algae bloom, what to do?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Nyquil Junkie;2744640; said:
Once the gren is gone you take the thing out of the tank and put it away... you dont have to leave it running 24/7. plus, its a handy design to clean up the water of you suspect disease or parasites. Run the submariner for a week, then take it out of the tank..... its self contained with its own powerhead and flow regulator, sticks on the tank with 4 suction cups. Easy... clean.. versatile. it can be run upside down, sideways... any way you please. you can buy a coralife turbo twist one that hooks up outside the tank. they are good too.
just got a coral life twist. Its great :)
 
Louie;2747775; said:
When I lived in ny I lived in an old built town which had pipes that leached lead .

The town made them "safe" :ROFL:by pouring phosphate into the water source thus coating pipes with algae . In theory they didnt leach lead if coated with algae.

Green water was the norm in every fish tank . I had a vortex diatom filter than which is fantastic but pain to use though only used couple hours weekly .

Maybe your tap water is high in phosphates?
Lol... I dont think it is.. Non of my other tanks have algae?? What was amazing I was so tiered of it being green. That I cleared it over night!!

1. Did 75% water change
2. Cleaned Filter Pads
3. Added Air
4. Added Salt
5. I usually never add chemicals but I was so fed up with this tank. Why not give it a try. I had some green algae bloom killer. That clears up the water. That some petsmart person gave my mom when my turtles ust to get algae on there backs. Never used it before because I feared it would hurt my turtles. So its just been sitting in the supply cabinet. So I used that.. The name of it is... Algae Control its made by tetra.
6. Turned off the lights.

Then the next morning it was clear. Its been clear since then. Its not be 3 days...
 
One of my tanks is doing the same thing right now so Im gonna try just keeping the lights off for about a week and see if that clears it up.
 
ya im running a odyssa 18v uv sterilizer on my fx5 i got it for $20 bucks so why not, but i looked on line and there sayin its fine up to like 1800gph which i dont know how that would it work but its fine for a fx5 you can get them on ebay for like 40$
 
well, its been 12 days with the light off. have been doing cultured water changes every other day, about 25% of the water.

tank isnt green anymore, but its still cloudy, definitely has shown an improvement though, you can finally barely see from one side to the other.

left the light on for a few hours today, and i saw it getting worse. UGH.

i need to get a UV sterilizer however, i dont wanna spend the money

is the odyssey 18v one good? 40 bucks on ebay sounds like a bargain, especially if i can use it with my fx5!!!! anybody else have any experience with it?
 
good question I need to look into getting one of those too... I dont want to have to always keep the lights off ;(
 
jdmkid;2793858; said:
ya im running a odyssa 18v uv sterilizer on my fx5 i got it for $20 bucks so why not, but i looked on line and there sayin its fine up to like 1800gph which i dont know how that would it work but its fine for a fx5 you can get them on ebay for like 40$

The flow rate to kill greenwater algae can be higher than killing parasites. If the light is big enough the higher flow rate is ok for algae.

I was thinking the same thing about the submariner, its 9W bulb is small compared to some other units and its flow rate is 211 GPH, I thought that was kinda fast to be effective but apparently not since in 4 days or so it cleaned a 40 gal tank crystal clear.
So if you ratio up, 40 watts could (I guess) handle 4x 211 GPH flow and still clear greenwater.

Ive read lots of good stuff about the coralife twist, and it supposedly works well with a pretty high flow rate.
 
before and after. 5 days with the Petsmart UV light. 55g planted setup
 
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