Hi,
I got a new powerful light (power compacts) and was wondering if I could do anything to lessen the free floating algae? Will it go down by itself? It is so cloudy that if I look from the long end of my 72 gallon aquarium I can't see fish on the other side. I used a diatom to suck out the free floating algae, and after two goes at it, the water is crystal clear. But within 1 day its cloudy, and within a week its as bad as it started.

So is there anything I can do? Will it go away by itself? Or did I waste hundreds of dollars and need to use the diatom at least weekly?

I'd appreciate any info, thanks =)

Hi mkinga:

Question: how long are your lights on during the day, I have found I have to limit my tank to 8 hours of light or the alge takes over. I have them on a timer from 4pm to midnight.

Another suggestion is a UV unit, that will kill the floating alge.

hope this helps

Aaaa green water is good if you test ur water ull find that the parameters will be very good but yeah it's hard to see the fish and beats all purpose of having an aquarium.

Its on about 12 hours a day. I recently only limited it to 10 hours, but the green water is like.. very very green still.

I heard about UV, but I already spent quite a bit of my fishy budget on the light and I hope to find a cheaper solution. is it one of those phases that will go away? Or am I going to have to clean it up all the time (or buy a UV unit) to make my aquarium nice looking again?

UV is THE way to go to get rid of free floating algae, I know it sounds like a pain, but I've never regretted it. keeps the water crystal clear from algae, and cuts down free-floating bacterial load, less stress for the fish. if you can afford it it is SO worthwhile!

again, as Riz says, Green water is fantastic for goldies, but when it's kind of defeating the purpose of having the fish (ie being able to see the little blighters) you need some ongoing cure to keep it under control, otherwise the continual cleaning you will be doing will take all the joy out of keeping your fish.

UV will set you back just under $200ish, but you will never regret it. and your tank is a size worthy of investing in one.

Setting your lights for 8hrs a day should suffice for your plants/fish, that will help a bit.

Another thing is how many fish/how much food are you feeding them. Have you had this prob before you got your new lights? could it be that you've got high nitrate/phosphate level in the water that is feeding the algae?

I just got a 6X turbo Twist from BigAls for about $100. This would be more than large enough to handle bacteria, algae and parasites for a 72 gal tank.

They are not that expensive. And you will never reget getting one.

Until then limit the lighting hours a bit more and you should be fine. Compact lights huh? :

Just curious--what kind of power compact lights do you have? Brand, wattage, etc. I've been looking at them . . . . .

I've never had this problem with my old lights. My question is with turbo twist, does the unit come with a pump/tubes or do I need something else with it? I'm not familiar with UV stuff, is it suppose to be part of a bigger system?

fantailfan1: I bought lunarlights (from coral life), its 4 65watt power compacts. Don't know if overpriced, but really like it. Its sooo bright compared to the regular lights you get with aquariums. My aquarium (when not a green haze) looks much better. Also I can keep practically any plant with that light (but the fish will still eat it..)

Hey,

the UV system I've got is, as you said, part of a bigger system. I run it in line after my cannister filter. I'm unsure whether you can get a uv system that has its own inbuilt pump, but if you don't have a cannister and you can't afford one on top of the price of a uv light, you could always get yourself a cheapy powerhead, you wouldn't need a huge one, if it was too fast, the time the water was passing through the light tube would not be long enough for the uv to kill the bugs/algae.

I'm not sure if it's still floating around on this forum, but I remember a couple of months ago there was a few threads discussing the effectiveness of uv depending on a)wattage and b) time of exposure (flow of water through tube).

I'm using a Pondmaster UV-C, the smallest wattage is 5watts which is fine for up to 4,500 LPH flow through, (keep in mind this was created for ponds) my pumps are a heck of a lot slower (in one tank the uv unit is hooked to an Eheim 2224, the other it is hooked on an Aquaone CF-1200) than that so the water has more exposure time so I'm happy that the exposure time is long enough to be effective.

There is a fair bit of info out there on the net about uv, most of it is aimed at either ponds or marine, but it still translates when you are setting it up for goldies, it's worth your while spending a few hours browsing sites that are out there. It helped me a lot when I was deciding on whether to go down the uv route...

You could try adding floating plants. Water sprite would be good. It would provide a lot of cover quickly and it uses excess nutrients.

Thanks, I'll look into the UV stuff.

As for the floating plants.. won't the goldfish eat them? My goldfish seem to try to eat anything the possibly can. My plants are barely surviving with their biting, haha.

With water sprite they may eat the roots, but it would be worth a try. They grow very, very quickly.

Maybe a different kind of bulb? I don't know anything about power compact lights but I have been researching bulbs and maybe there is one that will better suited to your tank conditions? Or maybe a colr filter, lika blue gel, to hide the green since the green water isn't bad just unsightly... ? But, definitley reducing the hours of light exposure will help, especially since these are powerful! PIX?!

I got a UV for Christmas and have now had it for a month - I think it is ! I got this one (actaully, I got the 2000+):

http://www.thatpetplace.com/Products/KW/Aq...8/Itemdy00.aspx

I bought an inexpensive power head, tubing and some hose clamps - voila! It is set up independantly of my canister as I already have a heater in-line. I can adjust the flow rate on the power head and I can move the whole thing to another tank if I want to.

I like how "affordable" and compact this model is - great for aquariums but powerful enough to be used as a pond clairifer. I think I will be using it for a long time in lots of places!

As it was mentioned earlier-green water is not bad. We just don't like to se it. I know that I don't . Lighting does have alot to do with it. If you have live plants, it complicates the lower lighting solution a little.

After battling a mild form ofit and not wanting to reduce my lighting because of my live plants, I purchased a Gamma UV Sterilizer (clarifier). I love it and have never seen my water so clear It's been in for a week now and does wonderfully. You almost don't know it's there.

I got it from Rick Hess at Goldfish Connection and he was so great to deal with and getting it set up.

Hope this helps.

There is a store nearby that sells UV sterilizers, and I'm going to go see if I can attach it to my rena xp3 canister filter.. if I can, I'm going to get it soon. I'm going to try getting water sprite first though, since I love live plants (that my goldfish won't eat). Thanks for all the replies! very helpfull

Another thing you can do to use up nutrients in the water, and I know the goldfish won't eat these, is put clippings of golden pothos in the tank. You only put the ends in and leave the leaves sticking out ... just like you were rooting the pothos in water. They soak up a lot of nutrients.