Help my water has gone green!!!!

[forde_11]

My 65 Gallon tank is two months old now, I have about 25 pounds of LR, 2 Damsels, and 2 Clowns (Ocellaris). I am running the lights for only 5 hours a day right now to try and get rid of the gatorade colour . I have decreased feeding, and I have a protein skimmer on its way. I have been changing the water at about 10% a week. Does anyone have a suggestion to help solve this problem or am I screwed. Any input is appreciated.

[DanG]

Do a big water change, 25% or so.
How do you get your water? RO/DI, DI, tap water?

[Rikko]

Ahh, this brings me back to my FW tank.

Green water = algae bloom (or let's say that's all I've ever heard of it being). In my FW experience, 1) doing bigger water changes will only prolong it, and 2) it's often triggered by high ambient light or oblique rays coming into the tank (ie: tank by a window). Whether or not that applies to salt as well I can't say, but it might be a consideration.

Are you familiar with Calfo's rant on algal succession (Reef Invertebrates)? The premise is that simpler forms of algae will take hold first and slowly do outcompeted and destroyed by more complex forms over time. Slime and hair algae are usually the first line you see (but hey, why not free planktonic algae too!), and then are slowly overtaken by "macro" algaes and eventually calcerous ones. By that argument alone I'd suggest you simply wait it out (I witnessed the process firsthand in my tank when it first got up to speed). Do a thorough set of water quality tests to make sure everything is about where you'd want it, make sure your source water is good quality, and tune your skimmer as best you can to improve waste output.

That algae needs to eat, same as everything else in your tank. If you deny them a food source they will starve.

[danny zubot]

I agree that the blooms are inevitable. Keep up with your weekly water changes and manual removal (if applicable) of the algea and it will equalize eventually. Getting that skimmer should help as well as using carbon.

[whaase]

In my FW tank I had this once, I shut off all lights and put a blanket over the tankf or 2 days. Worked like a charm, water was crystal clear after that. Now sure how this wold work for a reef..

Walter

[AJ_77]

Been there, done that. For me it was a phosphate problem - elevated levels due to incorrect additives I believe? (It's been a few years now...)

Had green water for about 6 weeks in my 90. Ran the Kent phosphate sponge in the sump. Borrrowed a UV sterilizer and some Maxima clams (they eat and grow strong on the stuff), no water changes - agree with Rikko here - and minimal lighting. Tuned the skimmer, ran carbon and floss (changed it often).

It took a while, but when all the measures were finally in place, it cleared up that week.

Tried the Al-B-Gone or whatever that stuff is called, too - didn't seem to help. But the clams grew!

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

UV sterilizers deal with green water pretty well. See if you can borrow one for a few days if you're still concerned about it.

Anthony

[forde_11]

How do you get your water? RO/DI, DI, tap water?

I am using tap water.

Thank you to everyone for all your help, I really appreciate your responses. I will give some of those suggestions a try and wait it out until it is clean and running good.

[rusty]

Originally Posted by whaase

In my FW tank I had this once, I shut off all lights and put a blanket over the tankf or 2 days. Worked like a charm, water was crystal clear after that. Now sure how this wold work for a reef..

Walter

I did the same thing on my FW worked great

[marie]

Way back when, before i knew any better, I used live clams from the grocery store. When the water cleared up I discarded the clams