greenish water why

[baldomero]

just put in my new lights and the water looks a little greenish not crystal clear like its suppose to be

 

[sacremon]

What kind of lights? What K value? Ones around 6500 will make the tank look yellowish.

Do you use activated carbon? I found that once I started to use carbon, the water of my tank went from greenish (as seen in a white bucket when I did water changes) to clear.

 

[baldomero]

my lights are 1 strip with a 10,000k and an actnitic t5 bulbs,and a 260 watt pc with 2 12,000k,and 2 actnitic and i think now that u mention it i have to replace my carbon its been in my sump for 3 months

 

[baldomero]

bump

 

[Stetson]

Most likely a bacteria bloom, a UV sterilizer can always clear that up, also carbon only lasts about 14 days, running carbon in a phosban reactor would be a considerable improvement as well.

 

[Flipper62]

Carbon in most cases will be all used up after 2 to 3 weeks. After that it just starts to become a nitrate trap. I change the carbon with every water change ( 2 weeks ).

There also is a product called PURA-COMPLETE. It works like carbon but you dont need to change it out but every 3 months. I have used it before & it does work pretty good. However I did go back to the carbon. I have used carbon for years, I just went back to what I'm used to.

 

[1602reefer]

Algae bloom.

 

[baldomero]

cant afford a phosband reactor or a uv sterilizer right now how about if i get a couple bags of carbon and drop em in my sump would that help

 

[baldomero]

bump

 

[Tahlequah]

Unless it is significantly restricting the ammount of light getting into your tank it is not neccisarily a bad thing. If you have any corals they can consume the algae. If you don't like it you could turn your lights off for a day or 2 while running carbon and see if that helps.

I had a tank do that to me a few years ago, it went away after about 4 days.

 

[baldomero]

nah no corals just a few nems but i gotta do a little investigating cause this morning before turning on lights the water looked clear i got my new lights yesterday and maybe its because of the lights the water looks a little green

 

[Tahlequah]

You should be ok either way then. The anemones may be able to utilize the micro algae if its free floating, it could also be that one of them spawned. But usually that would be white (don't quote me on that, distant memory)... Carbon should help absorb whatever the algae is feeding on though, so either way you arn't going to hurt anything. Lights could have definately made the difference too. Guess it will be a wait and see thing

 

[baldomero]

thanks alot tah