I managed by virtue of lots of light, lots of iron (lava rock used in my filter as bio culturing media) and shrimp/snail food and waste to end up with a green water tank. The shrimp don't seem to mind, they are growing, molting, and zipping all over the place. I bought 30 and they are in a 20L with a single mystery snail. The green water occurred when they were all packed into a 10. I believe I counted more than 30 when I transferred over.
Is there any ill effect to keeping the RCS in green water? I don't get to enjoy seeing them often. Usually I pull an algaed rock from another tank and place it close to the front of their tank so I can see them cleaning it to make sure they're still in there and doing well.
I just turned off the HOB filter (I was running an HOB with a sponge prefilter and a sponge filter) and they seem much happier swimming all through the water without the filter turbulence disturbing them.
You need to keep close tabs on the pH if it gets to the pea soup stage. Once the lights go out the plant can also suck all the O2 out of the water. I've seen the pH go to 10+. The algae itself is not harmful.
I got an inexpensive UV sterilizer for one of my tanks that had a chronig green bloom. The water was chrystal clear the next day.
It seems to have cleared on it's own. I pulled the HOB filter (I was running an HOB and a sponge) Did a major cleanup of the tank, and within the last few days the green has totally cleared.
I'm thankful I poured some off to keep in a barrel in the back yard for fry though
And, when I bring in "outside" java moss, algae, etc. the shrimp go crazy for it.
