it doesn't, do something different. I think that's what we did pre-internet which made fish-keeping so enjoyable.

 Also, understand if you are growing plants, you are doing more than fish-keeping. You are establishing an ecosystem - which is much more complex. 

Edited July 10, 2021 by Cyndi
clarity

[HH Morant]

On 7/10/2021 at 11:39 AM, Seahorse said:

I know, it's just that when you start trying to adjust one parameter, it screws up another and fixing that causes other problems.  Fishkeeping used to be so enjoyable, now it's more an exercise in frustration and a money pit.

I know how you feel. I have felt the same way. I think I was trying too hard, expecting quick results, and expecting my tank to be perfect. I now realize that this hobby is rewarding and fun if I can just stop thinking that way. Now I try to be less intense and more patient, I know it sounds lazy, but I am in this for the enjoyment. I do what comes easy. I know I can have a beautiful aquarium by finding what works for me and doing that. I try not to stress about what doesn't work. If a plant doesn't grow well in my tank, I try a different plant. There are a million ways to have a beautiful aquarium. I just have to find one.

It also helps when you get beyond the start-up phase, when you are repeatedly faced with drop-dead emergencies because of what is happening to your fish and your tank. A mature tank is so much easier to take care of, and I think I am finally getting there.

I hope you find what is right for you in this great hobby.

[Seahorse]

On 7/10/2021 at 11:56 AM, ARMYVET said:

I feel horrible that this has you feeling that way but I can appreciate why.  Dont give up.  we have all been there.  I got so disgusted in my very first planted tank 15 years ago that I abandoned the hobby for 15 years.  It was a huge mistake on my part.   We are all here to help guide you thru this and into a place where you will be able to enjoy your hard work.

Thank you for understanding.  Mine is not a planted tank, I have enough trouble keeping fish (just fancy guppies, mostly mutts) alive I didn't want to add plants to my failure list.  My tap water is full of chloramine so my ammonia levels are really high out of the tap (1.0+) and my pH is in the 6 range.   The fish (fancy guppy mutts) don't seem to care that their water is green

 

[Seahorse]

On 7/10/2021 at 11:57 AM, Cyndi said:

@SeahorseI feel your pain, but please don't give up! Do what you know, observe the results, and if it works, try to replicate it. If it doesn't, do something different. I think that's what we did pre-internet which made fish-keeping so enjoyable.

 Also, understand if you are growing plants, you are doing more than fish-keeping. You are establishing an ecosystem - which is much more complex. 

Thanks Cindy.  I have a gravel substrate which makes growing plants difficult according to what I've heard.  I've tried some floating plants and they didn't do well so I went back to silk plants which are so much easier to keep  🙂 My "main tank is just a 20 gallon with 6 male guppies in it.  I have an empty 10 gal for females, no one in Houston seems to have female guppies these days, and an empty 5 gal quarantine tank.  I'm playing with crushed coral in the 5 and 10 to raise the pH from ~6 to at least 7.4 so I'll see how that goes.  My tap water is full of chloramine (ammonia tests 1+ out of the tap) so I struggle to keep that under control. Just so many issues that didn't exist 20 years ago when I had my last tank.  Thanks for your advice and help.

 

[Seahorse]

On 7/10/2021 at 12:09 PM, HH Morant said:

I know how you feel. I have felt the same way. I think I was trying too hard, expecting quick results, and expecting my tank to be perfect. I now realize that this hobby is rewarding and fun if I can just stop thinking that way. Now I try to be less intense and more patient, I know it sounds lazy, but I am in this for the enjoyment. I do what comes easy. I know I can have a beautiful aquarium by finding what works for me and doing that. I try not to stress about what doesn't work. If a plant doesn't grow well in my tank, I try a different plant. There are a million ways to have a beautiful aquarium. I just have to find one.

It also helps when you get beyond the start-up phase, when you are repeatedly faced with drop-dead emergencies because of what is happening to your fish and your tank. A mature tank is so much easier to take care of, and I think I am finally getting there.

