Squirrel's 38g Progress Report

[Squirrelbuddies]

I ran the diatom filter for about an hour last night. Wow -- what a difference - the water looks so clean. But now I realize what my problem is. The cloudy water is actually green water - although it doesn't look green when in the tank. But the white powder in the diatom filter turned a beautiful (not) pea-soup green.

So, it's now been 24 hours since I ran the filter and the water has gone from clear to very cloudy once again.

Lighting: 75 watts (8000k tubes) on for 5 hours, off for 2 and back on for 6 hours.
(will be 96 watts (6700k) next week...)

pH 6.4
phosphate .50
nitrate 5.0

Filtration: Eheim 2213

I've been reading about green water and it seems it's often blamed on poor housekeeping and/or too many nutrients. I change 40% of the water weekly and the nutrients do not seem very high as indicated above. Lights are only on for 11 hours total and there has been no direct sunlight since the one day I forgot to close the blinds sometime ago.

Is my filter not adequate for this tank? It's rated for 65 gallons. I do have big waste producers (5 rainbow fish). Lighting? on too much?

I'd like to cure this without a blackout if possible. My tiger lotus is just starting to grow . It has three tiny leaves poking out.

Would running the diatom filter for a couple of hours each day for the next few days work?

Any ideas/suggestions are very much appreciated before I go nuts.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Anyone? The oscar tank prospect is looking better and better as the days go by. The only thing saving the tank at the moment is that I bought a new car last night and have been very focused on that!!

 

[lljdma06]

Blackout Can't you move the tiger lotus somewhere else during the black out? Or is it sensitive like crypts?

The crypts in my 15g survived a 3 day black out with out a problem. Not sure about the tiger lotus, as I've never had to black out the 10g. My advantage is two tanks. When I black out one, the more sensitive plants are moved to the lighted tank. I will always have at least two planted tanks now. I don't know what to tell you. I was plagued with Green water for a few weeks, I thought it was tannins and EI mess-up, but it was Green Water. A black out was the only thing that stopped it.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Thanks for the replies! I am going to give the diatom filter one last chance this weekend. (It's running now and the tank looks sparkling clean!) Will run again tomorrow...If this doesn't work, then I'll do the blackout Mon, Tues and Wed. The tiger lotus has grown a lot in the past couple of days and I think it would be fine now with the blackout. I could move it into one of the other planted tanks, but I would rather not disturb it.

I can't believe how much algae the filter has taken out of the water. I've recharged it twice and the diatomaceous earth is already very green again.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

I'm trying to get a handle on this green water thing. What I have discovered is:

1. Running a diatom filter for an hour makes a huge difference, but the water gets very cloudy (green) again within hours.

2. Having a "siesta period" (ie having the lights shut off for 2-3 hours in the afternoon) makes it worse. The water is even more cloudy when the lights come back on. (A LOT more cloudy.)

3. I am very stubborn and I want to get rid of this without doing the blackout!

I am running the filter for 2 hours tonight to see if that makes a difference and I'm going to skip the siesta period tomorrow

I realize that introduces two variables at the same time...but I'll report back tomorrow with the results! I promise, if that does not work, I will do the blackout.

 

[Themuleous]

Good lucky! Let us know how you get on. Could you not just run the diatom filter all the time?

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

No, it can only run for 4 hours max and then it needs to cool down. Plus, the poor fishies! They may have a coronary if that thing ran all of the time. It's kinda like having a hurricane inside the tank! Here's a pic I took last night right after I ran the filter. It's a little blurry because I was too tired to setup the tripod:

The big bushy plant that occupied the rear, left side corner is still there -- it rec'd a major pruning and the clippings ended up in other tanks. Within a couple of weeks that corner should be filled in nicely.

So, here's the scoop tonight: The water is a little cloudy - but not even close to what it looked like yesterday afternoon.

I think instead of fussing over the tank this evening I'm going to make a batch of homemade potato & garlic ravioli with brown butter. Cheers!

 

[lljdma06]

Good luck with your plan. I hope it works for you. I think I nearly had a heart attack when my 15g got over the green water! I was so happy.

