Unsightly tank.

[AmberC]

Ok.. I need some help if possible or maybe just some ideas. I have a 125 gallon planted tank with 4 discus (two paired off and I found eggs yesterday!) 3 cory cats, 1 cardinal, 8 otos, 4 serpae and 1 rummy nose. I am using two 110 aquaclear filters.

For a couple months I was struggling with green water, because I didn't know what it was. Finally I figured it out and kept the lights off in the tank a couple of days and put dark sheets over my window to keep the room darker. This pretty much cleared up the green water, but what I was left with was hazy, cloudy water. No water clarifiers will work. I've been only doing one water change a week (25%-50% at a time) but am thinking about doing two (at 50%) This week will be my first at two 50% water changes. The water seems to clear up a bit when I do a large water change. I was going to do more than 50 yesterday, but thats when I found the eggs and I stopped the water just in time before I uncovered the eggs!

I change my filters once a month and like I said aquaclear. I have stopped using any plant fertilizer for a while now and all that I put in the tank is stress coat. I always rinse my filters and my water parameters are perfect. Ph is about 6.8. My 20 gallon tank is crystal clear and I'm using the same water for both tanks. I dont understand it and its really frustrating me. Anyone have any ideas?

Oh.. I know overfeeding can sometimes cause cloudiness.. I use a live worm feeder and feed live black worms and hikari frozen bloodworms. My discus wont accept anything else. (Haven't been able to try live brine yet.)

Also.. when I look thru the tank from the side, it still looks green. But from the front it just looks cloudy. From the side, I cant see very far into the tank.

Any ideas/suggestions?

[AmberC]

Here is a picture of the tank and how it looks now. (You can make out ONE of my discus in the middle on the right side of the plant on the bottom lol) the other 3 I cant make out.

[ronrca]

Wow! Thats a nice tank setup. Congrats!


I change my filters once a month
What do you mean by change them?

Green water can be a nuiscance and can come from a number of factors. Too much light, duration of lighting too long, too much nutrients in water, etc.
How long are your lights on in a day? How much wc do you do in your other tanks?
White cloudiness can be a bacteria bloom or sediment floating around. Have you checked your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate lvls?

[AmberC]

Wow! Thats a nice tank setup. Congrats!


What do you mean by change them?

Green water can be a nuiscance and can come from a number of factors. Too much light, duration of lighting too long, too much nutrients in water, etc.
How long are your lights on in a day? How much wc do you do in your other tanks?
White cloudiness can be a bacteria bloom or sediment floating around. Have you checked your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate lvls?

Thank you.

I change out my filter media once a month.

I check my water parameters often and they stay at 0. (amonia, nitrate, nitrite.) I've even checked phosphates because my lfs told me that can sometimes cause cloudiness. The phosphates are at 0.5 ppm.. or they were yesterday before the water change. Its not too high so I didn't think that was the reason. (LFS's are quick to blame one thing or another without really trying to find the real reason.)

My other tank is only a 20 and it has a figure 8 puffer and I only change 25% once a week. Params stay at 0 for that tank too.

[gators111]

One way to clear it up is to purchase either a diatom filter or a HOT magnum filter with the micron filter to polish the water. Unfortunately, that means spending money.

[Dood Lee]

Green water usually means that you had a nutrient imbalance in your tank. It would help if you listed your tank parameters, i.e. light wattage, co2 injection, fertilization schedule, etc.

[Tony_S]

I change out my filter media once a month.


This is probably the root of the problem IF your changing ALL of your filter media. It should be CLEANED(in dechlorinated or tank water) once a month, but not changed.

The hazy, cloudy water sounds like a bacterial bloom, one of the symptoms of "new tank syndrome". Which could be caused by changing the filter media once a month.

Its suprising your not getting any ammonia or nitrIte readings at all!? Possibly because its a large tank with a fairly low bioload. There's probably enough nitrobacters, etc. in the gravel/sand to keep the tank ALMOST balanced. Still...your upsetting the balance of the tank enough to cause a bacterial bloom...doesnt take much.

thats my best guess anyways...

Tony

[AmberC]

Green water usually means that you had a nutrient imbalance in your tank. It would help if you listed your tank parameters, i.e. light wattage, co2 injection, fertilization schedule, etc.

I'm not exactly sure what the wattage of these lights are. They came with the tank, so probably the lowest. I dont use co2 and I stopped putting fertilizer in the tank. I was using Florish and only once a week after water changes, but like I said, I've stopped that for a while now.