I hope you find what is right for you in this great hobby.

Thanks for the encouragement.  My tanks were cycled and full of healthy fish having babies (guppies) prior to the Texas freeze, then the tap water went to h__l in a handbasket and I switched to bottled water which lost the pH so I'm trying crushed coral to get that back but it's just one thing after another.

[Cyndi]

On 7/10/2021 at 4:52 PM, Seahorse said:

Thanks Cindy.  I have a gravel substrate which makes growing plants difficult according to what I've heard.  I've tried some floating plants and they didn't do well so I went back to silk plants which are so much easier to keep  🙂 My "main tank is just a 20 gallon with 6 male guppies in it.  I have an empty 10 gal for females, no one in Houston seems to have female guppies these days, and an empty 5 gal quarantine tank.  I'm playing with crushed coral in the 5 and 10 to raise the pH from ~6 to at least 7.4 so I'll see how that goes.  My tap water is full of chloramine (ammonia tests 1+ out of the tap) so I struggle to keep that under control. Just so many issues that didn't exist 20 years ago when I had my last tank.  Thanks for your advice and help.

 

Hmm.. It's simply a problem to be solved. Let's take each issue one at a time.

Here is what I would do - Add plants to suck up all that excess ammonia. Hornwort and Pogostemon stellatus (sold by AQ Co-op) are good nutrient sponges. Make sure you have an adequate light. Forget what the internet says about gravel not growing plants. I have gravel and/or black blasting sand  (BBS) in most of my planted tanks. I just use root tabs around the Crypts.  

I'm not sure that the chloramine is affecting ammonia levels - and it is removed by Prime. Not sure if you know that Prime will raise your ammonia readings even though it binds ammonia and makes it non-toxic.

Also, I wonder what happened to the pipes during the freeze that affected your tap water? (Sorry if you already mentioned this) Using bottled water seems expensive long term and figuring out the tap situation seems more manageable. 

Another solution is to connect with other aquarists in your area via FB or something. I'm sure there's some sort of Houston Aquarium Association or some such - they may be able to give you dialed in advice about local conditions.

I agree with HH Morant - this hobby is supposed to be fun! Good luck! 

[Seahorse]

OK, I can look at adding live plants.  During the Texas freeze, pipes broke everywhere, pump stations went off line and we were forced to boil water for days.  The City dumped all kinds of chemicals in the water system to purify it and from what little they will reveal, chlorine / chloramine levels were really raised and my testing reflected a sudden rise in ammonia content of the water.  Yes, I know about Prime, have used gallons of it and know that it detoxifies ammonia for ~48 hours. Yes, bottled water is expensive but it is ammonia free. It also has a very low pH and I'm playing with crushed coral in the two fish-free tanks.  There are multiple fish groups in Houston and I am in several FB fish groups.  Many local fish stores and fishkeepers lost all their fish when we lost power for days and their fish froze so my problems are not unique.  I didn't lose power so didn't lose any fish but I have to deal with the water issues too.  My participation in this thread started when I posted that I have dealt with green water by covering the tank for several days until it cleared...that's what I'm doing...but then we digressed to my phosphate level and I said I was tired of testing, that fixing one problem just led to another problem.  So.....fishkeeping USED  to be simple and fun, that's why I restarted during the pandemic stay at home orders.

[HH Morant]

I am in Houston, too. You are right about the ammonia added to the water after the Big Freeze. 

One way to make the hobby simpler and more enjoyable is to have fish that can live in your water as it is. There are lots of fish that can live in our Houston water. I think the ph in my aquarium is usually around 7.8, but I don't test it regularly and I don't deliberately do anything to affect the ph. I have angelfish, brown and spotted holpo catfish, bristlenose plecos, corydoras, and an electric blue acara.

I also think that the importance of ph is exaggerated. Most fish can live perfectly well in water outside their native range. See aquariumscience.org in the articles regarding ph.