Your tank is very pretty, you should be proud.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

lljdma06 and fishkiller_nomore -- thank you so much for the kind words!

Here's a pic of the filter in action:

You can see the algae starting to accumulate on the filter...nasty stuff.

Oh yeh, fishkiller_nomore, I found some cool twigs for the tank (they came off the birch tree out back.) They may find their way into the tank...hee-hee! Did you say you soaked them in a bleach solution first?

 

[tarheel]

Hey guys I know im new around here I will probably get yelled at for this sugestion but I have a 20G with 2 dwarf gauroumis ( sorry cant spell) and 5 neon tetra's, 2 small clown loaches, and yes I plan to sell them back when they are more than a few inches. but I have 6 amazon sword plants and I had cloudy water for like 2 months, then I got a new bucket (a white one) and found out my water was actually grean. I went to LFS and bought Tetra brand "Algae Control" my water was clear after one treatment and has been for a month now, No negative effects on fish or plants. Just thought I would throw that out there.

Good Luck with your problem
B)

 

[lljdma06]

Ohhhh lookatthethingimajig!!!!

Is that the latest technical term for a diatom filter, because I didn't get the memo.

It's an odd-looking contraption to say the least.

 

[Themuleous]

Yeh never seen or for that matter heard of one of these filters, seems to work thou!

I didnt get the memo either, we really should have a word with management

You tanks looking great, BTW and the plants seem to be doing great

Sam

 

[RYO]

Just a note on the cloudy water issue, i had problems with one of my tanks not clearing. After lots of chopping and changing, my problem was down to my water conditioner and me being to cack handed with the stuff
It might be barking up the wrong tree but worth a shout.

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

RYO -- I had that problem in one of my tanks awhile ago - I was going a bit overboard on the conditioner! But I think this is truly green water at its worst.

Interestingly enough, the problem gets worse in the dark!! Last night I ran the diatom filter again after the weekly 40% water change. The tank looked absolutely fabulous -- clear as a bell -- I shut the lights off as it was late night and this morning (at sunrise) the water was more cloudy than before the water change and the diatom filtering! I have noticed this the past few water changes that the water gets worse when the lights are off. This does not make sense to me...how/why does the water-born algae get worse during "no light" periods? It was totally dark last night and yet the water was green this morning.

Now, to make things even more interesting -- I changed one of the Nutra fin canisters this morning and have had the lights on all day (14 hours so far) and the water is less green, less cloudy than it was this morning. I'm almost wondering if I leave the lights on for 24 hours or so....maybe this will clear?

The plants are growing like crazy. The tiger lotus has leaves the size of my hands and the vallis grows several inches each day.

And to top it all off, my town just started using chloramine in the water supply. So now I get ammonia readings in my tanks after water changes....based on my research this is normal and the readings are "false". I hope so. My water conditioner is supposed to "neutralize" chloramine and the ammonia is converted to a harmless state...

 

[Squirrelbuddies]

Well, it's been a week and the water is beginning to look a whole lot better! Still a little cloudy and slightly green - but I think the worst of it is over. I know I could have just done the blackout and been done with it...but I just couldn't bring myself to cover up the entire tank for three days.

I'm still adding ferts --- but only once a week now. Hmmm...let's see - other changes: I gave the 4 praecox rainbows to my daughter and brought two of the boesmani's to my favorite LFS. I actually brought a total of 10 fish to the LFS (4 female congos and 4 blackskirts from another tank.) I felt so badly bringing them back.

Anyway, the tank is comfortably stocked now.

The cabomba grows like crazy and so does the lily! I had to cut two giant leaves off of it today as they were covering 50% of the surface.

Here's a current picture. I know my photo skills suck. Hubby suggested I read the owners manual. Imagine that -- hee-hee!! BTW -- the white thing on the bogwood is a snail. It's been in there for ages and its shell turned white a few months ago.

Also, I've been busy "tuning" the 29 gallon tank - which was converted to a planted tank in February. Yes, I've been keeping that one a secret!! Here's a picture:

I promise to improve my picture-taking soon!