Reddit reviews AA Aquarium Green Killing Machine 9 Watt | Internal UV Sterilizer System with Power Head | Kills Algae, Bacteria, and Waterborne Pathogens | Easy, Submersible Installation

I used this uv sterilizer on my 29 planted and along with a big water change it cleared up very quickly.

The major issues why this doesn't work well are:

1. Most of your growth in a loop isn't in the freely moving water column, it's in the nooks and crannies of blocks and fittings. This is why biocides and kill coils work - the biocidal agents are transported along with the water and reach those nooks. A UV light won't hit those at all.
   
   
2. Even if algae did grow solely in the free-moving water, semi-transparent color additives (let alone the opaque ones) that everyone likes severely reduce the effectiveness of UV lights. You'd likely have to use pure distilled water with no color, and most people like color.
   
   
3. UV light quickly breaks down the plastics and other materials commonly used in loops today - you'd probably need different materials like FEP for anything that might get even incidental light leakage hitting it.
   
   
4. UV bulbs lose effectiveness rapidly with continuous use, and especially one small enough to fit into a loop would have to be replaced fairly often, which:
   

• likely adds more maintenance time and frequency than it saves (thus negating the whole point)
  
• adds cost
  
• is somewhat dangerous if you make it accessible due to the risk of retinal damage - most are sold as opaque sealed units for this reason
  
  

5. Bulbs can add a fair amount of heat and the point of a loop is to reduce heat.
   
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   There are actually small, reasonably priced and effective ones if you want to try it. You can order some direct, or you could probably just do something like take the powerhead off one of these and use it inline:
   https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KP9B2W
   
   

Seconded. I've had great results running a small UV sterilizer for a few days at a time as needed.

I struggled with green water after a tea tree treatment for cotton mouth. I had that damn green water for more than 6 weeks to the point where I couldn’t even see the fish anymore.

I bought a UV water sterilizer and it took a little more than a week but it made my water crystal clear again.

Before and after

https://imgur.com/a/qePCiq2


This is the one I bought

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001KP9B2W/ref=sxts_sxwds-bia_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525277655&sr=1

My tank was going a bit green and I bought a UV sterilizer. Water was crystal clear in 48hrs.

Well it seems like you're in a situation that is (unfortunately) one of the most common: The formal term is I'm-doing-everything-right-and-none-of-the-symptoms-are-very-diagnostic-wtf-is-going-on.

TL;DR - Get a UV filter, run it for a week before the new fish arrive, once you start to see babies wait two weeks and then remove the UV filter.


Long answer:

The cory death isn't too helpful (in terms of providing information) simply because about 10% of fish from the pet store seem to die no matter what anyone does. In fact, your survival rates are pretty good a year after the purchase date. You tank set-up looks about as good as it could possibly be, so I can't imagine the environment is unusually stressful either. I forgot to ask how big the tank was, but I'm going to guess its 20-30 gallons based on the filter you're running. This should be fine for guppies and their tankmates.

Although there's no clear diagnostic information about what happened, I've found that almost anything disease related is mitigated with a UV filter. My suggestion is to try using one of these to soften the process of adaptation to your tanks. I use these, but since you have an external filter, you might prefer to use an in-line UV filter like this one. I've found that the first one works good enough for up to 30 gallons (although even 30 gallons is pushing it a little), but I haven't tried the second one and have no idea how well it works. I just randomly found it on Amazon and only link it as an example. You'd be wise to do some homework about whatever model you decide to get because they aren't cheap. (Protip: Remember to use fakespot before you buy anything on Amazon! Aquarium stuff is especially prone to lies and general fuckery from manufacturers).

The PROS:

• First, they don't cause any harm to plants, critters, or your biological filter.
  
  
• Second, they reduce the viral/bacterial/parasitic load on the tank as a whole. This is huge, because it lowers the threshold of immune system strength needed for critters to overcome pathogens. In other words, it gives weaker fish a better chance of adapting to the new pathogens by reducing their overall exposure to them in the water column. Furthermore, this increases the probability that your new guppies have a chance to spit out some babies. Babies are important because native-born fish have the highest chance of adapting to the unique ecology of your tanks. Its important to point out that UV filters don't (usually) totally eliminate pathogens, so all of the critters in the tank are still being exposed to the same pathogens, but the levels are low enough that their immune systems have a chance to mount a defense against those pathogens without the same risk of those pathogens taking hold.
  
  The CONS:
  
  
• Because they don't eliminate all of anything, they aren't good solutions when you need complete eradication. So, if you had ich in your tank (which must be completely eradicated), a UV filter will only work for as long as you use it. The moment you stop using it, ich will come back with a vengeance and kill everything if you don't intervene. So, they're best when you're fighting bacterial or viral diseases that are more opportunistic (i.e., they only threaten weak critters) versus pathogens that are invariably fatal, like ich.
  
  
• The other downside is that the bulbs burn out quickly (like, 3 to 12 months), so they can be expensive to maintain if you use them all the time. (NOTE: Some people choose to run them 100% of the time, but its definitely not necessary if your main concern is just getting your critters through the adaptation stage. If you're someone who keeps expensive/delicate/exotic critters like stingrays or arowana, perhaps its cheaper to run them constantly. That said, that's a whole different kind of fishkeeping that I don't know anything about. For peasants like myself, UV filters get the most value as training wheels for immune systems.)
  
