Help!! Green Water!!!

[Catureenh]

Hey everyone,

I recently purchased a 15 g Viva Aqua tank. The tank was doing very well...until 2 days ago I bought a yellow goby..and when I woke up in the morning it was CLOUDY and GREEN!!!!


I checked water, and everything is 0, ph normal and all... what should i DO?


Currently I have:
1 Yellow tailed blue damsel
3 Mexican Turbo Snails
1 Peppermint Shrimp
1 Scarlet Hermit

* new addition Yellow Watchman Goby


The fish do not look like they are in distress, the colors are very normal, if not brighter than before.. they seem fine?


help! what should i do? =(

[LX302]

It might be from the gravel/sand your using. Just let it go and it should clear in a day or 2.
But can I assume you just threw this combination of rock, water and livestock in all together, or did you do it in steps?

[wahshk]

Is this gravel marine safe. It looks like it is colored. If not, then it could be a bacterial or plankton bloom.

[wahshk]

Some of your rocks looks white. is it LR or just a dead rock, because if it is LR then it looks like teh carollin algea is dead, it could be another problem.

[Catureenh]

it was alive!!!! they are all live rocks.. i dont konw why its so white all the sudden....

the sand is salt water marine safe..

[PUGroyale]

I still see some purple coralline there... relax not the end of the world... Coralline tends to bleach when out of the water for awhile... It'll come back soon. Not sure the cause of the water problem, sorry If it concerns you, you could do some water changes. BTW... how long you been up and running?

[Jenfur427]

How long are you leaving your lights on?

[Catureenh]

well, I just transfer those rock on the left from 6G to this new 15G one.. the rock were doing fine, after transfering to the 15G I bought the big rock (on the right) and those old rock on the left are now starting to become white...

my water/tank is still pretty new (about a month old or so) I am not sure why the rock is dead..

Jenfur427: I usually turn on the light around 8am, turn off and just leave the blue light (moonlight?) on around 10pm... and turn off completely when I go to sleep..

[fishonadic]

the calcium may be low and the coralline died of beacause of that.

[bertoni]

Yes, if you posted all your test results, they might be useful.

Green water is usually caused by a phytoplankton bloom, although if your gravel is leaching dye, that could be an issue. You can ignore it for a while, and it might will go away on its own. Otherwise, you could borrow a UV unit for a couple of days or do some water changes.

[Catureenh]

heres an updated of what the color of water looks like. i waited for 1 day

[bertoni]

I'm guessing a phytoplankton bloom. It might go away on its own in a week or two. Some water changes might speed the process. Hard to say why it bloomed, other than there are more nutrients in the water. Perhaps the goby started stirring stuff out of the sand. My YWG certainly does a lot of digging.

[Catureenh]

i just did a water test, it was 0 across the board, and .25 for nitrates?

=( i dont want everything in there to die

[bertoni]

Okay, not too surprising. The phyto has absorbed or is absorbing any nutrients released. I wouldn't worry too much about the animals dying. Just keep the aeration up and maybe some large water changes, say, 25%. You could also lower the feeding rate for a couple of days.

[zrograviti]

It probably is a phyto bloom. Water change won't help too much in case of bacteria bloom or phyto bloom. Things are just balancing out in your tank. Don't worry about it too much, and time will take care of it. If you don't have any live stock in your tank, you can turn off the light and cover the tank so that no lights get into your tank and leave it for a week or so. I remember reading someone using some cheap clams or featherdusters to consume phytoplanktons. UV filter helps too.

[Catureenh]

are you sure it will go away?? i did a 25% water change 2 days ago and this is what it looks like at this moment....

[PupChow]

Dang!

Lots of phyto in that tank, that's for sure!

I'd say just keep on doing the water change, and I'd consider using RO/DI water (get those 5g jug of drinking water from Drink More Water). Tap water got lots of phosphat. Also make sure your tank is not sitting in direct sun light.

I kind of question your gravels too...

Don't give up though, you can ride this one out!

[abfleck]

When you transfered the rocks and stuff over to the new tank did you get rig of that blue gravel? Also you need to usr RO water and lots of water changes.

[bertoni]

At some point, you might want to consider borrowing a UV or a diatom filter of some sort. I don't see any reason to believe that it absolutely will go away on its own, and water changes can only help so much. Waiting was worth a shot; maybe a bit more waiting is in order.

[hammerhead]

A UV will take care of that. I bet your phos is through the roof. Keep doing water changes.

[Catureenh]

yeah i understand. how much is a UV FILTER? I took some friend's advice, and I bought this thing called "SeaGel Phosphate Remover" its little beads where i put it through a mesh bag.. then see what happens..

its getting a lil bit better but not much at all. I have been water changing every 3 days or so, 2 gallons each ..if not whenever it gets like FOREST green.......


would this work? What if i bought those "already made water" from the store, take everything out of the tank, fish and everything
empty out the green water, and then fill it with the water that i bought...


would it work?? wouldnt that stress out the fish because it is not conditioned?? or filtered enough?............ its been about a week..and not much improvement

[bertoni]

I wouldn't do a 100% water change, but it might work. It will stress everything, and could cause problems.

The phosphate remover might help, but I wouldn't count on it. The phytoplankton is right there in the water column with any released phosphate.

UV filters are fairly expensive, and most need a pump as well. MarineDepot.com (among lots of others) sells them. The smallest one would work quite well for you. The cheapest ones were running $80-$100, but you might be able to shop around and get a better price.

A diatom filter might be cheaper, although it might be more work.

[Bullredchaser]

Are you using tap water or RO/Di water?