Green mist of death.

[Murphy-18]

Hi, i recently been having problems with green water. I ordered a Green Killing Machine UV sterilizer (hasnt arrived yet) i was just wondering, should i turn the tank lights off whilst the Green Machine is in action?

here are some pics.

Help appreciated.

 

[Ed Seeley]

You won't need to turn the lights off while the UV's running - it will kill all the planktonic algae regardless.

Bear in mind though that this is treating the symptoms, not the cause of your algae. If you kill off the free-floating stuff something else will replace it! My pond usually goes green for a week or two in spring and if I turn the UV on to clear it I always get rampant blanketweed growth in it's place! If I wait for the bloom to clear naturally then the blanktweed never really gets going either. My quarantine is always a nice green colour (it does wonders for the koi's colours), more so than your tank, and I hate to think what the blanketweed would be like if I put a UV in there!

I think you need to add quite a bit more plant mass in there for starters! Your tank is very sparsely planted. If you don't want fast growing stems in there (needing regular trims around the piranha!!!) then maybe you could use floating plants instead?

 

[Murphy-18]

Thanks ed, yes, didnt want anything too fancy, and i have no co2 or anything, but i dose with easycarbo. I have twisted vals and rotalla indica in the back whch you cant see. Along with some moneywort and the foreground plants as you can see. None of them have really taken off because i have had problems with different ypes of algae, so i have had to been doing blackouts. Then just when i thought i was doing well adn my plants are starting to come on strong, i get green water. I have also recently ordered some amazon frogbit, will that help take care of any algae problems in the future along with the uv sterilizer?

Also do you sugest i leave the Uv on when permanently, or just until its done its job?

Thanks again.

 

[Ed Seeley]

Also do you sugest i leave the Uv on when permanently, or just until its done its job?

You will probably find that until you solve the causes of the algae (which is basically the lack of plant mass and growth IMHO) you will need the UV on permanently. Even though you have other plants (and the flaoters will help IME) what you really want are a load of quick growing stem plants! Hygrophila polysperma is an excellent bomb-proof choice IMO. Are you fertilising to go with the Easycarbo? That is just a source of carbon so you need to dose all the other nutrients too so the plants will thrive.

 

[Murphy-18]

Im not adding anything else apart from esha prophyll (advised by lfs) but i heard about that TPN+, should i get some of that? I am gonna get more plants when i have things underc control more. But i cant have too many becasue these fish require quite some room. I just want somethign to fil the back out a bit, and some nice foreground plants, leaving the3 middle an open swimming space. Any suggestions?

Cheers

 

[Graeme Edwards]

How long is your lights on for? Is the aquarium near a window?

A few more plants will help, but I suspect your over cooking it with your lights or natural light.

Get your lights on a timer and no longer than 6-7 hours given the plants you have chosen, that should help.

Cheers.

 

[Murphy-18]

How long is your lights on for? Is the aquarium near a window?

A few more plants will help, but I suspect your over cooking it with your lights or natural light.

Get your lights on a timer and no longer than 6-7 hours given the plants you have chosen, that should help.

Cheers.

It is near a window but it gets no sunlight at all, and i aim the blinds away from it so the daylight doesnt get too it as much. I have 1.2 wpg, and they are on a timer from 8 till 5. I will cut it down a couple of hours, should i buy TPN+?

Thanks

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Being by the window even if you are doing all you can to deflect the light will be aggravation the situation. Ive found filter-wool does a good job of mopping up green water as well as a UV.

There is to much light for what your doing there. Cut that down to 7 hours tops. You can work back from the time you go to bed. As for fertilising. Go for the trace mix (TPN) and add some TPN+ capsules at the base of the plants. Dose around 3ml of the TPN per day. The TPN+ is to strong for what your doing.

Hope this is helping?

Cheers.

 

[Murphy-18]

Thank you, i have filter wool pads i my filter, and i replace them every 2 weeks because i can get them for really cheap off the internet. I will do as you mentioned. When you say TPN capsules, do you just mean root tabs, because i already have those under the plants. 🙂

Thanks again, very much appreciated. 😀