Green Swamp Water? Huh?

Basically Ive got Green water... No Glass Algae, and I already went through my brown diatom cycle.. Just green water?? Ive never seen green water before... :frustrat:

Only changes are that I upgraded All Bulbs to 4 new ATI 4' T5's and New 150 watt Metal Halide's...

It must have something to do with added the Much better lights and having nutrient rich water guess but have you guys ever seen this before?

Also, my water parameters are excellent... Not a trace of Nitrates or phosphates either, fish all look fine and healthy...

So I was considering a large water change 30-40% would all agree this might help?

You have an algae bloom, and they are using up all the nitrates present, which is why your tests read zero. And i would do a water change. Im sure that they showed up because of the new bulbs.

Ok did my water change 50%...

Everything looks better already but water is still very cloudy (was very bad to begin with). Will this adjust for my new lights over time or is there anything else I can do to prevent this from coming back?

It should go away in time.

This is just to give you an idea of what im working with. Yesterday I did a 60Gal water change today its getting worse again...:grumble:

Yep, bacteria/mirco algae bloom

Jeeeez you weren't joking... Hahahahahaha :lol:

This is actually getting pretty serious. At first I wasnt too worried since water was showing good readings and everyone seemed ok. But Now it looks like a few of my corals are gettint fed up with this...

Picture of my Hammer showing utter disgust for the current conditions...

Hey have you guys heard of the Vortex Diatom Filter?

I found a thread that has the same issues Im having and this was mentioned...

I'm not familiar with the Vortex Diatom Filter, but what you are dealing with is not diatoms, so I'm not sure that would help.

Quick update, ok so apparently this is a very common problem and is infact an algea bloom suspended in the water. Here is what I have found out in the past two weeks dealing with this problem for anyone else with this issue.

Large water changes are not recommended and do not help the issue, in fact can carry it on worse for longer, small water changes 20% or less every othe day is good. Green water this bad DOES NOT go away on it's own. It can be killed with 100% blackout for several days but will return as soon as light is added back. The root cause as you may have guessed is a chemistry imbalance (over feeding, under filtering/powerful lights etc...)

Diatom filters WILL remove this rather quickly! Either the vortex diatom filter OR a marineland magnum series with use of diatom powder. This is what I'm doing now with a magnum 350 and Diatomatic earth powder from a pool supply store. Same stuff they filter pools with and can filter down to 1 Micron pulling out single cell algea AND parisites like Ich.

Last but not least and I'm surprised no know mentioned this one at all is a UV sterilizer must be utilized with the filer for best results or even as a stand alone. Use of the filter alone will remove the green very quickly but not prevent it's return. Only the UV sterilizer will prevent the return until the water can stabilize again without need for these items.

So far in 24 hours I have removed at least half of the green cloud by both UV and Diatom filtering. I had the most severe case I could find in any of my searching and most mild problems should be 100% clear in 24-48 hours using these methods.

I certainly do not wish anyone this problem, ever, IT SUCKS!! But if green or cloudy water is an issue I hope this helps inform others in the forum to be able to treat and clear this up quickly before the loss of fish and corals, happy reefing!

good to know!

UPDATES!! This is pretty incredible!!! :bounce:

Pics taken at around 36 hours after I began running the Magnum 350 plus UV sterilizer...



This pic was actually taken at about 24 hours after


Then here is hour 36 after the filtration and UV began...






My new skimmer that was added in at around hour 30...

Its starting to clear up nice, keep us posted!

My magnum 350 with Diatom powder pulling out green


This is my Green Killing Machine UV 24 watt


The New Reef Octo extreme 160 :D


This was actually an accident!! I was just breaking in and my water level "readjusted itself" I ended up pulling this out in 6 hours of it first being plugged in!!! :bounce:


This is about 38 hours into filter and at this point my display is crystal clear, more than the day I set it up! Still looks a bid fuzzy due to Micro bubbles in the sump and the MH light Glare :bowdown:

Ok, last update around 60 hours or so... :mrgreen:

Looks awesome! Nice job.

Wow!! Looks great! Thanks for sharing. Good to know it works, for future reference.

Nice one mate, turned out good!! :D

Ace, did this ever clear up for you? What worked?