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How do you get rid of green water, and is too much nutrients the only cause of it or could something else be causing it.

it is a 20 gallon tank and i have 2-rosybarbs, 1-rubber lipped pleco, 1- rainbow shark, and 1-clownloach, and 3- bamboo shrimp.

I use a 55watt 6700K PC bulb.
I treat the water with a nutrafin CO2 system.
ph is 6.8-7
nitrites are 0
ammonia is 0
and nitrates are 0

i have a phos-x in my filter which is supposed to remove phosphates( i don't know if i had any though) when i do water changes it only clears up the green for a couple hours but it is a white cloud until the green comes back.

I can't use any algaefix type products because of the shrimp

Is this something that i just have to wait out until the nutrients are used up? If so, how long will that take?

Thanks for any help

If you have co2 I'm assuming your trying to grow plants. Plants won't grow with no phosphates or nitrates so unless your phosphates are high I'd ditch the phos-x. It could be adding to your problem and with 0 nitrate I'm not sure if phos-x removes nitrate as well. No phosphate or nitrate means no plant growth means they aren't going to use too many other nutrients either. Your just feeding the co2 and nutrients to the algae. If the phos-x isn't the cause of no nitrates you might need to add some for the plants. It might help to know what plants you have in the tank. Other causes of green water besides excess nutrients are sunlight.

Hi,
I suggest that you read the information on this site:
http://www.otocinclus.com/articles/algae.html

It will show and tell you about the various types of algae
what causes them, and how to rid the tank of them.
Frank


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

I added the phos-x after the tank turned green, but i will remove it. It does also remove nitrates so that could be the reason for 0 nitrates.

For plants I have
Cryptocoryne wendtii 'Tropica'
Cryptocoryne lutia
Rotala rotundifolia
Ludwigia repens
Lobelia cardinalis
Some hair grass
and some type of onion plant

Here's what you do: if you can spend the money on a diatom filter, do it!

Run it once for maybe 1/2 hour - your tank is only 20 gallons so it won't take long. That'll get all the green algae out of the water column. That's the easy part. Now you have to take care of your plants to get them growing. Nitrate in a planted tank shouldn't be 0, you should try to get it up around 15-20 ppm. After you run the diatom, dose your tank with 1/4 teaspoon of pure KNO3, which you can buy at Lowes as "Greenlight Stump Remover". Or you can buy it at www.gregwatson.com - either way, as long as it's just KNO3. I wouldn't go putting in any ferts just yet (besides the nitrate), since green water is caused by an excess of nutrients in the water column.

This, of course, is all based upon running a diatom filter. If you want to see pics of how dramatic the results can be, I have a thread in the "Photo Booth" section, check it out.

Otherwise, I've heard to green water clearing itself up on it's own. Not sure how else to handle it, though...

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