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RE: [AGA-Member] Green Water Problem
Phil,
Why don't you use the 'ride it out' approach as your normal method? Dose, dose, dose, give your plants lots of CO2, lots of nutrients, light, etc - what's wrong with this? Why do you have to do it differently and then when there's algae to fight it using this 'ride it out' method?
Aviel.
-----Original Message-----
From: aga-member-bounces@thekrib.com [mailto:aga-member-bounces@thekrib.com] On Behalf Of Phil Edwards
Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 4:46 PM
To: aga-member@thekrib.com
Subject: RE: [AGA-Member] Green Water Problem
Stephane,
Green Water can be a horrible curse or a wonderful blessing, most often it's
both. :) My guess is the additional soil underneath your Flourite is
creating some uncontrolled nutrient release. The general consensus on GW is
that it's sparked by an increase in Ammonia/Ammonium in the water column. I
tend to get it after a major revamping of an established aquarium where the
substrate gets mixed up and releases all sorts of goodies into the water.
My guess is that your soil is doing the same thing. If that were my tank my
first response after doing something as drastic as a full water change would
be to remove the soil. With CO2 enrichment and PC lighting it's not
necessary to have a soil amendment.
If that's not something you're interested in your other two options are to
get a Diatomaceous Earth filter and use that or just ride it out. Diatom
filters will scrub that stuff out in no time and you'll have a nice clean
water column. Since this doesn't address the root of the problem you can
get multiple GW episodes until the cause is resolved.
The "Ride it out" method works well too, it just takes longer. When doing
this it's good to increase the CO2 to the upper limits of the acceptable
range and keep dosing your fertilizers a little more heavily than you
usually do. It sounds counter-intuitive, I know, but trust me, it works.
What's cool about this is the plants will still grow and the fish will be
healthy, but most non-GW algae will be retarded or die off completely.
The last thing you want to be doing right now is to deprive your system of
nutrients. You want to get the plant growth stimulated in there in order to
remove the chemical that is causing the GW. If the plants aren't happy they
won't do that and the GW will stay on forever. Dose, Dose, Dose, Crank the
CO2, and have patience. It will go away.
I understand your frusteration, I've went through this a number of times
until I realized what was going on and that GW is easy to get rid of can
actually be a good thing. Now,when I get outbreaks of less controllable
algae I'll spike a GW episode and let it run it's course. When it's done,
voila, greatly reduced algae. :)
I've been long-winded enough. Best of luck and patience to you, Phil
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