My Water's Going Green.

[andy_j]

I have a 24 x 9 x 9 breeding tank. The 6 week old babies have gone into a grow-out tank and i have a new batch of 2 day old fry.

Whilst the last lot of babies were in the tank, the water turned pea green. I moved them into their growout tank and it's remained green since. The tank was washed and sterilized and set up again using matured water and filter (air-powered foam) and now, the water is turning green again.

Now the tank is in the conservatory which would explain a lot. But so are my other 6 tanks and they're crystal clear.

The fry tank has a lid but all the sides and back are open (no background) I was thinking of putting some black card on all but the front.

Any suggestions on what i can do....bearing in mind the babies are only 2 days old so i can't move them.

Thanks in advance

Andy

 

[modaz]

the position of the tank esp with no background and the sides open are the problem, you will like you say need to close these off, is this tank in a position where the midday sun hits it? i would wait until the fry are old enough then move them and start the tank up again but this time with no mature water just the filter, it could be that the mature water you are using is holding the algae spores that are causing the initial problem.

 

[andy_j]

Thanks Daz.

The conservatory is north facing so get very little direct sun. The roof is white opaque polycarb which lets in light but no sun. I took the water from several of the other mature fighter tanks and they've remained spotless..

I've blacked out all but the front now so we'll have to see. It's driving me mad although the fish don't seem too bothered by it.

Andy

 

[modaz]

Thanks Daz.

The conservatory is north facing so get very little direct sun. The roof is white opaque polycarb which lets in light but no sun. I took the water from several of the other mature fighter tanks and they've remained spotless..

I've blacked out all but the front now so we'll have to see. It's driving me mad although the fish don't seem too bothered by it.

Andy

its not direct sunlight that causes this prob its long periods of natural light so me saying midday sun does seem a little over the top as what i meant it the period of light and the intensity of it, ive had to move some tanks around to combat this problem, the fry will love it in there, i had a fry on the window sill at home and it was thick green and the fry grew much faster than the tank below with fry in it, both had the same amount of fry in (give and take 5 or so) LOL, and the same amount of food, both tanks were the same 12x12x24 clearseals, so it proved that the bloom was indeed a food source for them. was a bugger trying to catch them though in water that wasnt so clear.

 

[andy_j]

Maybe this is the way to go then daz....green water in your tanks (i've just renewed my koi pond UV and the water in the pond was so green that i couldn't see 1" into the water...koi have emerged better than any winter previously !!!!!)

One question for you....do you leave a "night light" on for you baby fighters...a small table lamp for example so they can see their food at night ?

Andy

 

[modaz]

Maybe this is the way to go then daz....green water in your tanks (i've just renewed my koi pond UV and the water in the pond was so green that i couldn't see 1" into the water...koi have emerged better than any winter previously !!!!!)

One question for you....do you leave a "night light" on for you baby fighters...a small table lamp for example so they can see their food at night ?

Andy

no mate, the most important thing to do is to let your fry sleep, its like anything really, thats prob why im so short because ive never got time to sleep they will go and find food in the morning.

 

[ibbledibble]

as well as being a food in itself, i once heard of someone (on here i think) who added some daphnia to his fry tank (with green water) and they fed on the bloom, and reproduced and the fry ate the baby daphnia. apparently worked really well and the fry grew really fast.

 

[tibby25731]

You could always just use one of those magnetic algae cleaners to clean it off for now, before you move your tank or whatever.

 

[ibbledibble]

You could always just use one of those magnetic algae cleaners to clean it off for now, before you move your tank or whatever.

its green water, not algae build up on the glass (or at least thats how i read it)

 

[andy_j]

Correct Ibble. That's the funny thing...no algea on the glass at all...just pea soup water. I suppose that every time i do a water change, i just feed the algea with the nitrates and phosphates in the tap water.

I've also added a massive water lettuce to the grow out tank to see if it can suck out some nutrients.

Fish seem happy enough though.

A

 

[dusky]

Have a look at this Andy. It's really usefull, i hadn't realised how many types of algae there was.
[URL="http/mralgae.blogspot.com/2008/01/algae-alert.html"]http/mralgae.blogspot.com/2008/01/algae-alert.html[/URL]