Green water

[KevinC]

So my friends 25 gallon reef tank has been getting greener since last week. I got him a Coralife mini UV, 5 watt, thinking it could help clear the water. It’s the 2nd day now and the water shows no improvement. I remmeber reading a thread where that guys tank cleared up a lot in 6 hrs. Is the UV light broken? How long does it normally take for it to clear?

 

[Gareth elliott]

5watt might not be enough, water that green requires a lot of phosphate. Id consider adding a media bag of phosguard(rinse well).

See if this helps the uv make up the difference.

Layoff the dry food feedings (especially coral foods) and increased water change schedule might be in order as well.

 

[KevinC]

5watt might not be enough, water that green requires a lot of phosphate. Id consider adding a media bag of phosguard(rinse well).

See if this helps the uv make up the difference.

Layoff the dry food feedings (especially coral foods) and increased water change schedule might be in order as well.

We tested phosphate, nitrate, both at zero. Should vibrant/nopox still be dosed? He is dosing 1 ml of nopox per day.

 

[Thespammailaccount]

We tested phosphate, nitrate, both at zero. Should vibrant/nopox still be dosed? He is dosing 1 ml of nopox per day.

You need nitrate and phosphate in the water column for nopox to work

 

[Flippers4pups]

We tested phosphate, nitrate, both at zero. Should vibrant/nopox still be dosed? He is dosing 1 ml of nopox per day.

You could try a larger water change to allow the UV to get a head start. If you can, turn the lights off for a day or two.

 

[Gareth elliott]

We tested phosphate, nitrate, both at zero. Should vibrant/nopox still be dosed? He is dosing 1 ml of nopox per day.

Cyanobacteria can use no2 from the air. Id stop the nopox, see if this helps with clearing.

 

[KevinC]

This is Cyanobacteria? I though this green water is phytoplankton.

 

[jerrod]

Are you still running lights, if you are I would go dark for awhile and let it clear out. The only time I saw a tank that green was when it was placed in direct sunlight.

 

[Gareth elliott]

This is Cyanobacteria? I though this green water is phytoplankton.

Both can be treated very similarly, why i generalized. There are numerous species and even families from euglena to bacteria that can make up green water algae.

Almost all are nitrogen fixers and require diatomaceous media for manually removing.