Green Water

[mr.blonde845]

I have a 125gal. tank and i got new lighting with 2 250watt metal halides in it. It made my water have a greenish tent. I have tried a bunch of water changes and a diatom filter. Any Suggestions??

 

[jeanheckle]

How long are you keeping your lights on? That would be the first thing I would try, reducing the amount of time my lights are on.

 

[spanko]

Run some carbon, and do some water changes. Sounds like an algae bloom. Cut down on the nutrient in the tank,

 

[mr.blonde845]

i have the lights on for 12 hours a day. I have tried numerous water changes too but havent tried through carbon.

 

[nordy]

I agree with Jean-my experience with lights and algae blooms led me to reduce my lighting schedule and it helped a lot with algae. I suggest reducing your lighting to about 8 hours fo awhile to get the algae under control.
Also, as spanko said, cut down on nutrients-light isn't a nutrient so to speak, but is required by algae to grow so in practical terms it should be considered a nutrient, along with fish waste, etc. Carbon will help too, but is a symptomatic treatment and getting to the root cause (food, lighting) of the algae bloom is the cure.

 

[errattiq]

Also, your lighting may be breaking into their correct spectrum. A lot of people experience an algae bloom when they change their bulbs to new ones....

 

[bravanc]

Are you using RO water? if not you are introuducing alot of nutrients into the tank. If you are using RO water maybe you need to replace your filters. Try testing your water parameters first then check the filter in your RO system and replace if necessary

 

[mr.blonde845]

I do have a ro system and i have filters ordered. They are to old but i figured i would change them anyway. I turned down my lights so hopefully that will help.

 

[nordy]

After I got the algae under control in my tank, I can't think of one particular thing that really made a difference-it seems to have been the sum of a number of little things, including, RO/DI water, less lighting, shielding from sunlight, less feeding, maintaining the clean up crew population, getting a LMB, regular water changes, etc.