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Hi,
And now, the experiment begins!

Keep track of the Nitrates, and let things occur
naturally, and see if it works.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Well I finally made it through the day without any haziness and without adding anything to the water. It's tough to completely credit the willow branches, could be that the growth in plants give the GW a knockout punch, but I must admit it did coincede with the large root development on the willow branches over the last few days.
Here's a current pic:



tetratech attached this image:


Last edited by tetratech at 20-Oct-2005 08:57[/font]

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And here's a pic from today. I've been having problems with water getting cloudy toward evening, even with Purgien and using a product from Hagen called P-Clear that clumps the bloom into particles big enough for the filter to grab it. The water would clear within a few hours but as I said it would appear cloudy by evening. Yesterday the water got slightly cloudy but not nearly as hazy as it's been getting. Today the water is so clear it doesn't look like there is water.



tetratech attached this image:


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Roots are really starting to grow large. Here's the pic from 2 days ago.

tetratech attached this image:


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Duckweed always gets shoved down into my filters so I used hornwort. I had huge clumps of hornwort and some strands reached at least 1' in length but the greenwater still persisted. The other tanks also got greenwater when I set them up here but those tanks cleared up. Maybe because they were much smaller and it didn't take anywhere near as many plants to fill them.

When I put the duckweed in, I have it cover the top. How much have you put in?

I was actually thinking about doing that. I guess duckweed really "sucks up" nutrients. Now when I trim my plants I leave them floating in the tank. But even with that and the willow my tank still isn't clear.

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I purposely make green water for my fry. Whenever I want to clear the water up, I just add a bunch of duckweed. The water clears right up in less than a week. Duckweed can be invasive though, but it does work great to control green water.

Sham,

With the purigen in I really didn't see much of a change for and then I added P-Clear which clumb the green bloom bigger enough for the filter to catch it. So once it was gone I thought the purigen would prevent more green water, but once again it went from crystal clear to a haze, so I used the P-Clear (Hagen) again at half dose and it cleared the water withing a few hours, but a haziness has returned again after a day or so. So I have not been able to stablize the situation. I've reduced ferts to minimum of EI and my lights somewhat. But the trick up my sleave is the effect the willow branches will have.

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You had success using purigen with green water? My tank was beyond lime green within 2months of setting it up. I couldn't see 2" into it and I had only 80w over 90g and double the recommended amount of purigen in the filter. I spent months trying various things but nothing had even the slightest effect. I eventually blacked the tank out for a week before it was clear and after 3 days of all the lights on the water had a slight green tint again. I cut the lighting back down to 80w only on 6hrs a day and slowly increased it. Now I have all lights back on the full amount(320w) without problems. My 2 new vals almost didn't survive though.

Here's an updated pic of the root development. Really starting to take off. I'm going to keep a close eye on nutrient intake. My water is still has alittle green haze even with purigen (seachem) in the filter and about 4 branches sprouting roots.



tetratech attached this image:


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Actually that's a pretty good idea. I plan on having a recessed light installed right over my tank so that might work out great. Thanks!

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Hi!
Exactly my thinking. You might consider purchasing a
terrestrial plant light from one of the hardware stores.
I've seen them in a "track light" setup or as a single
flood light style. Mount it above the tank pointing at the
willows, and away from your eyes as you sit and look at
the tank.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Yep, I have 4 big branches in the tank and I'm going to keep them in for a while. Might look kinda nice actually if I get a canopy of new leaves over the tank. Might give it a paludarium look.

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There is a talk of using willow branches to solve green water problems. This was first brought to my attention by Bensaf after finding a thread about it on a different website. Some of you probably know I am currently going through this problem on my new 72 gallon and am using this procedure. The pic below will show the tank with the willow branches in it. The tank does not look green from this shot, but it is cloudy with a green tint.




tetratech attached this image:


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Well I was about to pull the plug on this thread, afterall I used Purigen (Seachem) and P Clear (Hagen) to clear my algae bloom. Although the water cleared I decided to keep some of the original branches I placed in the water about 8 days ago. This morning these branches had roots and some of them even had some leaf buds coming through on the emersed part of the branch. So it took 8 days for the branches to root. By the way these branches had been cut on both ends with no original leaves intact.

Here's a pic:





tetratech attached this image:


Last edited by tetratech at 15-Oct-2005 08:22[/font]

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Frank,
Good observation. Actually I do have branches in there with the leaves still on them. My only concern is the leaves are above my lighting system.

I am concerned about a crash, so I will probably only give this a few more days, before I do a huge water change and blackout. I was actually asking about the ammonia levels predicting a crash not the nitrate.



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Hi
We don't see the upper ends of the willow twigs. I don't
think that taking some leafless twigs and sticking them
in a tank will accomplish anything. Perhaps, if you take
small, well leafed, branch(s) and put them in the tank,
they will have enough energy stored to begin to grow roots.
A healthy, growing terrestrial plant that can live in a
bog would begin to draw nutrients from the tank but it
has to be growing above the water level and how much
difference a plant or two might make is up for grabs.

With green water, you need to sustain it by maintaining
the conditions that caused it to develop. It is terrific
food for fry and at the same time a horrible thing to
look at. As the algae develops it can reach a critical
mass where it uses up all available nutrients, and begins
to die off. Most of what I've read seems to indicate that
this die off can be sudden and that it polutes the tank.
I don't belive that the nitrate readings can indicate when
that will happen. I don't know. I've never seen anything
connecting the two (nitrate/crash).

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Day 4
Nothing new to report. I have not seen any roots growing or clearing of water. I have also added Seachem's Purigen to my filter.

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Frank,

Thanks, I did read that article. I have actually done some of the suggestions (reduced light, ferts, etc) but nothing has happened yet. If willows don't grow roots soon, I'll resort to blackout and then uv. As far as a crash. Can the nh3 levels help determine if a crash is coming or is it too sudden. Right now my nh3 is zero.

xlinkinparkx

Not sure what you talking about. :%)

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