Guppies, snails, breeding

[Cinnebuns]

On 9/8/2022 at 2:02 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

have specifically heard that it shouldn't be used with shrimp

Oh God I put some in my shrimp tank today. I didn't pour it in but targeted some BBA. Maybe it will be fine?  Oh no

[Guppysnail]

Green water is excellent for fish. I don’t care for it because I can’t be nosey and see each little thing my fish and fry are doing. Since it is not thick pea soup green I would do nothing outside of normal routine and add an extra airstone.  It will resolve itself. @gardenman actually included green water clearing itself in one of his journals. With green water feeding does not need to be as heavy. 
I have tanks directly in front of windows and ones set up intentionally to get sunlight. Sometimes this means green water. They make 3w clip on  uv for HOB filters for $30 sold at chewy.  Or stick in tank ones by green killing machine (pricey)  I use to control it so I can better snoop at my fish 😁 
 

edit check out @modified lung live feed journal fr more green water info and how the cultures clear as the green is consumed. 

Edited September 8, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

I'd recommend moving some used substrate and decor to the 20 to help bring in more beneficial bacteria.

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/8/2022 at 1:15 AM, Cinnebuns said:

Oh God I put some in my shrimp tank today. I didn't pour it in but targeted some BBA. Maybe it will be fine?  Oh no

It should be ok.  Just something to look into and understand in terms of long term health.  I don't know what the actual issue is with it.  I asked when someone on the forum had mentioned the topic, but I didn't get a response regarding any details.

Could be an oxygenation thing, could be a shell interaction. It's hard to know without doing a deep dive and understanding what is really happening with that liquid.

[modified lung]

On 9/7/2022 at 8:56 PM, Cinnebuns said:

About a week in I noticed some cloudiness. I figured it was a bacteria bloom as I had just set up that new filter plus the added bioload. It wasn't. This is my first experience with green water. I've def seen worse in pics but i acted once I realized it. I've had the lights off for 3 days. I've done a 20% wc every day and dosed excel twice. I'm watching to make sure to not over dose that. Idk what the bad effects specifically are but I've heard there may be some. Anyone have any other tips?

Greenwater comes when there's excess nitrogen (ammonia and nitrate) and especially phosphorus in the water. It will go away when all the phosphorus is used up. It's possible the phosphorus is in your tap water. The greenwater is probably why you haven't seen much more ammonia after adding the extra fish.

You want to basically stop or reduce feed so there isn't much more nitrogen going into your water than the bacteria can handle. If there's phosphorus in your water, too much extra ammonia will feed greenwater. When the greenwater clears outs, start feed again. If the greenwater comes back, stop or reduce feed again. Keep repeating until the greenwater doesn't come back anymore. That's the point where all the phosphorus has been used up and you can keep feeding without much worry.

Keep in mind if the phosphorus is in your tap water, water changes will just add more. But if you have to do a water change because ammonia gets too high, then still do it.

When your bacteria population grows enough to handle the bigger bioload, they'll outcompete the green water for ammonia and you can water change like normal again.

The risk with greenwater is that it eats KH very fast and can cause pH to go up to 9, maybe even higher, during the day if there's not enough aeration. pH that high can kill fish. No KH also means your bacteria population won't reproduce and grow. Try to keep it at least above 75 ppm with baking soda. Only add a little at a time so pH doesn't swing too hard.

Cutting lights helps in the short term but not always in the long term. Without light the greenwater won't eat up all the phosphorus and might keep coming back. But also, cutting lights could give your bacteria population a chance to grow big enough without the competition for ammonia. But then you'll need to remove the nitrates as well because greenwater will also eat nitrate if there's still too much phosphorus in the water.

[Cinnebuns]

On 9/8/2022 at 3:14 PM, modified lung said:

Greenwater comes when there's excess nitrogen (ammonia and nitrate) and especially phosphorus in the water. It will go away when all the phosphorus is used up. It's possible the phosphorus is in your tap water. The greenwater is probably why you haven't seen much more ammonia after adding the extra fish.

You want to basically stop or reduce feed so there isn't much more nitrogen going into your water than the bacteria can handle. If there's phosphorus in your water, too much extra ammonia will feed greenwater. When the greenwater clears outs, start feed again. If the greenwater comes back, stop or reduce feed again. Keep repeating until the greenwater doesn't come back anymore. That's the point where all the phosphorus has been used up and you can keep feeding without much worry.

Keep in mind if the phosphorus is in your tap water, water changes will just add more. But if you have to do a water change because ammonia gets too high, then still do it.

When your bacteria population grows enough to handle the bigger bioload, they'll outcompete the green water for ammonia and you can water change like normal again.

The risk with greenwater is that it eats KH very fast and can cause pH to go up to 9, maybe even higher, during the day if there's not enough aeration. pH that high can kill fish. No KH also means your bacteria population won't reproduce and grow. Try to keep it at least above 75 ppm with baking soda. Only add a little at a time so pH doesn't swing too hard.

Cutting lights helps in the short term but not always in the long term. Without light the greenwater won't eat up all the phosphorus and might keep coming back. But also, cutting lights could give your bacteria population a chance to grow big enough without the competition for ammonia. But then you'll need to remove the nitrates as well because greenwater will also eat nitrate if there's still too much phosphorus in the water.

Ah this makes a ton of sense ty!  It also means dosing the bottled bacteria I have left will be helpful.