# Is this algae or dirty water??



## Fran (2 Sep 2015)

Hi all,, I have my tank flooded for the last three days after a three week dry start. Since filling however, the water appears very green . I have already done a large water change (around 80%) but no improvement. Am running a JBL 1500 filter with sponges and bio rings. Also using ADA amazonia. Any advice welcome.


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## alto (2 Sep 2015)

Look up "green water" 
It will generally run it's course (though if it turns into pea soup it's not much fun)
You might add in some fast-growing stem plants or floating plants, sometimes this is an effective as any of the other GW options. 

Tank looks fantastic!


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## ceg4048 (5 Sep 2015)

Fran said:


> Hi all,, I have my tank flooded for the last three days after a three week dry start. Since filling however, the water appears very green


GWA can be cleared up quickly with the use of a UV. It's presence does indicate however that you might be using too much light.

Cheers,


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## Fran (5 Sep 2015)

Hi, thanks for reply. Not sure if I'm using too much light at the moment. Have two TMC aquarays at 35% about 20cms above surface. Four hour photo period for days two and three and five hour period for days four and five. Not sure what to do now. Can's afford a UV at the moment as the budget is exhausted. Have been doing large daily water changes but no improvement.


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## alto (5 Sep 2015)

GW is a "spring thing" in my area, it comes in the tap water from the resevoirs ... does high light make it worse? maybe ... I've observed it in low & high light tanks, watched it turn into "pea soup" even with lights turned off ... UV can slow it down, if you have UV running on a tank, it's much less likely to develop GW, if you add UV to a "pea soup" tank, it's often a slow road to recovery ... (ultra)micro-filtration is one of the most effective means of removing the offenders but it seems to have fallen out of commerce (where do you even find a System I these days - there were other versions but this was one of the easiest to "charge" & relatively inexpensive to purchase & run).

One of the positives of GW - it can disappear as quickly as it appeared (as in "pea soup" to clear water in 3 days! - with no intervention ... after having given up in despair )
You can try daily water changes, or just follow your normal water change schedule.

If you've no livestock, it's safe (& economic) to use one of the flocculating agents, these are generally fairly safe even with livestock in harder water but do sequester oxygen -  & can dramatically drop pH in soft water tanks. You can follow with a large water change to help remove particles or just wait for your filter to mechanically filter out the particles (add in lots of "filter floss" etc before using a flocculating agent, then switch this out after 24h or so). 

If you've mild GW, it's generally "safe" with plants & livestock - it can block light to plants, it does consume oxygen from water column so you want to be sure of good filtration, make sure there is surface agitation/ripple.

This is obviously a new tank setup, but do you have an established filter media in the filter?


Fran said:


> Am running a JBL 1500 filter with sponges and bio rings


I'd add in some filter floss or whatever "water polishing" media is sold for that filter.

The new Amazonia may be contributing to the cloudiness, sometimes it just clouds the water more than usual, again this will sort out over a couple weeks.


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## Fran (5 Sep 2015)

Hi, thanks for the lengthy response. I have no fish or shrimp in at the moment and have already used "GREEN AWAY" treatment on day 3 but had no effect. I'm afraid the filter media is new so this will not help the situation. I am going to leave the lights off for a day after the next water change and see if this helps. Cheers.


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## sciencefiction (5 Sep 2015)

It's caused by ammonia+too much light. The ammonia amount is normally not enough to kill a fish but it's enough to cause subsequent problems if there were fish inside and the issue is not sorted out. But since you don't have fish... there's no hurry.  In nature, when there's abundance of something, certain things proliferate and others don't. Green water algae like lots of other types of algae loves the ammonia spikes. If you filter out the green water via a UV filter, you may promote other types of algae as a result instead. So, it's best to just ride it out until the tank stabilizes itself, which it will do if the filtration and oxygenation is sufficient.
If the problem persists, then there is still enough ammonia to feed the green water algae. Too much light on its own doesn't cause green water algae but it doesn't help if you already have it.


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