 

[Seahorse]

On 7/10/2021 at 7:25 PM, HH Morant said:

I am in Houston, too. You are right about the ammonia added to the water after the Big Freeze. 

One way to make the hobby simpler and more enjoyable is to have fish that can live in your water as it is. There are lots of fish that can live in our Houston water. I think the ph in my aquarium is usually around 7.8, but I don't test it regularly and I don't deliberately do anything to affect the ph. I have angelfish, brown and spotted holpo catfish, bristlenose plecos, corydoras, and an electric blue acara.

I also think that the importance of ph is exaggerated. Most fish can live perfectly well in water outside their native range. See aquariumscience.org in the articles regarding ph.

 

Thank you.  I just have fancy (mutt) guppies, nothing high class or delicate and I haven't lost any fish since the freeze but I'm worried about the ammonia level and then of course people said oh my pH is too low using bottled (Kroger drinking) water which has a pH of 6.0 to 6.4...which led to recommendations to add crushed coral to raise pH, GH and KH.  I've only added it to my fishless tanks just to see how it turned out and yes, it did raise pH overnight.  I do know that guppies like a higher pH and I buy most of my fish at 360 Aquatics and they have hard water. If I can get back to using tap water and fight the high ammonia levels I won'thave to worry about pH.  According to the report I got from Public Works, our tap water averages around 7.0. I feel certain the ammonia in my tank with fish is detoxified because they are doing fine even with an algae bloom.  I'm just trying to get my other two tanks aligned so I can add fish to them.  I'll look into getting some live plants and see if that helps.  Thanks again for the advice.

[HH Morant]

I haven't tested my tap water lately. I will do it tomorrow. Shortly after the Big Freeze my tap water had 0.5 ppm ammonia. I could do a 50% water change, making it 0.25 ppm ammonia in the aquarium, and the ammonia and nitrites would be zero within 12 hours. The tank could convert that amount of ammonia that quickly.

 

[Seahorse]

On 7/10/2021 at 11:24 PM, HH Morant said:

I haven't tested my tap water lately. I will do it tomorrow. Shortly after the Big Freeze my tap water had 0.5 ppm ammonia. I could do a 50% water change, making it 0.25 ppm ammonia in the aquarium, and the ammonia and nitrites would be zero within 12 hours. The tank could convert that amount of ammonia that quickly.

 

I got the most recent water report (2020) from the City.  In downtown / Midtown there is chloramine in the water while suburbs and most other areas have chlorine and the levels of each vary around town.  Out of the tap, my water tested 1.0-1.5 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 10 nitrates and 7.6 pH.  Everything but the ammonia level was OK.  I couldn't get the ammonia level down even with water changes until I switched to bottled water.  Oh well, eventually I'll figure it out.  Have a good night.

[Cyndi]

On 7/10/2021 at 7:59 PM, Seahorse said:

OK, I can look at adding live plants.  During the Texas freeze, pipes broke everywhere, pump stations went off line and we were forced to boil water for days.  The City dumped all kinds of chemicals in the water system to purify it and from what little they will reveal, chlorine / chloramine levels were really raised and my testing reflected a sudden rise in ammonia content of the water.  Yes, I know about Prime, have used gallons of it and know that it detoxifies ammonia for ~48 hours. Yes, bottled water is expensive but it is ammonia free. It also has a very low pH and I'm playing with crushed coral in the two fish-free tanks.  There are multiple fish groups in Houston and I am in several FB fish groups.  Many local fish stores and fishkeepers lost all their fish when we lost power for days and their fish froze so my problems are not unique.  I didn't lose power so didn't lose any fish but I have to deal with the water issues too.  My participation in this thread started when I posted that I have dealt with green water by covering the tank for several days until it cleared...that's what I'm doing...but then we digressed to my phosphate level and I said I was tired of testing, that fixing one problem just led to another problem.  So.....fishkeeping USED  to be simple and fun, that's why I restarted during the pandemic stay at home orders.

You are right - used to be simple! Life seems more complex in general IMO.