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Using Daphnia to Clear Green Water


Alesha
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I've got 2 completely green 5 gallon tanks and a 20L that leans green all the time, sometimes worse than others. And my 55-gallon has been murky for 2 weeks and I'm wondering if it's going green too. So...I'm a little frustrated and want to find a way to clear it.

Have any of you ever done this? Added daphnia to a tank that had green water? Did it work?

I'm thinking I wouldn't need very many and then the fish will enjoy them as a treat too.

Any advice on trying this method of clearing the water? 

And I do have a reserve of green water brewing in another bucket, and will be setting up a tank for green water eventually.

Thanks everybody.

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I don’t have any experience with this, but I’m guessing the fish would eat the daphnia before they had a chance to really clear the water. 😕 I’m trying to imagine elaborate methods of pumping tank water into a daphnia bucket and back into the tank... XD Maybe you could put the daphnia in a breeder box?

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If there are no fish in the tank, then yes adding daphnia will help clean the green water, but they could clean it so well that they eat all the algae and then die off because there's no food left. If you add daphnia to a tank with fish, the fish will most likely eat all the daphnia before they establish themselves. If you want to raise daphnia, you could put a start4er culture in a tank with no fish and let them go, scoop some out to feed fish, and as the water gets less green, add more green water from one of your tanks. As far as getting the water to clear up, first you need to figure out what is causing the green water? Excess light, nutrients? A combination of both? Be sure to check your timer for lights if you are using one, I had one that went on the fritz and wouldn't shut off. I didn't realize for a while because it's in the basement and I rarely go down there late at night, but it started growing algae bad, and I couldn't figure out why, then one night I went down there in middle of the night and ah ha! The light was still on! Solved the problem.

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@Hobbit, I did actually read that suggestion when I was doing a little research on the subject. But truthfully, out of the 3 breeder boxes I own, I was never able to keep a guppy fry in them. I can't imagine that they would actually corral the daphnia. I'm pretty sure they would just swim right through any little crevice they liked. But...maybe it would protect them long enough to clear the water a bit? I don't know. I'm still researching. Thank you for the thoughtful input. I'll keep you all informed if I give it a try. 👍

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I also thought about putting daphnia behind a matten filter, with floss over the intake to keep them out, but ultimately I just went with a uv sterilizer. I have had fry tanks with green water that I wanted to clear as the fry grew, in that case I think daphinia would be amazing, with juvenile hatchlings being food and adults clearing the tank...and becoming food as fry grew.

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7 minutes ago, Andy's Fish Den said:

If there are no fish in the tank, then yes adding daphnia will help clean the green water, but they could clean it so well that they eat all the algae and then die off because there's no food left. If you add daphnia to a tank with fish, the fish will most likely eat all the daphnia before they establish themselves. If you want to raise daphnia, you could put a start4er culture in a tank with no fish and let them go, scoop some out to feed fish, and as the water gets less green, add more green water from one of your tanks. As far as getting the water to clear up, first you need to figure out what is causing the green water? Excess light, nutrients? A combination of both? Be sure to check your timer for lights if you are using one, I had one that went on the fritz and wouldn't shut off. I didn't realize for a while because it's in the basement and I rarely go down there late at night, but it started growing algae bad, and I couldn't figure out why, then one night I went down there in middle of the night and ah ha! The light was still on! Solved the problem.

Thanks, @Andy's Fish Den. I've been pondering the "why" of the green water. Every tank has a different light. Every light is on a timer. The 2 smaller tanks are on from around 7 am to 2 pm, then from 10 pm to 11:30 pm. One light came with a tank we picked up from FB marketplace (LED, but I have no idea the output or power. I actually put a small square of gorilla tape over the blue LEDs to try to minimize their algae-inducing influence). The other is the 7-inch NICREW Fish Tank Clip on Light, Clamp Aquarium Light with White and Blue LEDs. There are no control to adjust, just white or blue. I always use the white LEDs. 

I have only dosed one of the tanks with Easy Green within the last month, as it was a new tank and I was trying to give the newly planted plants a head start on growth. 

Neither tank gets sunlight. One is bare bottom and used as a quarantine tank.  I have java moss glued to a rock and I'm floating hornwort, water wisteria and moneywort in the top. The other is about a month old with blasting sand substrate and several planted plants.

I've had the lights off for 2 days in both tanks, except while feeding. We did a 50% water change in the quarantine tank as we were getting it ready for new fish. It's a tad bit clearer after that. We start the med trio in there tomorrow. 

If you have any ideas, I'll be happy to hear them. 🙂 

 

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13 minutes ago, Brandy said:

what about a breeder "box" that is a fine mesh? 

DeluxeNetBreeder_240x.jpg?v=1606332587
WWW.AQUARIUMCOOP.COM

Separates Fry from Larger Fish Adjustable Plants for Cover Easy to Set up The Penn Plax Deluxe Net Breeder is an easy to use, lightweight baby saver - ideal for any livebearer or egg-laying fish. The floating net breeder comes with...

 

I have that one somewhere, I think. I'll see if I can find it. If I can keep the netting place, that might do the trick. 🙂 👍

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@Alesha prompted me to get out the microscope to see what makes my green water green.

And it turns out my sample of green water was full of a single cell phytoplankton of the genus Ankistrodesmus. I bet other forum members green water is the result of other phytoplanktons like Chlorella, but who knows. If anyone else has a microscope, it would be interesting to see what your green water looks like.

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8 minutes ago, Daniel said:

@Alesha prompted me to get out the microscope to see what makes my green water green.

And it turns out my sample of green water was full of a single cell phytoplankton of the genus Ankistrodesmus. I bet other forum members green water is the result of other phytoplanktons like Chlorella, but who knows. If anyone else has a microscope, it would be interesting to see what your green water looks like.

Oooo...very interesting!!! I've never had a microscope, but it certainly would be fun to see which I had in my water.  Whatever I have is definitely not caring for the "lights off" days. It has died off to the point I can see approximately half-way back into the tank. So...it must need the light several hours a day and as soon as it doesn't have it, it begins to die fairly quickly.

The other interesting thing to note is that while I've had the lights off in this tank, the water wisteria has started growing like crazy! It's up out of the water and curving itself to stay under the surface as much as possible. It's also putting on new leaves at almost every leaf/stem junction. I thought the plants would suffer with the lights off,  The moneywort isn't growing, but isn't dying either.

Soooooo...that leads me to the conclusion that my water has LOTS of nutrients even without the light. Hence, the green water must've been caused by a little light and whole lot of fertilizer. I've only squirted one pump of Easy Green in that tank since it was set up. I think I just seeded this tank with lots and lots of biological material, then dosed with fertilizer. That must be what pushed it over the green edge. 😉 

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