Lost the good fight..

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J

Jonergin

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 15, 2009
84
0
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Sierra Vista, AZ
I've been fighting greenwater (which I've never in my life had before) in my 30gal planted for a few weeks now. I tried all the less invasive measures for killing it and got no results. So I researched and researched some more and decided to do some bleach dips. Every site I found said to dip the plants in a 1:20 bleach/water bath for around 2 minutes. Then dip into a bucket with heavy de-chlor and swish and then set to rest in another bucket with fresh dechlorinated water. All the other decorations in the tank got the same treatment in addition to a good boil and scrub.

Despite the heavy greenwater problem I was having, the plants were all growing heartily at the time. So here's the list of plants I dipped:

Anubias Nana
Hygrophila Difformis (Wisteria)
Lysimachia nummularia (Creeping Jenny)
Hemianthus micranthemoides (Baby Tears)
Ludwigia Ovalis
Vallisneria Spiralis (Italian Val)
unk Amazon Sword (forgot along the way which variety)
Riccia Fluitans
Echinodorus tennellus (Pygmy Chain Sword)
Water Lilly (common store bulb)
Dracaena cuttings

Four days later here is what survived:

Anubias Nana

Everything else is either dead or going clear and drifting away.

So needless to say, I will NEVER do that again. I bought a UV sterilizer and got it all hooked up last night. This will have to be my fix until I can afford all the things I need to fix my terrible tap water... which is the biggest part of my problem. I love my fish but hate hate hate that I live in Arizona with some of the worst water in the US.

Anubias Nana... I still can't believe it.
 
why would cleaning the decorations and plants kill free-floating algae?
 
^ x3 LOL.

green water (or any algae for that matter) in a planted tank is an indication of an imbalance in your 3 main nutrients; lighting, co2, and other ferts. dipping your plants will not help at all
 
Why dip? More than one algea type was present. Was also trying to kill the spores that would have been present after draining the tank.

I understand that my problem in the first place was due to an imbalance in CO2, lighting and fertilizers. The lighting I have is two T5's on for 10 hours. I cut that back to just 6 but that didn't help. I blacked the tank out for four days after draining the tank and dipping/scrubbing everything. I just got my CO2 up and running again (I had killed the seal on my DIY). By biggest problem is the water quality here. Here are the readings from the water company itself as it comes out of the tap:


[FONT=AGaramondPro-Bold, serif]Nitrate [FONT=AGaramondPro-Regular, serif](ppm) 0.28[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=AGaramondPro-Bold, serif]Copper [FONT=AGaramondPro-Regular, serif](ppm) 0.14[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=AGaramondPro-Bold, serif]Lead [FONT=AGaramondPro-Regular, serif](ppb) 2[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=AGaramondPro-Regular, serif][FONT=AGaramondPro-Bold, serif]Total Dissolved Solids [/FONT](ppm) 220 [/FONT]
[FONT=AGaramondPro-Bold, serif]pH [FONT=AGaramondPro-Regular, serif](Units) 6.5-8.5[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=AGaramondPro-Bold, serif]Alkalinity [FONT=AGaramondPro-Regular, serif](ppm) 175[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=AGaramondPro-Bold, serif]Hardness/Calcium [FONT=AGaramondPro-Regular, serif](ppm) 140[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=AGaramondPro-Bold, serif]Sodium [FONT=AGaramondPro-Regular, serif](ppm) 10.2[/FONT][/FONT]

Those are just what they publish. I know there's more than that. I clean up the water as best as I can but I just can't seem to do enough. I've actually debated on getting an RO unit, storing RO water and then "building" the water params to where I need them... but alas I'm in a rental house right now and I don't think that would go over very well.​
 
well bleach got rid of the algea on your plants and your plants in general :ROFL:
 
Bleach dips are to be done for 10-15 seconds max in 1 part bleach to 20 parts water. 2 minutes would nuke anything organic.

I have been bleach dipping any new plant I have gotten for the last 3-4yrs. And have never killed anything but flame moss one time.

90% of the time green water comes from someone using ferts when they are not injecting co2. The general rule of thumb is NO co2 = No ferts. Just regular water changes to replenish nutrients.

The only variation to the rule is if you are using excel on a daily basis.
 
Jonergin;3949075; said:
I've been fighting greenwater (which I've never in my life had before) in my 30gal planted for a few weeks now. I tried all the less invasive measures for killing it and got no results. So I researched and researched some more and decided to do some bleach dips. Every site I found said to dip the plants in a 1:20 bleach/water bath for around 2 minutes. Then dip into a bucket with heavy de-chlor and swish and then set to rest in another bucket with fresh dechlorinated water. All the other decorations in the tank got the same treatment in addition to a good boil and scrub.

Despite the heavy greenwater problem I was having, the plants were all growing heartily at the time. So here's the list of plants I dipped:

Anubias Nana
Hygrophila Difformis (Wisteria)
Lysimachia nummularia (Creeping Jenny)
Hemianthus micranthemoides (Baby Tears)
Ludwigia Ovalis
Vallisneria Spiralis (Italian Val)
unk Amazon Sword (forgot along the way which variety)
Riccia Fluitans
Echinodorus tennellus (Pygmy Chain Sword)
Water Lilly (common store bulb)
Dracaena cuttings

Four days later here is what survived:

Anubias Nana

Everything else is either dead or going clear and drifting away.

So needless to say, I will NEVER do that again. I bought a UV sterilizer and got it all hooked up last night. This will have to be my fix until I can afford all the things I need to fix my terrible tap water... which is the biggest part of my problem. I love my fish but hate hate hate that I live in Arizona with some of the worst water in the US.

Anubias Nana... I still can't believe it.
Click to expand...

Hey I'm sorry to hear you lost all your plants. That's real bad luck.
I dip my plants in 1/19 bleach/water for 30secs, and had a few brown leaves afterwards, but no total loses. 2 minutes is too long...


hybridtheoryd16;3951131; said:
Bleach dips are to be done for 10-15 seconds max in 1 part bleach to 20 parts water. 2 minutes would nuke anything organic.

I have been bleach dipping any new plant I have gotten for the last 3-4yrs. And have never killed anything but flame moss one time.

90% of the time green water comes from someone using ferts when they are not injecting co2. The general rule of thumb is NO co2 = No ferts. Just regular water changes to replenish nutrients.

The only variation to the rule is if you are using excel on a daily basis.
Click to expand...


Hi hybridtheoryd16. I have a question, and that is..have you ever dipped Crypts? If so how did it go? I've always just washed mine, coz I was afraid of a total melt down.
 
No sir I have never owned a crypt species.

I have dipped
amazon swords
jungle vals
spiral vals
java moss ***no more than 5 seconds**
flame moss ***5 seconds**
cabomba **5 sec **
micro sword potted
anacharis **5 sec **

With no real problems. Most plants will brown up a little after a dip but in good conditions they recover with in a week algae and snail free.
 
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