Chaetomorpha making water green

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

I tried adding some chaetomorpha to my brackish tank a little while ago, but didn't acclimate it long enough and it started to die. It was moved over to the reef but didn't thrive and I will ultimately wound up removing it. But now my water is green, and stubbornly staying green, despite water changes. I suspect I've left a few small bits of the murdered chaeto in there by accident. But how would be best to get rid of the green tint in my water? Everything is happy and my parameters haven't been affected; it's just bloody ugly!

[mcarroll]

Pic?  

 

I haven't heard of chaeto "leaking" pigment before (cyano will sometime; so will coralline), but I guess it wouldn't be impossible.  Seems like activated carbon would clean it up if it were only pigment.

 

Any chance you think it might be a green water (algae) bloom set off by the nutrients being released by the dying chaeto?

[seabass]

4 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Any chance you think it might be a green water (algae) bloom set off by the nutrients being released by the dying chaeto?

Yes, sounds like a phyto bloom.  Pods will love that.

 

I'm not sure that I'd do anything about it (besides monitoring phosphate and nitrate levels).

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Yeah, ok that does make more sense. I mean, tank health wise everything is happy, there's pods EVERYWHERE too. 

But I kind of assumed it was the chaeto leaking because my brackish tank is the same colour - and both only went green after adding the chaeto. But I suppose correlation doesn't equal causation. 

 

Added pics of both tanks

 

[mcarroll]

11 hours ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

But I kind of assumed it was the chaeto leaking because my brackish tank is the same colour - and both only went green after adding the chaeto. But I suppose correlation doesn't equal causation. 

I'd say it's worth taking a look at that water under a microscope.  Is it the same greenwater organism(s) in both tanks?  

 

And whatever it is seems to like tagging along with macro algae.    Seems strange since one is benthic and one is pelagic....but I'm no expert on pelagic algae!!!  Phyto blooms are (apparently) more common in the open ocean than on reefs so don't come up for me that often.  🤷‍♂️

 

In general green water is rare to see in reef tanks.....when they do happen, it seems to take off when there's a lot of free ammonia AND an under-sized population of nitrifying bacteria.  I think phyto competes pretty well with these bacteria if they get a chance at any kind of head start.  I guess they usually lack a vector into most tanks, whereas nitrifying bacteria are virtually omnipresent in the environment....so nitrifies are the usual bloom most folks (never) see, even if they do nothing/The Natural Method to start a new tank.  Nitrifiers usually just take over and do their thing.  In most cases...

 

It's a phase, and doesn't usually hurt anything OTHER than your visibility into the tank. 😉 

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

Hmm... Definitely no ammonia in this tank! I'll ask my manager if I can borrow his microscope though for sure. I've not heard of a phyto bloom being common in Ocean reefs either. But I am stumped as to what this could be, as it seems equally as happy at an sg of 1.007 as it is in the reef at 1.026. but whilst the pods in the reef love it, the nerite veligers in the brackish tank do not, although they are supposed to be phyto feeders in the free swimming stage....🤔