Topic: Algae Bloom in Planted Tank

[Essabee]

As long as the conditions that created it continue - the green water can come back.

Going back I will remind you that the 2 necessary cause was the presence of ammonia and high light. The green water was competing with the N-cycle bacteria for the ammonia and that was keeping the bacteria population down. I hope that their population would now pick up as they got a window of low competition. Keep your lights down and also your feeding.

BTW - how are the plants?

[Gohans_Onna]

The anubias plants took the blackout like a champ, but some of the amazon sword plant leaves started to yellow and are now dying. I just did some upkeep maintenance on the two filters and cleaned them out along with changing some of the media. The water is beautiful and is completely crystal clear...in fact I don't think I've ever seen water this clear in a tank lol.

Now I'm going to trim the plants and rearrange everything, then do a water change.

Btw, since I have my UV sterilizer hooked up, do you think it's necessary to continue using it?

And also, how long do you think I should continue to run my smaller filter so my FX5 can build up its biological bacteria and whatnot?

[Essabee]

I just did some upkeep maintenance on the two filters and cleaned them out along with changing some of the media.

This was your first wrong step in your fight against green water.

You need to promote the population of the cycle bacteria to a level where they out-compete the green-water algae for the ammonia. That is the only way you can keep clear aquarium. By changing media you just threw out a colony of those much needed bacteria. Now keep your present system going without change and keep your fingers crossed.

Insert a fert tablet under your amazon sword - and see it come back.

For the time being don't disturb the substrate too much as it might send a lot of nutrient into the water column.

[Gohans_Onna]

Well everything was so clogged that the waterflow was diminished. I changed some of the carbon and added some more but as far as the filter material, I just rinsed it off in tank water because it was covered in nastiness. I haven't had an issue yet so hopefully it hasn't hurt anything. I was worried about changing out anything but I could tell things weren't working properly.

[ShieldWolf]

Success!!!!! 

I took off the blankets and the water was a little cloudy yesterday, so I was kinda disappointed, but today I looked at it and the water is almost crystal clear!!!!

The only thing I'm worried about is a relapse lol. After it clears, can it come back?

Rather belated but congrats on the blackout treatment working. And yes there is a chance it may come back but keeping my fingers crossed for you.