Green Water I’m planted tank?!

[rayoddballfish]

Hi guys! Happy Earth day ?! I have a 30 gallon “grow out tank” with one bichir and some water wisteria. Before the tank was always clear, but after adding a few stems of wisteria floating in the surface it resulted in green water. This has been going on for a few months now and every time I do a water change (every 1.5 -2 weeks) in a few days the water is back to green. I have done some research and from my understanding this is caused by excess nutrients and too much lighting. I have a shop light that is quit bright(42 watts) in it and I usually have it on 5-6 hours a day. I also dose with excel flourish 2 times a week. The annoying thing is the water is green and the plants seem to have stagnant growth putting gn out new small leaves and turning yellowish brown everywhere else. Filtration is fluval canister filter meant for 100 gallons. I am going to bed soon so I will post photos tom. Please any help is appreciated. I will be moving my fish soon to a 75 gallon which is much larger so I’m wondering if the shop light would be better on a tank with more height. I also plan on adding some crypts, jungle Val but am hesitant since wisteria a seemingly easy plant cannot survive in my tanks. Thank you in advance and have a great day!

 

[kno4te]

Any other plants in the tank? Have u checked ur water parameters? Direct light to the tank? Dosing any fertz? I’d suggest increasing ur water changes to weekly, add a uv light, and put a blanket on the tank. Leave like that for 3 days with no lights and hope it kills everything and can start again.

 

[rayoddballfish]

Any other plants in the tank? Have u checked ur water parameters? Direct light to the tank? Dosing any fertz? I’d suggest increasing ur water changes to weekly, add a uv light, and put a blanket on the tank. Leave like that for 3 days with no lights and hope it kills everything and can start again.

Plant wise it’s just wisteria. I was dosing Fluorish comprehensive but I stopped since I thought it might make my water more green. Not sure about the water parameters because I just changed water yesterday and today I removed all the plants and put them in a 5 gallon tank with fluval stratum substrate. Here’s a pic of the plants in the new tank

 

[rayoddballfish]

My one concern is that the lighting was too strong because without the shop light my tank does not turn green. But I always thought that high lighting was good for plants and that more green spot and diatom algae would form from it not the green water. I don’t have another light currently and I’m just afraid that if I add the shop light to the 75 gallon (I’m currently in the process of setting it up) it would have the same effect and have me waste money on new plants.

 

[rayoddballfish]

Any other plants in the tank? Have u checked ur water parameters? Direct light to the tank? Dosing any fertz? I’d suggest increasing ur water changes to weekly, add a uv light, and put a blanket on the tank. Leave like that for 3 days with no lights and hope it kills everything and can start again.

Also there is no direct sunlight without the shop light the tank is mostly dark. Not trying to spend a lot so is there any cheaper alternative to UV light? And since I took the plants out I will do a black out for a few days.

 

[Fishnerd360]

You might have more nutrients needed for your plants, that’s a cause to algae growth. A bright light is good for plants as you said, but usually only for plants with high light needed or for densely planted tanks. For example I found that moss do better in low/medium light than high light because algae will form on it, but carpet plants do better in high light.
You could try to put the light higher up.

 

[Salty&Onion]

You might have more nutrients needed for your plants, that’s a cause to algae growth. A bright light is good for plants as you said, but usually only for plants with high light needed or for densely planted tanks. For example I found that moss do better in low/medium light than high light because algae will form on it, but carpet plants do better in high light.
You could try to put the light higher up.

I agree, excess nutrients increase the growth of algae. I would stop using any ferts and keep doing some water changes until the algae is gone.

 

[rayoddballfish]

here are pics of my tank I took plants out and it’s very green again .

 

[rayoddballfish]

Okay found the culprit for the green water!! Apparently I left the light on all night (12 hours). Does this mean my light is too bright and I should use a diff light or does elevating the light a few inches solve my problem? My light is this here are some specs I’m not very techy so idk what most of this means. Thanks again to all replies!!! Appreciate all of them!!!

 

[rayoddballfish]

Also found this on the website. Mine is a Feit 4 ft light