Green Water - Hopeless

[Ichthyosporidium]

Pardon the mechanically challenged techy over here, but how exactly do you do that? Media bag or do you put the rocks into the box part? Is this your actual filter or do you only use it as a flower pot...lol? I have to use coral and Tufa in my filter anyway (man I envy you people with hard water), so it sounds like something that would work well for me.

The media bag would be used as a "flower pot". Most of the reuseable bags are a drawstring type. You also might want to further research what type of plant to use as some plants can actually drop water hardness,

For example, Vallisneria and Saggitarius both will pull so much TDS out of the water, that the veins actually calcify!! :w00t:

Just thought of that when you mentioned that you are trying to keep hard water in your tank. I will do some research on the suggested plants that were mentioned above and get back to you.

Cheers for the long weekend!

[Melody]

I had no clue that plants could effect water hardness! Where would you find information about which aquatic plants are the worst culprits? I knew that injections softened water, but this little tidbit has floored me. For all of the research that I've done on hardness out of necessity, I've never once encountered it. I guess its more a plant fact so I wasn't looking in the right places. Thanks so much for thinking to mention it!

This thread has been very informative and useful overall.

[Ichthyosporidium]

I had no clue that plants could effect water hardness! Where would you find information about which aquatic plants are the worst culprits? I knew that injections softened water, but this little tidbit has floored me. For all of the research that I've done on hardness out of necessity, I've never once encountered it. I guess its more a plant fact so I wasn't looking in the right places. Thanks so much for thinking to mention it!

This thread has been very informative and useful overall.

"Aquatic plants, unlike their terrestrial counterparts, can absorb mineral nutrients both from the water through their leaves and from the sediment through their roots."

I took this quote from a web page: http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/phisio.html

It is pretty informative and credible. Hope it sheds some light on the subject :thumbs:

[Melody]

Excellent information - I need all of the minerals I can get so its of great concern to me. Thanks again!

[lilwolfe]

My friend had some serious green water in her tank....she successfully removed it by adding the correct amount of P Clear particulate water clarifier, and using poly wool in the filter instead of a regular foam. She just changed out the poly wool a couple times. Within 72 hours....her water was pretty much crystal clear.

[Qattarra]

Hi everyone,

Its been a while since I last posted. A bit has changed since then.

I have horrible green water in my 33G cichlid tank and I'm just about ready to give up. Its been this way for about a month now and NOTHING works.

1) I tried "Clear Fast" from Golds - put in recommended amount, waited a day, did 50% change, dosed it again, did 50% change, nothing - it cleared a bit but came back

2) I tried it again, but this time dumped out 80-90% of the water each time and cleaned the filter carefully. Almost worked. But it came back again.

3) Now, I have a UV sterilizer, its been running for 24 hours and not the slighest change. I will attempt to put in Clear Fast, run the sterilizer and dump out water at 80%. I am a bit reluctant because I'm afraid that won't work either.

This all started when one night we had a brilliant idea of removing some algae from rocks. We used the tank water and scrubbed it off with a clear scrubbie. That must have upset the balance.

The tank is not in direct sunglight and we don't overfeed. My fish are now dying and I am so dishearted.

Please help me otherwise I think I'll just give up......:( I don't know what else to do.

If you still have a green water problem I know of club members who would really like to take bags of it off your hands. They use it to feed to Daphnea (spelling not sure). Live food to condition their breeders and feed to the new hatched fry.