ADA Amazonia
ADA Amazonia
Four months ago I set up and planted a new 25 G tank with ADA Amazonia including Power Sand. I followed the directions provided to the letter. Besides the expected water clouding I noticed that the water immediately turned a brown/green color. When I contacted Jeff Senske of ADA he said it was normal and that the water would go crystal clear in a few weeks. After a few weeks of regular water changes, when the color did not lighten, I contacted Jeff again and he suggested that I use Purigen, which I did. The Purigen turned brown within days of adding it. I renewed it a couple of times and then switched to fresh Purigen. The water did not clear at all. Now, after such a long period of time the tank continues to be brown/green. Does anyone have any ideas what I can do to clear the water? It never has been a problem with algae, though there is some black algae in the tank now, which I am pulling my hair out trying to solve. The tank (an Aquapod) has CO2 injection. Because of the tank type I'm unable to lower the internal temperature below 73 degrees F. The plants are growing very well, even though black algae is forming on some of the leaves. There are five Tiger Barbs and three Rosey Barbs. The water chemistry is stable. Ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are zero or undetectable. Phosphates are near zero. pH is 7.0 while the tank lights are on during the day and it's illuminated for 10 hours, 7 days a week. I have not tested the pH level after the lights go out. CO2 injection stops automatically when the lights go out. Hope that's not overkill with background information, but I'm hoping someone can give me an idea how I might clear the water in the tank. Oh, and maybe an idea how to battle the black algae that's forming on the plants. Thanks! Mark
Living near the water is almost as good as living in the water!
Frequent small water changes seem to do the trick, like 20% every 3 days. Are you moving things around a lot to stir it up? Is the filter or power head directed at the soil and stirring it up? The black algae is usually a sign of low CO2, try upping it a little. You could also run a diatom to help clear the tank. You may have green water, which water changes wont really help.
Jeff U.
You can can mix in fairly fine to fine carbon with the diatom as well (add the carbon after the bag is coated with diatom powder). If you have a real colorant dissolved in the water, the carbon should pull a lot of it out. If it is green water, any clearing may be temporary with diatom or diatom+carbon.
Where's the fish? Neptune
