houseofcards

Hi Oleg,

Roots started appearing in about 8 days. Here's a pic of Day 10. Haven't seen any effect on water clarity yet. My water seems to get greener as the day continues.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/480220988yzDKcY

Oleg

Hi houseofcards,
The branches look exactly as mine.
At this point the excess of nutrients should be removed and the water should be clear already. Something is not right here. Maybe three branches are not enough for your 75G or it'll take longer to clear. Maybe you should stop adding NO3 for few days.
Please don't remove the willow from your tank yet. I am sure it will bit your green water. See the swo21259's post above; it took him 14 days.
Oleg

houseofcards

Hi Oleg, maybe I spoke to soon. The water is looking clear this morning. The big test will be by days end, because my water has been getting a green haze to it by evening, I even dosed po4 and no3 this morning. Just for the record the branches that are rooting were fresh branches right off the tree and were cut from both ends. The lighting on the tank is a hood light and is below the top of the branches which are sticking out of the top of my tank.

Oleg

Glad to hear that! I wouldn't add NO3 yet though.
Keep us updated.

houseofcards

Well the water got a little hazy toward evening, but not as bed as it has been. What in your opinon is the connection with the no3. I basically subscribe to the EI method and didn't thing the no3 was an issue.

Oleg

Connection with NO3 - just my experience. I think once GW got established it feeds up on NO3. I would stop adding NO3 until GW ALMOST disappear. I am saying ALMOST because if GW is digressing then it has no food and it is time to feed plants.
But this is just my experience. Tom Barr probably would say add a lot of NO3 and CO2.

MatPat

The Green Water and other types of algae, will feed off of fertilizers just like the plants. While stopping ferts may stop the gren water, it will probably also stop plant growth and lead to other types of algae growth. GW can be induced by NH4 (ammonium). Once established, it hangs on for a while. To remove it you can:

1) use a diatom filter - Costs $ unless you have a filter
2) blackout the tank for 3 days - do a search on blackouts for specific directions - Blackouts are free!
3) UV filter the tank - $ issue again
4) try the Willow method suggested in this thread- free if you have access to willow branches and if you can get it to work

houseofcards

Thanks for all the good info. The blackout was my next option. Over the last day my GW has definitely gotten much better and the roots (see pic) have gotten on the willow branches. I've continued to dose no3 and po4 but on the bottom end of the EI scale. I had been using P-Clear (Hagen) to clear GW, but it only lasted a few hours and was cloudy again, so obviously the GW is still being feed.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/481193347WgNNkJ

houseofcards

Well I finally made it through the day without any haziness and without adding anything to the water. It's tough to completely credit the willow branches, could be that the growth in plants gave the GW a knockout punch, (tank is 3 1/2 weekk old) but I must admit it did coincede with the large root development on the willow branches over the last few days.

BTW - I continued to dose no3 and po4. The water right now is crystal clear.

Oleg

Congrats!