"Richard Sexton" wrote in message
...
Green water couldn't be easier to cure. Change 80% of the water two days
in
a row while you're diatom filtering the tank. Vacuum the gravel
THOROUGHLY;
expect to find a lot of crud there and tons of green water coming out of
the
gravel - this is why it reoccurs.

In a tank with healthy plant growth from good light and fertilization,
that is kept clean, you will never see green water.

Show me a tank with green water and I'll show you where it's dirty,
which is why the water turned green.

The green water represents free ammonia that shouldn't have been in your
tank. Even if you were to kill it all with say, a UV sterilizer it'll
now rot and go back to ammonia only to repeat this cycles as ammonia
is what causes it. You have to remove the source of the problem and the
problem itself. You might be surprised at how much crud you can remove
from a green water tank. On about the fifth bucket of dark brown
water you start to get some idea of just why this tank turned green.

A cheap trick to keep is clear is to throw in a handful of water
sprite or other agressive floating plant.

Long term, water goes green because of underfertilization and
lack of frequent partial water changes. That is, the plants
are not growing quickly enough to consume the ammonia the tank
is producing.

Ambulia planted int he gravel seems to work as well as floating
water sprite - any FAST growing plant will work. Note this
does not mean "any stem plant". While Ludwigia repens would
also be a good choice, Ludwigia, say, gladulosus or arcuata
would not be.

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I have found that whenever I change 40-45 (or more) percent of my tank's
water in one session the tank's water gets cloudy. Over the last year and a
half whenever this unusual occurrence has happened I use the vortex xl
diatom filter to fix it. Always crystal clear water afterward until the next
big water change. I know for a fact my tap (city) water is different and
probably has extra impurities, in order for me to have any long living
plants staying alive and growing they have to be particular types (i.e. java
fern grows good in my tanks but not hornwort (I know - hard to believe and
accept), nor elodea (both types), nor valisineria, nor pygmy chain sword,
amazon sword has grown some since fertilization, crypts got eaten by silver
dollars (I admit it is my fault for not keeping up on varying their
herbivorous diet), anubias (coffeeolia) got uprooted by silver dollars but I
replanted it, and water wisteria seems to be dyeing off), or else they just
die off. I am thankful that the java fern grows good in my water though. I
like the idea of using daphnia to clear your green water - try it or a
diatomaceous earth filter like the vortex xl. The daphnia method seems best
as I have heard that some green water bugs are diatoms (too small to filter
out conventionally) and the vortex might not do the trick for green water
but it definitely does the trick for my cloudy water. Good luck and later!