  Here's what I did when I was in a similar situation. Perhaps you can have the same luck I did: A while back I ordered some endlers, introduced them to my community tank, and they all promptly died. My assumption was that the pathogens in my tanks kicked their asses, partly because they were ordered from a completely different area in the US. I decided to try again, but this time I was obviously very concerned about how well they would adapt to the pathogens endemic to my current tanks. So I started running a UV filter about a week before I planned to add them to my community tanks (A week seemed like enough time to drive the pathogen load down). I added the endlers to the tanks and kept the UV filters running until about two weeks after I saw the first endler babies born in each tank, so about a month after adding the endlers. Then, I removed the filters and crossed my fingers. Fortunately, the spike in pathogen load that surely came after removing the UV filters didn't seem to affect the endlers at all. As far as I'm able to tell, the UV filters gave them a chance to form a robust immune response. That was about a year ago and today my biggest problem is the booming population, but that's another post ;).
  
  EDIT; I should add that I would try a UV filter first partly because you'll need to start considering more drastic stuff at some point (e.g., chemicals) and since there's no easy way to know exactly what's killing the guppies, you'll probably need to use trial-and-error. As many of us learned long ago, the trial-and-error approach to treating disease in the aquarium is almost always a complete shit-show. Its expensive and in many cases you just end up harming the healthy inhabitants without actually solving your problem.

I would say CO2 is more of a lifestyle than a cure. Its a big commitment in my mind but then I haven't tried it.

UV is easy to set up and you should see results in a week. if not just return it for a full refund within 30 days.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KP9B2W/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s01

Plants yes, fish no. Plants will remove excess nutrients, and fish will add them back in. That's not to say you shouldn't add more fish though. 99% of new tanks go through all kinds of nasty blooms and phases before they mature.

It can be green, brown, red, purple, etc. It can be fuzzy, bubbly, flat, or hairy/fuzzy. Here are some examples:

http://i.imgur.com/DzvhFUA.jpg

http://www.furzmulde.de/Jan/960L/images/cyano1.JPG

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y55/steelhealr/cyano3.jpg

It is not actually harmful to your fish or anything, it is just unsightly and will cover every single surface in your tank, including plants, which will kill them.

It could also be diatoms, which look like this:

http://i708.photobucket.com/albums/ww82/bonomo53/DSC01359.jpg

They are completely harmless and feed off silicates. They show up, eat silicates, then disappear once there's no more food. There is no other way to get rid of them other than to just wait it out. They are mostly seen on substrate since that is where the most silicates will be, but can be on any surface.

The best way to kill your cyano right now, and prevent it in the future:

Suck it out/pick it out. As much as you can.

Get a UV sterilizer. If you are using a canister filter you can use something like this: http://www.amazon.com/AquaTop--Line-UV-Sterilizer-5W/dp/B005HK1OTO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1426166293&sr=8-2&keywords=In-Line+UV+Sterilizer

Or if you want it separate something like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001KP9B2W/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=1944687622&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B005HJYXNO&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0KRW38CX9XZE4BRR2PTH

They sterilize water with a high powered UV light. It is not required, it just makes it a heck of a lot easier to kill & prevent.

The next step is to blackout your tank. No lights. Cover it up if you have to, to prevent light from coming in. At least 24 hours, more if you can. It needs light to survive.

Last step, water changes. Keep up on them. You will need more frequent and larger changes at first to really remove the excess nutrients. This is a basic for any aquarium, cyano or no, but is the ONLY way to make sure the cyano dies and doesn't return. No excess nutrients, no bacteria.

Once it is under control you can add more plants and decorations. Add plants first before you add fish. If you are new to plecos, please make sure you feed him bottom feeder/algae eater food, they cannot survive on existing tank algae, in addition to this they make a lot of poop, and therefore a lot of excess nutrients, so make sure you've got the filtration to handle what kind of fish you want in your tank. They also get huge, so be ready for that!

I'll try.uv 9watt

When treating your fish make sure there isn't any carbon in the filter otherwise the medicine won't work. Also, I would recommend getting a UV sterilizer for the algae bloom. I'm attaching an Amazon link below. This is the one I have and it made a drastic difference.

AA Aquarium Green Killing Machine 9 Watt | Internal UV Sterilizer System with Power Head | Kills Algae, Bacteria, and Waterborne Pathogens | Easy, Submersible Installation

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KP9B2W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_VOFnDbY0ZE2D9

Here's one on Amazon just under $50 with free shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Killing-Machine-Internal-Sterilizer/dp/B001KP9B2W

AA Aquarium Green Killing Machine 9W | UV Sterilizer, Internal Tank Cleaning System with Power Head | Algae, Bacteria, Yeast Water Filter | Easy, Submersible Installation https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KP9B2W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_9BhaBb0RGP9XA

I have never even heard of Hygrozyme. I have one of these on the way.

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Killing-Machine-Internal-Sterilizer/dp/B001KP9B2W

UV Sterilizer, Now I know I am going to hear a bunch of "your killing beneficial bacteria" people.

Here's a UV Sterilizer on Amazon for $40. I don't know anything about this particular product. Shop around, check out reviews and keep your tank size AND future proofing in mind if you decide to go this route.

http://www.amazon.com/Green-Killing-Machine-Internal-Sterilizer/dp/B001KP9B2W

If a black out and water changes didn't help, this is a sure fire way to solve it

Scrub the algae from glass,

Do a 50% water change,

and slap this bad boy on:


AA Aquarium Green Killing Machine 9 Watt | Internal UV Sterilizer System with Power Head | Kills Algae, Bacteria, and Waterborne Pathogens | Easy, Submersible Installation https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KP9B2W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_cZTADbPAPNRC8


It will turn ur water crystal clear in 4 days. Thank me later