shalu

I don't want to miss seeing the tank for even a day, hehe. It was never too bad due to good mechanical filtration. I even have a UV, too lazy to hook it up on this tank. Putting in a few willow branches is the least work for me.

MatPat

I think I am too impatient for either method, Blackout or Willow. An overnight run of a diatom filter ($45 HOT Magnum with diatom powder) has cleared up almost every Green Water case I've had. Sometimes it runs a bit longer than overnight but it's not a problem.

I think the whole point should be figuring out how we got the NH4 in the tank in the first place and trying to reduce or eliminate it...adding more plants or less bio-load to the tank.

I know in my case I can bring on a case of green water by uprooting enough plants and not doing a water change afterwords. Now I either uproot the plants and do a water change or put the diatom filter on the tank when I can't get to the water change right away.

shalu

I got GW by putting way too much peat in the substrate of new tank. No fish so did not feed anything.

robby

I am very happy to mention that last week I succesfully battled a white bacterial cloudiness using willow branches.

For 3 months I could not get rid of this milky water, and by using willow branches it was gone in two days !!

Thanks very much for this unbelieveble method.
For me it is no magic, but comes pretty close to it

shalu

It is hard to imagine that the willow can even kill bacteria
Maybe your white cloudiness is the initial stage of green water. Most green water starts out as white cloudiness, and it can remain that way for quite some time.

chiahead

OK, I am having extreme difficulties in obtaining any Willow brances. I have gone to a half dozen nurseries and no one here carries any willow trees. They all say it is just too hot and dry for them here. I am curious if anyone who has access to any branches would be willing to cut and ship some to me. I am looking for about 4-6 decent size branches about 24" long for my 80 gallon. I will pay whoever can do this plus the shipping ofcourse. I just cannot get any locally nor will the stores special order me a whole tree(I tried). Please PM me if this is possible. Thanks in advance.

stcyrwm

Do you have to get a special cartridge to hold the diatom powder or is there a way to put it in that comes with the filter?

Thanks, Bill

MatPat

The HOT comes with a pleated filter cartdridge that can be used with or without diatom powder. It works pretty well given the cost for what, 1/2 the price of a dedicated Diatom filter? The HOT also came in handy when I got another tank and didn't have a filter for it. Just put in on the tank while I waited for my Eheim to be delivered! Definately a handy filter to have around!

chiahead

So do you just pour the D.E. (diatom powder)powder in the bottom of the HOT magnum???

If so, how much do you put in for lets say an 80 gallon tank?

Do you place it outside the micron filter or inside the middle sleeve of it?

I need to do this and I am in need of the knowledge also.

MatPat

I think the directions (for either the HOT or the Magnum 350, I don't remember which) state to put the Diatom powder in a bucket of water and filter the bucket of water until the water is clear.

I have done it this way and it always releases a dust cloud of Diatom powder into the tank on filter startup on the tank.

I now add my powder to a 500ml Rubbermaid container and fill it with water. I cap the container and put it in the tank under the intake of my HOT. I turn on the HOT and I open the container and let the HOT suck the powder/water solution from the Rubbermaid container into the filter intake. Doesn't take very long to do and it doesn't release diatom powder all over the tank. You may still notice a little bit of the powder bypassing the filter at first.

I use 2 ounces of powder (1/4cup) for all of my tanks. They range from a 30g to a 75g. Tank size doesn't really matter as much as the filter volume. I have found that if I add more powder, it clogs up too fast and if I add less it takes longer to clear. I haven't done it an a while now so hopefully I didn't forget anything!