How I Change My Green Water Options

[HappyBuddha]

I have been asked a number of times how I change my green water. So here I outlined my steps. Please feel free to ask me to clarify on anything.



First, here’s a pic of my six days old green water in my indoor tub. The tub is lit during the first two days with TWO of that PL lamp (55 watts, 7000 Kelvin by SaferElectric you see in the pic. The strong 110 watts of intense lighting, however, was very quick in turning the water intensely green. I was impressed by their prowess, but have to reduce to just one lamp on the third day. The water temp does not go beyond 28-29°C.

I should make it clear that there is NO filtration in this tub. This is not bio-green; just normal artificially lit indoor green water.

Just before water change, the pH is a surprisingly low 7.8, while the ammonia level is 1.0 ppm. Six (healthy) little baby Ranchus reside in this tub. It’s their first time since I acquired them. I did not carry out Nitrite and Nitrate test since I know there’s no beneficial bacterials. I forgot to check the KH though. Sorry. It should be nil since I didn’t dose any baking soda.

[HappyBuddha]

DISCARDING THE OLD GREEN WATER



Pic 2 show I have siphon and drain away all the water. I moved the fishes into a white enamel basin, which you’ll see later, before I do that. I don’t like to leave my fishes inside, for reason you’ll see later in pic 4.

Algae are on the walls, and floor. In pic 2, the dark green area is where my heater used to be located. It’s a calm area where I normally would find brown debris had I used clear water. The debris is in a shade of dark green now instead. Hmm….

[HappyBuddha]

THOROUGHLY CLEAN THE TUB




Pic 4. This may be controversial. I use washing detergent (for vegetables and fruits) to thoroughly clean the tub (and the heater and everything else except the air-stone.) Do so at your own risk! Concentrated salt solution works as well but I like bubbly detergent. (Hullo, not dish washing detergent hor; special one for vege and fruits that we eat, ok? )

Pic 5. After rinsing the tub with warm water, fresh tap water is prepared by spraying it into the tub, which I have dosed Genesis Anti-chlorine/Chloramine. A bag of activated charcoal is thrown in for 15 minutes. I was told this further purifies the tap water. It’s harmless anyway and I can spare the time….

[HappyBuddha]

PREPARING THE NEW WATER



Pic 6. While I wait for the 15 minutes interval to “purify” the water using AC, the white enamel basin, which I have moved the fishes into earlier, is place and floating on top of the new water. This is to equalize the water temperature.

Pic 7. After removing the bag of activated charcoal, I dosed 2 g of baking soda to bring the pH up to 7.8 (from my tap’s pH 7.0). Normally I have to raise it as high as 8.5 but… like I mentioned earlier, the pH of this batch of old green water is a low 7.5. After blending the baking soda, I use my palms to move the fishes one-by-one into the tub. Note the water is completely free of any green water at this point, and the fishes are swimming around instead of hiding in a corner, a (strange-to-me) behaviour brought up by a bro recently. The KH is four degrees.

[HappyBuddha]

SEEDING THE OLD WATER



Pic 8. I have previously scoop and filled a small basin with old green water. The volume is probably less than a litre. The tub contains about 30 litres of water. So… that’s seeding… how many percent har?

Pic 9 shows the new green water has been duly mixed up by the air-stone after about 5 minutes. The water is very lightly green tinted. The fishes are racing around the perimeter of the tub like formula 1 racing. I think they’re pleased with the new water.

[HappyBuddha]

TIRING WORK TO BE REPEATED WEEKLY!

Done.

I hope I didn’t miss out anything.

Now to enjoy and inspect my fishes for sickness or injuries in the relatively clear water before they disappear again tomorrow in heavily tinted green water.

[n-bie]

Hi Forum Bro,

Need some help here regarding green water.
I know in clear water grooming, hobbyist will do daily wc of 20-30% to obtain good water parameter and fast growth of ranchu.
My question is, is there the same advantage/disadvantage on growth rate and water parameter with green water, if we do wc say 10-15% daily, before weekly 100%wc?
I have my homemade outdoor pond of abt 1300 -1500l greenwater housing 12 (3.5 inch) ranchu. with just air stone in it.

Will appreciate any comments, thank you.

Cheers.