Tony.. No I dont change out all the media at once. I rinse my filters out in tank water with every cleaning and I change one piece of media (either the foam or the carbon) at one time. Then I wait a couple weeks and change out the other piece and dont change it again for another month.

I AM a seasoned aquarist. But I've never had these issues before. I had 9 tanks running when I lived in Washington state (we've only recently moved here to Va) I've always done my filters the same way and never had any issues because of it. I know about new tank syndrome, but this tank is already cycled. It had been for a month and a half when the cloudiness started, then the green water came.

I tested my water again after I got off here last night and sure enough, all my readings were at 0. I'm at a loss. I guess I'll just do the two water changes a week at 50% and see what happens.

[Tony_S]

Tony.. No I dont change out all the media at once. I rinse my filters out in tank water with every cleaning and I change one piece of media (either the foam or the carbon) at one time. Then I wait a couple weeks and change out the other piece and dont change it again for another month.

I AM a seasoned aquarist. But I've never had these issues before. I had 9 tanks running when I lived in Washington state (we've only recently moved here to Va) I've always done my filters the same way and never had any issues because of it. I know about new tank syndrome, but this tank is already cycled. It had been for a month and a half when the cloudiness started, then the green water came.

Like I said....that was my best guess....Im stickin with it!;)
Cloudy water is almost ALWAYS a bacterial bloom. JMO!
I myself would replace the carbon with another sponge and leave it there (monthly cleaning only) and up the water changes. I'd bet it'll clear up in less than a month.

Tony

[AmberC]

Well thanks for the help everyone. I hope it does clear up soon Tony. Its so depressing.

[ronrca]

Well thanks for the help everyone. I hope it does clear up soon Tony. Its so depressing. I know what you mean as Ive been there, done it. Ive had green water a couple times in my planted tank. The first time I tried all sorts of things similar what you tried and what a nuscience plus trying to figure out what factor caused the bloom. The second time I had green water, I just left it go and continued everything as normal except a cut back on the ferts a little. After months the green water cleared up by itself and has never come back.

[Anonapersona]

Cloudiness is also the first stage of greenwater.

I'll gues that what you are seeing has nothing to do with cycling or bacteria. Live plants will pretty much replace the biofilter in a tank, assuming they are able to grow. And you have plenty of filtraiton running on the tank.

Growing plants require light + nutrients. Balanced nutrients. Algae rquires light + nutrients, but balance is not required, different algaes will show up to take in whatever is accumulating in the tank.


I check my water parameters often and they stay at 0. (amonia, nitrate, nitrite.) I've even checked phosphates because my lfs told me that can sometimes cause cloudiness. The phosphates are at 0.5 ppm.

Those numbers are good for a fish-only tank but are not good for a planted tank. I suspect your fish-only experience is leading you to run this tank that way. Planted tanks are different.

Plants require balanced nutrients, something ABOVE 0! Nitrates should be 5ppm to 10ppm, for example. Plants also need potassium (K) and phosphates (P) which is good at 0.5ppm. You'll also need micronutrients like iron, the Flourish you were using was fine but if you run carbon you were likely just sucking it up into the carbon.

Next, you do need lighting, but I cannot any detail on what you have, I'll guess that there are 2 x 30 watts fixtures for 60 watts total, over 125 gallons that is 0.5 wpg. This is really not enough to grow plants well, unless you get some direct sunlight like dappled sun for a few hours.

One more thing, can you rinse the bloodworms before adding to the tank? The juice they include in the cubes can cloud water.

[candyl70]

My bloodworms have never clouded the water, but mysis shrimp will. But it goes away pretty quick. Especially with a water change. But it has never been a problem in my tank. but that's jme

C~

[Ryan]

Amber,

I don't really have much to add. I went through a green water problem about a month ago. After killing off the algae, water changes helped to take out the cloudiness. I would only rinse the filter media lightly in aquarium water once every month or so. If you have a prefilter on the intake tubes, they shouldn't be too dirty with debris and food. I haven't actually replaced media in a long time -- as long as the sponges are intact and not flaking apart in the filter, I just keep rinsing and re-using.

I just wanted to say that I think that tank is beautiful. When it clears up, I bet it will be a sight to behold. You should post some more pictures once the cloudiness is gone. I wish I could set up a tank that looked like that, but somehow I always fail miserably. lol.

Ryan

[Kindredspirit]

Hey Amber!

I had this problem sometime back. No matter what i did the cloudiness wouldnt go away! The tank was up for months, and nothing would solve the problem and it appeared on a dime....It was very frustrating......

