Help my water is green

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hiphophippo8

Member
Three days ago my aquarium water just turned green. It has never been like that before. I started looking it up on the computer and doing research but its all for fresh water. I use Rodi water from my pet store and all my parameters are fine. I have a anemone, yellow watchmen, and a BSJF in the tank and they are all doing great. So I was wondering what is wrong and how do I fix it. Ive read that if I turn the lights off and not feed my fish for 3-4 days it might go away but I my anemone needs light and I dont want to stress my fish out by not feeding them. Also my tank does not get any direct sunlight at all and my bulbs are compact flouresent but they are only a few months old. I leave my lights on about 10 hours a day and Ive been doing that with no algae problems what so ever. Ive never had any algae in my tank besides cyano a while ago that I took care of. Will my livestock be ok in this water? Please Help
 
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hiphophippo8

Member
The water looks a lot like this
greenaquarium.jpg
 
H

hiphophippo8

Member
yes I am at first I thought it was because the plastic canvas was too smooth and the algae was coming off but ive been told that if that was the problem the water wouldnt be so green I couldnt see anything.
 
Eric

Eric

Google Warrior
PREMIUM
I was just thinking the lights for the ats might be growing the algae, I have never seen a green saltwater tank.
 
Eric

Eric

Google Warrior
PREMIUM
I have to ask, did you have this problem before starting the ATS and how long have you been running it? Are you still running normal filtration Skimmer, filters, carbon ect?
 
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hiphophippo8

Member
I redid my ats design a little bit and added another light to it but before that I had my scrubber design running for about two months without any problems. I have only been running a ATS for around 2-3 months without anything else and everything seems happy. I had my emporer 400 powerfilter running on it for about a week until I could get some algae growing on my screen.
 
Eric

Eric

Google Warrior
PREMIUM
This is just a guess but it sounds like you may have a build up of excess nutrients and the algae is cleaning up. I have to wonder since you have o other filtration if this has been something a problem building up over time and just now showing it's ugly face.

I have no experience running one of these systems much less as the only filtration.

Have you contacted santamonica to see what he suggest?
 
J

Jmoney628

New Member
I am not sure what ATS is but when my saltwater tank turned green I did a water change and added carbon into my cannister filter and within in a week it was all gone.. just a thought ..
 
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hiphophippo8

Member
Ya I am waiting for santamonica to respond he is the one that said it probably wasn't from thr ats and thank you I will go out tomorrow and get some carbon
 
jcgardner

jcgardner

Member
Are you using RO/DI water? I had this same problem due to several things. I didn't have a skimmer, I was using PC lights, my tank was getting some direct sunlight in the morning (for about an hour) and I was trying to take a short cut and just use treated tap water. I purchased a skimmer and did several water changes with RO/DI water and it cleared up in about a week. If you have a nem than you are going to need to upgrade your lights. A nem needs at the very least T5's if not metal halides. Hope this helps.
 
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hiphophippo8

Member
jcgardner said:
Are you using RO/DI water? I had this same problem due to several things. I didn't have a skimmer, I was using PC lights, my tank was getting some direct sunlight in the morning (for about an hour) and I was trying to take a short cut and just use treated tap water. I purchased a skimmer and did several water changes with RO/DI water and it cleared up in about a week. If you have a nem than you are going to need to upgrade your lights. A nem needs at the very least T5's if not metal halides. Hope this helps.
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My nem is accually doing really well except for the fact that it got sucked in to the powerhead last night but it looks amazing right now for just being sucked into a power head. Also ive never used anything but ro water in my tank and people that have had this problem are saying that water changes dont help with this. I will be going to get some carbon and a bag later tonight though.
 
Frankie

Frankie

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
I highly recommend ditching the ATS, (worthless!) and running carbon heavy until this mess is fixed. Calculate how much water volume you have and I will figure out how much carbon you need to use and when to change it out.
 
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hiphophippo8

Member
Its a 55 gallon tank with 90lbs of live sand and 60 lbs of rock and so far the ATS is working great for me I dont even have the full potential of algae growing on my screen and everything is great. I left the lights off all day today and it made a difference so I am going to do that for a few more days.
 
Frankie

Frankie

Well-Known Member
RS STAFF
hiphophippo8 said:
Its a 55 gallon tank with 90lbs of live sand and 60 lbs of rock and so far the ATS is working great for me I dont even have the full potential of algae growing on my screen and everything is great. I left the lights off all day today and it made a difference so I am going to do that for a few more days.
Click to expand...
If it was working great for you, you wouldn't be having this problem. ;)
Honestly, how can harvesting algae by growing it on a screen that all of your water passes over stop the algae from growing? It makes no sense. This was a problem for many people years ago when they were doing the same thing with trough's that filled up with water and then dumped ,over and over again. It was called an ATS back then also. What your dealing with is an algae bloom. This is caused by having to many nutrients. What is an ATS? A nutrient factory that you wash your water over continuously.
How do you remove nutrients from a saltwater aquarium then? By using a skimmer and better husbandry!
Where do nutrients come from? Fish poop and unnecessary additive people keep dumping into their aquariums. Poor water maintenance such as slacking on water changes, polluted top off water, and so on.
 
D

DaveK

Well-Known Member
hiphophippo8 said:
I redid my ats design a little bit and added another light to it but before that I had my scrubber design running for about two months without any problems. I have only been running a ATS for around 2-3 months without anything else and everything seems happy. ...
Click to expand...

This is a fairly common problem with using ATS (algae turf scrubbing), despite what some others might say.

For the record I have used ATS on my system for about 5 years, and found similar problems. This isn't to say that ATS systems are useless. It's just that like anything else, they do some things well and other things not so well.

I found that ATS systems are helped a lot by using skimming, again, despite what others nay say about skimming "removing food".

The other post are correct, you have a problem with excess nutrients, most likely nitrate and phosphate. This in turn created a massive algae bloom.

To resolve the problem you need to reduce the levels of nutrients in your system. This, as others pointed out, means massive water changes, using RO/DI water, using carbon filtration, and drastic reductions in the amount you feed. You will not starve your fish or tank. Also, test your RO/DI water to make sure it is nitrate and phosphate free.

I would also highly recommend adding a large powerful skimmer to your system. You have a lot of waste products that a skimmer will remove.

You can control algae, but it will take a lot of work on your part.
 
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