Greenish water - suspect filter? Canister Filter Tips?

[chambo]

My water of late has been tending to have a greenisg ting to it. The Glass is clean, no formation on plants etc - purely in the water.
I change 10 -15% of the tank water on a daily basis (bare bottom Tank).
The water is souced from my rain water tank. However the same water is used in my 2ft breeding tank and the water stays clear.

I pressume the issue would be related to the Canister filter?

I have a 1500Ltr unit with a 4 tray filtration system:
Open black sponge
Carbon
Ceremic Noddles
white closed type sponge


All the above media came with the unit at time of purchase.


Is there any tips or suggestions in relation to Canister filters that I can do to keep the water in my discus tank at it's best?

[ILLUSN]

green water is usually caused by too much nutrient and too much light, try a black out.

if it keeps up you might have a bacterial bloom.

[chambo]

By Blackout I pressume not use the tank light for several days?

[bartek]

Yes that what ILLUSN means.

Another good idea is to invest in a UV light.

[chambo]

Yes that what ILLUSN means.

Another good idea is to invest in a UV light.Can I simply purchase a UV tube for my fluro light fitting, or do I need to purchase a different lighting system?

[ILLUSN]

a uv is a filter ad on it will cost you about $300 for a decent one, or an internal with its own pump for around $200.

by blackout i mean turn off your light and throw a sheet or blanket over the tank for 3day, you want0 light to kill the algae.

whats your NO2/NO3?

[chambo]

I only have basic testing equipment.

Read:
PH
Amonia
KH

I may need to invest in one of those "test lab" kits
that come with all the tests for most parramaters?

Will give the blanket a shot


Keeping Fish is not cheap

[bartek]

You really need to get kits to test Nitrate and Nitrite.

[chambo]

As these the only essentials you would recomend I ensure a kit has?

PH
Amonia
Nitrate
Nitrite
KH

[ILLUSN]

that will be plenty, an iron test kit if you have a planted tank would be the only thing i'd add.

[BobbyBruce]

Hi Chambo,

I have a similar set of test kits, Hagen actually have a combined Kh/Gh test kit that I use and I feel that there was a combination test kit for something else at the LFS the other day. Can't remember what it was though.

I also use their wide-range pH test kit, 4.5 - 9.

Regards,

Bob

[chambo]

Was looking at a Hagen kit on Aquariumproducts.com.au

In a perfect world you could buy a digital meter that test the lot...

[chambo]

Thursday morning I noticed a build up of matter on inside the hoses to and from the Canister filter.
I gave the filter a good clean out and found there to be a large amount of sludge.
Looking at the tank this morning the green ting has subsided about 80%.

Looking into purchasing a UV light. Found some cheap inline units. not sure how good they are. also considering buying a new canister filter with one incorperated as the costs of such units are not that much more then a uv unit alone.

[chambo]

Ended up purchasing a new canister filter with a UV light built in. figured it would be desirable to have a backup canister filter any how.