Came in this morning - my tank is green

[bradneal]

when I left work last night, all appeared well. When I came in this morning, the water is greenish yellow.

I've got a 55 gal reef. Any Ideas?


Thanks,
Brad

[FishDaddy]

Hi, Brad,

It sounds like an algae bloom of some sort. Do a water change; crank the skimmer up; and run some activated carbon. You might also cut back/avoid feeding for a couple of days.

Dick

[Lutrah]

Clarity and lots of mechanical filtration. It'll take a few hours and a half yard of polyfilter.

[bradneal]

Thanks all!

Should I try and clear it up before I do a water change?

Jutrah,
What's Clarity and plyfilter?

-Brad

[JennM]

Clarity is a product by Seachem... effective but my first answer to a problem isn't to just dump a chemical in (although it does work very well...). Polyfilter is a mechanical/chemical filter medium - polyester filter pad treated with resins to absorb a variety of baddies... phosphate, metals, etc.

I would try to determine the cause of the bloom first, and fix that, before adding chemical "fixes". IF you can't clear it up with water changes and carbon and cutting your feeding (and possibly your photoperiod - no more than 10 hours), then a clarifyer will help get the accute problem under control.

Is the tank newer? (Say, 3 months or less?)

Also test your parameters, especially nitrate and phosphate, although you may get negative readings if the nutrients are bound up by the algae... I'd still test all parameters that you can test, just to rule water quality in or out as an issue.

Jenn

[Lutrah]

Clarity is a liquid water clarifier. Plyfilter, um... Well it's, from what I can tell, the same stuff as pillow stuffing only in thin sheets. I had the same problem with my tank being green, tried carbon, water changes, and wet skimming... to no avail. after 3 months I finally added the Clarity, and wrapped the intake of my 2 power heads as well as the intake of my return pump from the sump, with the plyfilter. About an hour later my tank was clean and every filter was caked with what I could only describe as mud. I then did a 20% water change just incase.

[bradneal]

Oops! I meant Polyfilter.

but I don't have any of those things. So I think I'll do as Jenn suggested and test the water first, run some carbon, and crank up the skimmer.

The tank is well over 2 years old and I have never had anything like this before. Yesterday, it was crystal clear, and today it looks like pea soup. What's up wit dat?

[pmh]

If you can't clear it up with the "mechanical" fixes you might want to test for phosphates. Also, see if you've got something dead of a build up of detrius. use a turkey baster and blow your rock off etc. A build up of detrius will add nutrients to your water, growing algae.


pmh

[SPC]

Originally Posted by Lutrah

I had the same problem with my tank being green, tried carbon, water changes, and wet skimming... to no avail. after 3 months I finally added the Clarity,

Your tank had green water (algae bloom) for 3 months?

Steve

[bradneal]

Well, it took me all day, but I just did a water change, dismantled and cleaned all the pumps, and stuck 2 carbon filters on, and now it looks like new again. I'll see how it looks in the morning.



One thing that's kinda weird, all the mushrooms are looking kinda shriveled and the open brain looks sick. The fish all look fine.



Trates, trites, and ammonia were all normal, but the PH was a little high.



-Brad

[Lutrah]

Yup. How's that for patience.

[sally]

Did you have any caulerpa or macro algae in it? Maybe that crashed?

[bradneal]

Well, I came in this morning, and at least for now, things are still looking very good. I threw a fresh load of carbon on just in case, but the brain is nice and fat again, and those pesky freakin' mushrooms are back in full bloom, covering everything in the tank as usual.

Thanks again for your help.

-Brad