Until, someone here told me to purchase a HOT Magnum. I did, and bingo! The next day my tank was soooooooooo crystal clear, Amber...I have it still and never anymore cloudiness~http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/36/36_1_73.gif


hth

Marie~

[AmberC]

Thanks for the continued help/support. I have always done planted tanks successfully and done it just the way I am with this tank. The only difference was the rooms my other tanks were in were no where near as bright as my living room here.

I did another water change yesterday.. and I did about 60% and low and behold, the tank is so crytal clear it hurts my eyes!! I'm so happy!!! I'm thinking the coudiness was just some leftover from the green water and it just took an extra water change to get it all out. I think I will continue to do 2X water changes a week, which actually is what I used to do with my 55 gallon when I lived in Washington (a planted discus tank).

Thanks again for all your help! I SOOO appreciate it. Here is a picture of my tank now :D
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y280/CristaMeganMommy/Fish%20stuff/clear.jpg

[AmberC]

Ok.. the picture didn't come out as good as I'd hoped but I can see all the way thru the tank from the sides now. Its definitely cleared up.

[Kindredspirit]

Ok.. the picture didn't come out as good as I'd hoped but I can see all the way thru the tank from the sides now. Its definitely cleared up.


I know, Amber! I was gonna say it looks just the same! But i am glad ya fixed the problem....Your tank is beautiful! And so is the picture. How did you get it to fit so perfectly on the post? Quite unique~

The picture looks really soft....and very nice!http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_14_12.gif


Marie~

[AmberC]

I know, Amber! I was gonna say it looks just the same! But i am glad ya fixed the problem....Your tank is beautiful! And so is the picture. How did you get it to fit so perfectly on the post? Quite unique~

The picture looks really soft....and very nice!http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/23/23_14_12.gif


Marie~

Thanks Marie! Um.. really I dont know how it fit so perfectly lol. All I did was crop around the tank so you dont see my stress coat up top and all the stuff on my cluttered coffee table in the picture lol

I did notice a little while ago that from the side, there is some green again. Its not noticable from the front, only the side, but I think its headed in the right direction now. I wonder if the algae is in my filters and thats why its back in the tank now. (I didn't rinse the filters yesterday. Its hard to always get to those when I have my 3 yr old and almost 7 month old vieing for my attention the minute I start trying to get stuff done lol)
Amber

[Kindredspirit]

Amber~

Ya know, you could always trade in the crumb crunchers for more discus!! j/k!http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/3/3_13_14.gif


I really like that tank tho, and the picture~

[wolfbane]

Good job Amber! Just keeping with the kiddos is exhausting enough, Discus too? Looks like you've got things on the mend now, looking forward to more pictures!

[ronrca]

I'm thinking the coudiness was just some leftover from the green water :thumbsup: Im glad to hear this. Now that you mention it, thats right! When the algae 'dies', it becomes free floating sediment. Perhaps it loses its green color when it 'dies'.

I agree with Ryan! You have a very beautiful tank. Id be proud of a tank like yours.

[AmberC]

Thanks! I'm definitely proud of it, but it helps when the water is clear lol.

[hexed]

Amber,
I had my first (and only) bought with green water in my kitchen divided tank, only one side though. I went nuts trying to figure out where it came from. I do my water changes at night when EVERYBODY and EVERYTHING is a sleep LOL! No one gets in my way at this time ;)
Anyway I would do water change after water change and by the following night there it was -- GREEN WATER!
Well I found out the problem, no one will ever guess what caused it? There were new tennants that moved in to a house (kitchen side) on a side street from us. The house being on a hill and the driveway in the front. Well that person parked his car in the driveway but did not pull all the way in and the sun would reflect off the window of his car and shine right on my tank during the day! Mind you my tank is on the opposite wall of the window because the sun can't reach it there, but the reflection did. That is what cause my green water, a mini blind cured my tank of green water LOL!
I just thought I would share that with you because it might be yours as well.

[alainpascal]

Hexed that IS a good story !

Amber, first your tank is very darn beatiful, I do not undertand the idea behind the carbon filter if the tank is planted?
Aren't you then just removing nutriant from from the water that the plants could use and then adding some back with fertilizers manually?
I am just starting to do planted tanks the 90g is still plastic plants and gravel :-(
but I am experimenting with my 35g and some Val, anubia, etc...
Just curious and would like ot learn from the reasoning behind this setup?
thx,
a,