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This definitely looks like green algae water right? I did 1 week of no lights with 1 day of a short light period to not starve the plants i want. I'm in the middle of week two and I've since added excel paired with no lights to help combat it but it's tough. I also added purigen to the filter to see if it was a bacterial bloom and hoped that would help.

When the tank was clear, it got about 8-9 hours of light and co2..which I'm not entirely sure how to measure. The bubble counter is about 1.5 bubbles/second and by the end of the day the co2 liquid was on the light side of green. I used to dose ferts while the water was clear, about 1 pump twice a week of easy green, but I've also stopped dosing ferts once it got cloudy. I've performed 2 water changes in the past two weeks. 

 

Current parameters are 0-0-5. Does anyone have any suggestions or should i continue the black out excel method and do another water change at the end of the week? Or maybe it is a bacterial bloom and i just need to wait it out. I couldn't find any bodies that may have caused it, but i really can't think of anything i missed.

 

I'm super grateful for all suggestions.

 

 

20200728_192908.jpg

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5 minutes ago, Novabound said:

This definitely looks like green algae water right? I did 1 week of no lights with 1 day of a short light period to not starve the plants i want. I'm in the middle of week two and I've since added excel paired with no lights to help combat it but it's tough. I also added purigen to the filter to see if it was a bacterial bloom and hoped that would help.

When the tank was clear, it got about 8-9 hours of light and co2..which I'm not entirely sure how to measure. The bubble counter is about 1.5 bubbles/second and by the end of the day the co2 liquid was on the light side of green. I used to dose ferts while the water was clear, about 1 pump twice a week of easy green, but I've also stopped dosing ferts once it got cloudy. I've performed 2 water changes in the past two weeks. 

 

Current parameters are 0-0-5. Does anyone have any suggestions or should i continue the black out excel method and do another water change at the end of the week? Or maybe it is a bacterial bloom and i just need to wait it out. I couldn't find any bodies that may have caused it, but i really can't think of anything i missed.

 

I'm super grateful for all suggestions.

 

 

20200728_192908.jpg

Sample some water in a white cup.  If a bacterial bloom, the water will look clear in the cup.  If algae, then green, etc.  

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14 minutes ago, DaveSamsell said:

Sample some water in a white cup.  If a bacterial bloom, the water will look clear in the cup.  If algae, then green, etc.  

Oh my gosh thank you

Edit: It's definitely a hint of green in the white container. At least I have confirmation that I'm dealing with algae now.

 

Edited by Novabound
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Unconventional but if you have duck weed in any tanks or access to any, put a big handful in. You can run your lights as normal and as the duck weed ads a big plant draw on the water, the algae starves off and the water cleans up. Once you're going better, skim off the duck weed and add some extra plants as you probably went green due to having good growing conditions and too much nutrients in the water for how many plants you were growing. 

I've had good luck turning a couple tanks around using this trick.  And no chemicals, which many algae solutions suggest. 

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This is the worst way to get rid of green water. Wait. When I set up my big tank in 2007 I used several hundred pounds of something like ADA Amazonia and PowerSand and hit the tank with so much light the fish were sunburned. Within a week the tank was inky green. You couldn't see your hand if you put it in the tank.

It was like this for 66 days. On day 67 it went from opaque to merely murky. On day 69 it cleared and it has been clear going on 13 years.

What happened? Eventually the excess nutrients got used up and the balance between what the plants consumed and what was available stabilized. There was no more excess nitrogen for the algae bloom to feed off of and algae population crashed hard, never to return.

I will admit that after about day 45 you start getting discouraged.

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Lol, @Daniel did you still have plants after 69 days that were that murky?

That is what always freaks me out--algae on hard surfaces I can handle, but algae that consumes plants always worries me that it will end up out-competing them. I buy my precious $15.99 pot of bucephelandra, distribute little starts around the new tank, and watch it be covered in slime within a week. Of course it is simultaneously melting, so maybe the apparent misery of the plant is just the inevitable adjustment to its new conditions...But it is very hard to do nothing. 😬

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@BrandyI had big Amazon swords and Vallisneria at first in that tank and they were tough as nails. And this single celled, free floating, green water algae was merely competing for light and nutrients with the swords but otherwise not getting on the plants or hurting the plants. Slime is usually bacteria, and bacteria feed off dying or dead matter. The slime is more likely a symptom than a cause.

334541713_October6013.jpg.0b4b215aab44ad8a9f858f2cbe55ef73.jpg

Edited by Daniel
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Awesome tank!

Yeah, there is the slime that is rotting plant material, and then there is the snotty "hair" algae that is part of the new tank thing for me. It blooms and then dies eventually. I usually spend a fair bit of time combing it off plant babies with an old toothbrush, while I wait for the tank to settle in. I am not actually sure I need to, it just seems like maybe a good idea to be sure they are getting enough light to recover?

To be fair my green water algae bloom was not as thick as the original post or your situation. It was just unsightly, and bugged me. It was not harming the fish or the plants at all.

Edited by Brandy
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