Extremely cloudy water???

[Larry Grenier]

The plants are growing, the smal number of fish are fine. I have almost 200 watts of light over the 2' cube with 2 yeast CO2 generators. The water has been cloudy for months! Kinda whitish with a slight green tint. I can't believe it's a bacterial bloom. The tank is near a window but not one with direct sunlight; could that be the problem? The plants are just starting to look healthy; at least what I can see.

Sorry about all the questions. Thanks for any suggestions.

[Jamie G]

I have the same prob a few days after a h2o change

[Aaron]

Sounds like the green water. I'm not terribly versed on the conventional methods for dealing with green water. If you have a diatom filter then run that for a few hours and it should clear. Some people say a blackout for a day or two does the trick. I cheated and used a UV sterilizer.

[SCMurphy]

Larry,

I know that if I tried I could go through your posts and piece together what your setup is, but I don't have that level of concentration anymore. Could you fill us in on everything, substrate, lights, plants, fertilizers used and how they are used, water parameters, fish load, are you employed, what's your sign, age of the tank, political party....you know, the basics.

Otherwise you will just get a bunch of random suggestions all of which would work but are probably mutually exclusive, or would make things worse in the wrong combination.

Sorry if I sound cranky, I lost my Sherlock Holmes hat and I just don't feel the same without it.

[Larry Grenier]

Aquarium: 58 gallon 2' X 2' X 2' acrylic cube.
Approx age: 3 months.
Lighting: 2 96w quad PCs.
Filter: Aquaclear 200 with sponge & bioballs.
Critters: 2 Algae Eaters(I think the less popular one), 1 Florida Flag fish, a few Amano Shrimp, and a few tetras.
CO2: Two Nutrafin CO2 Natural Plant Systems (Hagen).
Substrate: A mixture of 60% natural aquarium gravel, 20% fine playground sand, 15% Onyx Sand, 5% Laterite.
Employment: Yes but I'd rather not.
Sign: Aquarius
Political Party: None

The plants are growing and looking healthier than a week ago.

I thought about the UV sterilizer but heard it has negatives like removing good stuff.


I have a 20 gallon down stairs that has wimpy lighting, no CO2, almost no additives and the plants look great and the water is crystal clear.

[SCMurphy]

No fertilizers? You aren't feeding the plants with 192 watts of light over that tank?

How often do you change water? pH? Hardness? Nitrogen(s) readings? Phosphate?

Oh, and, Happy Birthday if it was recent or coming up soon.

[Larry Grenier]

I lightly dose Flourish Comprehensive, and very lightly dose Flourish Phosphorus, Flourish Iron, and Flourish Nitrogen. I'm planning on adding Flourish Potassium to the list. This is done following a weekly 10% water change.
pH = 6.8
GH = 6
Don't know the other reading except my Discus have successful spawns in the same water.

Here's how I prepare my water:

[Aaron]

I see part of your problem is the word "lightly" used to describe your dosing. With that amount of light you should be dosing heavily. I find a good rule of thumb for dosing flourish and flourish iron is about 1ml / 20 gallons of tank / day. So in your case try dosing at least 3 ml of each every day. As for nitrogen and phosphorus you need to test the water and find out what amount of dosing keeps nitrates at 5ppm-20ppm and phosphates at 1ppm-2ppm. Also dose potassium to about 20ppm.

Is it safe to assume that someone told you that fertilizers cause algae? I fell into the same trap myself and have since learned otherwise. Lack thereof allows algae to take over and plants to starve.

[Aaron]

Any chance you are coming to the workshop on saturday?

[fredyk]

Here's my solution:
get a bunch of plants with very fine leaves, for example, a plant like Cambomba to use as an example, but something that looks like that;

and then direct the output of the filter into the mass of plants. A week later, problem solved.

but if it becomes green water, that is a different problem

Mark