Bros,

Need some advise on why my green water doesnt start.

I restarted my green water on last sunday, below are the details.

Basic Setup
- 2 x 3inch ranchus
- TOYOGO 9805 tub ( 480 x 340 x 260 mm ) -> abt 40 litres
- Magnum 55W PL light on for :
-> 1st 5 days : 12 Hrs
-> Sat & Sun : 14 Hrs
-> still no green water , increase light to 18 Hrs
- Feeding pattern : 2 clicks of AF 3 times a day ( Hikari lionhead pellets )
- 1 brand new air stone.

No water change has been done, have just reduce the amount water from 40 litres to 20 litres - Monday.

Water is just water from tap + anti-chlorine ( Genesis )

Water has been getting smelly and still in brownish state

I dun wan my GFs to die before green water cultivated.

Please advise what should be done , this is my 2nd attempt liao.

Hi Jowy,

Happen to browse your indoor lighting problem.
As a technical line incline person.

Straight away,they will see one fault of yours.
Your bulb you use is PL fluorescent light.
As most people will know,fluorescent tube bulb is always soft and act as a artificial light to most mankind.
Instead the next natural light closest to sunlight is tungsten bulb light.

Am sure if you use 100 watt bulb,you should see the difference.
Use extra bulbs if necessary,until you see the green water within a week.
Otherwise some other thing is wrong.
You have to monitor closely yourself and let us know if problem arise again.

Throw away your smelly water immediately,before your ranchus report to some other owner.


All the best.

Hi Melvyn, thanks for the advise but I couldnt agree cos it has been widely posted in this forum that 55W PL light is good enough.

And we have bros/members here that have succeeded with that kind of light.

BTW, the light tube I'm using is OSRAM, barely 2 months old. 55W 6000K white/white light which should be quite near to the sunlight spectrum.

Refer to :

Bro Desireless's green water project

Bro white horse T1's green water project

This post has been edited by jowy_ham: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 2:15 pm

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Ok,for your information.
Whoever have been using the same formula as yours,is really surprising.
In that case, you try putting your hands under your whatever PL light and put your hand under the 100 watt bulb.
Feel for yourself,any diffence in heat.

I think this is the best way to prove my point.

Okay!

Hi Jowy,

I cannot see what's wrong with your setup. Did you check that your fishes are healthy?

Having ensured that, I need to add one more point that I switched on my PL tube 24/7 during kick-start (virgin brew). After I have my virgin brew for seeding, I use (till now) a timer to switch on the light 8 hours per day.

Cheers.

Once you've achieved your green water, it's always good to check the subsequent brew (2nd brew). Fill an acrylic tank with your green water at the point of time when you want to change water. Let the green water settle (with no aeration) for about an hour. You should see this:



The base being a little darker is ok. But if your green water settles down such that you see green base and CLEAR WATER on top of it, then your green water algae might have "died" somehow.

Ya loh, I also see nothing wrong leh, but green water just wouldnt come leh.

My the other tub, used for producing duckweed already grow algae liao, this tub still no results .

As for my setup and yours, there is only 1 slight diff loh, that is the number of hours the lights stay ON.

It took U 8 days x 24 Hrs (192 Hrs) lighting to get green water, maybe I should wait a few more days cos the amount of light is only at 5x12 + 3x14 + 2x18 = 138 Hrs till now.

Let me blast them till the end of this week ( should hit 192 Hrs by then ), then we shall see.

As for the health of my GFs, they seems healthy leh, can eat can shit, no abnormal behaviour ( not grasping for air or white spots ) <- newbie's view lah .

BTW, will the GFs die because of this ordeal ?

Not for mine that time (only once), but I won't rule out possibility.

I stopped green water twice. For restarting of green water, I used "Fishless Cultivation".

Since the water is already full of poos, can I transfer my GFs out and let it continue like that ( with light on 24 Hrs and throw in some fresh pellets everyday ) ?

Appreciate any advise

I suppose can.

Use the same water in a smaller container plus pellets and same setup.

Thanks for the advise

or you could use feeder goldfish or inexpensive goldfish as sacrificial lamb? having said that, I also used 55 watt PL light and it took me around 7 days to achieve green water. I remembered in the process the water did turn smelly.

You got the idea totally wrong.

The equation does not call for heat but color temperature (which has nothing to do with heat) that most mimick natural day light. It doesn't matter which lighting technology you choose, whether PL, metal halide, halogen quartz, LED, Laser etc, as long as the colour temperature is in the region between 6,000 Kelvin to 10,000 kelvin, ie, "natural day-light" which is whitish, it will work. In the case of cultivating green water, the metal halide works best because it is able to produce natural day light closely and penetrate deeply.

a typical tungsten bulb is able to produce a color temperature in the low 3,000 kelvin temperature only (apeearing yellowish in color) IRREGARDLESS of how "powerful" the bulb may be, it just won't work.