Anyone have a UV we could borrow?

[Mrs Smith]

So we have this freshwater tank. It's a planted tank and I don't know a whole lot about planted tanks. Long story short, we've been battling greenwater for about, oh, 2 months now. We tried water changes, blacking out the tank (twice, actually), and husband is getting sick of it. I really don't want to invest in a UV sterilizer for this tank, but does anyone have one lying around we could borrow?

Or perhaps swap for something? We'll be at the swap meet.

Or any other ideas? You really can't see the plants or the fish at this point.

Thanks!
Danielle

 

[mfp4073]

Wonder if instead of going with the UV, we could try to diagnose the problem. I have had some experiece with plant tanks. I think the good place to start would be light cycle, lights, size tank, substrate, and stocking.

 

[Mrs Smith]

Alrighty. First of all, it's husband's tank. He's kept freshwater and knows a lot more than I do. I prefer to reef, so he may have to chime in with more details.

55g, planted with a variety of things; plants doing well. Lighting is 2x92W daylight PC on a shortened light cycle (about 6 hours) for the last month. Before that, it was closer to 12 hours.

We use RO water. (The guy at Aquatic Ecosystems suggested we may still have high phosphates despite a low TDS reading)

Fish: 2 boring ones (the tank came with them - the clause was that we had to keep the fish alive and they'd give us the tank) and a golden pleicostomus who is small. (None more than 2")

Undergravel filter and one of those box filters

Substrate is large gravel and f-something (the name escapes me, that is supposedly for planted tanks and I'd never heard of.)

There's not a lot of algae in the tank growing _on_ things - not much on the glass, etc. Just the green water, which is thriving. We had been doing aggressive water changes, but it wasn't doing anything except dragging it out. We figured that time would take care of it, but it's really taking a long time. We don't want to use chemicals, and I don't know that I could find daphnia (but I've thought about it.)

Any input welcome.
Thanks!

 

[cschweitzer]

I have a UV sterilizer that I was going to bring to the swap, but I never used it, so I can't say whether it is a good one or not. I got it pretty cheap, so I'm thinking it's on the cheaper side of quality.

 

[Fuzzy]

I have a DE Filter that I don't need any more.
It will remove most of the green stuff in a couple of hours.
Send me a PM if you want to give it a try.

Nick

 

[mfp4073]

I dont suppose obvious stuff like sunlight having access to the tank? How big were the water changes? The substrate is fluorite I suspect. I have had a tank for the last several years, but over the last year been fighting die-off and algae myself. I think marcye said she has bee fighting a similar algae bloom. I don't know that a shortened cycle would be enough to break the algaes hold on the tank, but since you tried a blackout. I think you would be ok with using tap water for the tank with the chlorine treatment stuff.

 

[Mrs Smith]

Not a whole lot of sunlight exposure - certainly nothing direct. Yes - fluorite is it! I can never remember it, but if I say "You know, that stuff... it starts with an "F"..." people tend to guess it.

Yeah, I tried two nearly consecutive blackouts (3 days between). It helped a little but not much.

Water changes have been every week or so, and have been in the range of 10-50%, as that's the only thing that let us see inside and he's getting really frustrated.

I have read about UV and DE both as being options, but have never used either.

Fuzzy, you have PM
Danielle

Danielle

 

[Mrs Smith]

Fuzzy, your PM box is full

 

[Fuzzy]

PM box is cleared......