Green Water & Clarity

[Aeropars]

I've added the heavyest dose of clarity to try and get rid of my green water. Having left it overnight, I hadnt seen any improvement in the tank yes it claims to rid algea blooms.

Can anyone tell me whats wrong with it?!

[Tech Support CH]

Green water is usually a result of high nitrates or phosphates. I would check both levels and see if either is high. Clarity clumps the particles in the water together and allows them to be pulled out by your filter. Most of the time additional filter media needs to be added. I like the white filter floss. I pack as much into the filter as I can. Without the additional media the particles usually flow right through the cartridge and back into your tank. Clarity is only a temporary fix until you find the cause. The algae will keep reproducing quickly and will turn your water green again in no time.

Being a plant tank, do you use Flourish Excel? Excel provide supplemental carbon to the plants and tends to help the plants out compete the algae. It is definitely worth a try.

[Aeropars]

I have been using Excel but have stopped incase this was helping the algae.

Last night I added another external filter to my tank packed with filter floss. Overnight there has been no improvement and I now have 2 filters running on it. How long will the clarity 'clump' the particles together for? Having followed the instructions on the bottle, I havent been impressed with the effect it has had. I read somewhere on the internet that these products will only work on dead algea??

I have identified a high concentration of phosphate (2.5) in my tap water so have added phosphate removal resins but now i need to get the algea out of the water. Should I re-dose clarity now? How long between doses should i leave?

[Tech Support CH]

Clarity clumps the particles together for about 24 hours. After that I would redose. This product works on all types of clouding. Now that you have added extra filter floss you should see good results after you dose again.

Since your tap water has high phosphates I would recommend you find a source of water with 0 phosphates. You can use an RO filter on your tap water or buy water either from the grocery store or pet store that has been purified.

If your tank also has high phosphates you will want to get those down to 0 or your green water will reappear quickly. A products such as PhosGuad will lower your phosphates or you can do water changes using a water source that does not contain phosphates.

[Aeropars]

Well, here is my update which i'm not too happy about!

Having added clarity in the 5ml per 25 litres dose last night i came down this morning hoping for good results but absolutly nothing has happened. My external filter is totally crammed with filter floss and i even did a 3 day blackout to kill off the algea following reports I have seen that these products will only work on dead algea. My phosphates have constantly been at 0 throughout as well.

So after a second dose, there has been no change.

What advice are Seachem willing to offer on this? I've spent a lot of money on Seachem products which all appear to have been ok. This product cost me nearly £10 which would appear to have been wasted. What are seachem willing to do about this? Their claims have not come true at all on this product.

[Tech Support CH]

In my quest to figure out what is going on in your tank I read through the forum discussion you linked me to. I could not see the picture but here are some excerpts that caught my attention:
___________________________________________________
Starting on July 29:
*Having failed miserably in an attempt to plant my tank a while back, I have now re-designed the entire thing with new substrate (Seachem Onyx sand), brighter lighting (T6 plantgro) and got myself the neccessary suppliments (iron, carbon addative and potassium).
Last time I added plants, my tank went cloudy and never recovered from this. I chucked out nearly all the plants apart from some slow growers (of which i dont know the name). I moved these 5 plants into my other tank which is again freshly set up, and a similar problem has occured again. Slightly cloudy water. Its not the fish being overfed as i do it every other day and ensure its all eaten.
So, my question is this: What has caused the cloudyness and will my attempt at a new planted tank have this same problem? Will this be cleared by the fast growing plants i am going to add?
I have seen some fantastic tanks about which crystal clear water and this is what I want to achieve. Anything else you can think of to help will be apreciated

*I added the substrate, plants and water along with fertilisers and plant suppliments and thats it! I've recently added bacterial suppliment which wont upset the ballance as it were.

*Well, I added the Clarity and as it says, the water went even more cloudy for an hour. Left it overnight and this morning......... no change. I'm not sure how long this takes to have an effect though?

*I only have 9 danio's in there at the moment

*Fish: 9 x Zebra Danio's
* * * * ** 3 x Wagtail Platy's
* * * * ** 2 x Angelfish
* * * * ** 2 x Pearl Gourami's
* * * * ** 2 x Blue Gourami's
* * * * ** 1 x Siamese Fighting Fish
* * * * ** 2 x Bristlenose Pleco
* * * * ** 1 x Red Tailed Black Shark
_____________________________________________________

This is a 180 liter (45 gallon) tank. You either have 9 zebra danios or 22 assorted fish. If you have 22 fish I would say that this is probably too many for such a new tank that is having problems. I would also suggest that you do not fertilize your plants until the cloudy water gets cleared up. It definitely sounds like a biological bloom of some sort. Either a bacteria or algae. If it is not pea soup green I would venture to say that it is a biological bacteria bloom. Clarity will have a very mild effect on biological blooms. It is best to fix the problem rather than to try to disguise it with chemicals. The bacteria or algae will keep reproducing even though Clarity is pulling it out. So you might not see any results.

I would recommend that you test your water for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. If it is a bacteria usually these are good indicators. Please let me know the numerical results of these tests.

If the water is indeed pea soup green I would recommend a product to absorb the phosphates, I know your levels are testing at 0. But phosphates are naturally being produced all of the time in your tank and until the green is gone you don't want to have any in the tank. You plants will consume them but most likely they won't have too much of a chance with that algae in there.

Again I want to reiterate, do not add fertilizers. Most algaes will consume the small amounts of phosphates, nitrates, and even iron in fertilizers. Also a new tank usually has plenty of these fertilizers in the first few months. Excel would be fine because it does not contain any of these ingredients.

Also make sure when you are using Clarity to have fine filter floss packed into the filter. Most filter cartridges are designed to let the fine stuff through otherwise you would be changing your filter cartridge every few days.

I hope this information helps and I'm looking forward to seeing your test results.