Green Water

[Shawn84]

I have a 10 gallon fry tank. While I was away someone else took care of it. The water turn green. Is there any negative or positive in this green water bloom? I been slowly doing 10% water change.

[HappyGuppy]

I have a 10 gallon fry tank. While I was away someone else took care of it. The water turn green. Is there any negative or positive in this green water bloom? I been slowly doing 10% water change.

LEAVE IT LEAVE IT LEAVE IT!!!  Green water is AWESOME for fry!!!  Read this thread:
http://www.guppies.com/forums/showthread.php?14527-The-Green-Water-Miracle
I have been using green water in my breeding tanks for years.  It is awesome stuff.  Forget about feeding 5 times a day.  Heck feed cheap flake food every other day (once).  Nothing and I mean nothing is as nutritious for fry than swimming in pea soup.  They, and even adults, practically filter feed in the stuff.  Your colors and fish growth will be far better than anything else you could feed them.

Of course, if the tank is a display tank then get rid of the green water for your personal enjoyment, but if it is just for raising fry then leave it be.  One of my display tanks is deliberately lime green pea soup because I'm breeding stuff in there.

[Shawn84]

That was some good info HappyGuppy. No wonder i see that their tummie is full all the time. They do seem to be growing a lot faster in the green water. It could be my eye fooling me. Cause one of my female give birth and the fry was living in a 1.2 gallon hang on tank that have a constance water pump from the main tank into that hang on one. I feed them 2 a day when they were living in that breeding tank. I finally transfer them over to the 10 gallon with the rest of all the other fry and they seem to be a lot bigger now. I'm keeping this green water for sure now.

[HappyGuppy]

Glad to be of help!  Glad you recognize the value of greenwater.  IMHO nothing beats it, and the fact that it is conducive to lazy people like me is just such a marvelous bonus

[Shawn84]

It is a bonus. That just give me more time to take care of all the other fish tanks

[Feivel]

On a second note, i dont have green water but i do have a lot of algae in my blue lobster tank. it had some babies and they seem to love to pick at the glass and fill their bellies so i left it there for them to feast on.

[HappyGuppy]

Over the years I have been trying different things with algae.  I now *deliberately* culture algae in a corner of my tanks which is miraculous for a few things - super cleans water of nutrients, oxygenates, and the cool thing is that the plants throughout the rest of the tank are completely algae free!  My shrimp, snails, and even fish hang out there often for snacks, just like your lobster.  Algae can be beneficial when properly controlled.  Of course algae everywhere is technically beneficial for the fish/livestock, but ugly.  Over the years I feel that I have sort of mastered freshwater algae (how to erradicate it, culture it, use it deliberately, and manage it).  Currently I am learning and exploring it for saltwater tanks, and see that there is vast potential there too (google "turf algae scrubber").  Black beard algae, cyano, clado - yuck!  Properly done I think algae should be embraced to great benefit by all.  Even a hang-on-back filter could be easily modified to be a thousand times more effective a filter than it's original design (simply remove the junk inside (the so called filter & carbon), put in a white screen, and position a small CFL light bulb over it 24/7.  Algae grows in there but not in tank.)

Edit: fixed a funny typo - wrote "black bear algae", meant beard

[Shawn84]

Can you teach me how u deliberately culture algae in a corner of your tank? I wanna give it a try.

[Feivel]

+1 I  agree you should host a chat about it sometime. seems like a cool piece of knowledge to have a understanding of Freshwater and Salt
Cheers
Seb

[HappyGuppy]

Cool idea to host a chat session about algae.  I'd be happy to do it and share some really neat information that could be astounding to some people.

[Shawn84]

Yes we should have a chat session about algae. I second that.

[HappyGuppy]

Here is a link worth reading about the in tank algae screen.  I've also used floating kinds.

http://www.guppies.com/forums/showthread.php?33470-Miracle-Algae-Water-Cleaner-No-Water-Changes-No-Ammonia-Nitrite-Nitrate

[Shawn84]

Just a question. I didn't really get a clear answer about the water change. Do you still do the water change or you just leave it.