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Old 23-08-2006, 10:03 AM   #1
Ranchu Lover
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Default Green Water - Myth or Magic

I am starting this thread to understand and maybe to provoke us to think why some people embrace GW in raising their goldfish. Some even are prepared to die for just to defend its use. I am also not trying to convert hobbyist to embrace CW or discourage the use of GW.

Personally, I am not against the use of GW but what I cannot understand is in what areas are the use of GW superior to what I am currently practicing? I must qualify that I am in no way an expert because I am still lacking in the many areas in the hobby especially treatment of diseases and breeding.

As most people will know that I am not particularly fond of GW and that I feel that there is a better alternative. Let me share why I think what I am currently doing is not inferior to the use of GW.

1. I can see my fish very clearly and appreciate its beauty 24 - 7.
2. Should my fish fall sick or have any problem, I can easily and quickly detect it.
3. I do not need to rent pond to keep my goldfish.
4. I do not need to rely on 100 liters per fish ratio.
5. The colour of my goldfish are brilliant red and the white are clear and my black ranchus are charcoal black.
6. My ranchus are achieving growth rate of approximately about 4 cm every 5 months.
7. My orandas and ranchus has superb wen development.
8. My raising technique has produced many prize-winning fish from "cheapo" purchases.
9. My goldfish will swim to me when I approach the tub. This gives me a sense of ownership.
10.It allows me to correct minor faults on my fish and one has even won second prize in this year's Nisai class ranchu competition.

I hope that those who are GW practitioner can share with all your side of the story. Better still if you have done experiments to show the improvements.

Many have claims zero ammonia with GW use, but have anyone done the measurement in the middle of the night, early hours of the morning or on non-sunny days.

I have always advocates that we think “out of the box” and be enterprising. Know what you are embracing because knowledge is power.
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Old 23-08-2006, 11:58 AM   #2
Jikin
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Hi RL,

Let me be the first to contribute since I am using both methods. While I am still learning, there may be areas I am not able to address. Life is constantly a learning experience. .

First: CW
Pros:
1. Can enjoy fish + Ornamental value and your guest can also enjoy them.
2. Can produce algae growth on walls of tank. As GF eat them, the color enhances and we do not really need color enhancing food.
3. Can attain minimum ammonia count.

Cons:
1. While ammonia is mimimum, got to take care of nitrite and nitrate counts and this is a headache!
2. Planning need to be taken care of in terms of filtration.
3. Fish cannot be added to the stable tank(ammonia, nitrite and nitrate and BB count) anytime you like when you have new fish.
4. Setup and maintenance cost for filtration is high cost and it take up space. However, sponge is so far most economical.


Now Green Water:
Cons:
1. Everybody knows it. Sometimes you see it, sometimes you don't. However, I am ok with this. Most people find it dirty but green color is quite calming to look at especially when you keep light green color in control and you can see the fishes swimming.

2. When water becomes too dark, you got to change water.
3. When water becomes too dark, fish will get oxygen burn.
4. When green water suddenly clears up, you got to change water.


Pros:
1. GW is natural color enhancer and vitamins for the GF just as vegetables is vitamins and fibre to human. (Ops, not a good analogy...) 2. No need of filtration as GW is nature's filter. Measured the ammonia count in morning and afternoon. Zero count. Night? Not sure but so far, no issue with my fishes.
3. Since no need extra filter, save cost and maintenance. NO need to wash filter. Ha ha I like this.
4. Especially for TVR(speaking from experience. See my thread on "MY experiment with GW"), ranchu developed very well in terms of head growth, color and body shape.
5. PH fluctuation does not seem to be a problem for my GF.
6. No nitrie and nitrate problems. A big relief for me.

I do not feed my fish too much nor do too much water change. No doubt this will encourage growth but I think this kind of excitation is not good for the fish development in the long term. That is, I don't think the fishes can survive long.


Personally, having read so much about GW from china gf website and my personal experience, I actually prefer GW because of the relatively low maintenance and benefits to gf. Of course, this depends if one's environment permits the generation of GW. If this is not possible, then clear water is the only option remaining.
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Old 23-08-2006, 11:58 AM   #3
Sotong King
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I always remember what the guru in the talk said, give them what they need and not what you need.
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Old 23-08-2006, 12:02 PM   #4
Jikin
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sorry, system slow and generated two reply.
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Old 23-08-2006, 12:05 PM   #5
Jikin
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sotong King
I always remember what the guru in the talk said, give them what they need and not what you need.

Yeah, that's how we are able to enable many species of fishes to adapt to tank keeping.

If really no choice and you like to keep them, then got to find ways to balance between giving them what they need vs what you want. In Singapore, most of us live in HDB flats and limited space, difficult lah...
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Old 23-08-2006, 12:21 PM   #6
foesracing
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most local farms practises GW....by their standard...

for us...it's probaly clean water some minor sunshine is fine enuff
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Old 23-08-2006, 12:47 PM   #7
Backslash
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sotong King
I always remember what the guru in the talk said, give them what they need and not what you need.
Did the guru says "Do not trouble the trouble and let the trouble troubles you?"
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Old 23-08-2006, 01:13 PM   #8
punk
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Default Stumbled into green water

I stumbled into green water recently by chance in rearing my gfs. So, maybe I could shed a bit of my experience with GW and CW.

I have a tub and a few tanks of gfs using only sponge filtration. They are all located in my balcony which has abundant morning sunlight. But no evening sunlight, so I never thought of trying GW as I thought it won't worked.

Due to my interest in try to breed a pair of ranchus, I placed them in a 2 feet tank on arack by the balcony window, initially with a sponge filter. But , soon it turned greenish, even with the sponge filter. I thought it 's because th sponge filter wasn't matured yet. True enough , the water changed to jade green after a few days and then slowly clearing up in two weeks or so.!

By then, the ranchus had shown some amazing changes, deeper reds allround, wens, scales...and best of all, grown quite fast, compared with another two or three ranchus bought at the same time, and size. It really encouraged me to removed the sponge filter, thus, I 'm now in GW gfkeeping
also.

CW:
1) The gfs are doing quite well , especially the tub's gfs. Because there are wall algae to take care of the nitrate. Growth rate are better than those in the tanks, which are scrubbed cleaned of algae whenever I changed water weekly.

GW:
1) Loved the color deepening and growth rate.

Now added a second GW tank beside it to experiment with a threesome of 1 calico ranchu, 1 sakura ranchu, 1 red-white ranchu.

I liked both CW and GW methods, not here to engage into arguement with anybody of which is best.
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Old 23-08-2006, 01:30 PM   #9
FieryBetta
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ranchu Lover
1. I can see my fish very clearly and appreciate its beauty 24 - 7.
2. Should my fish fall sick or have any problem, I can easily and quickly detect it.
3. I do not need to rent pond to keep my goldfish.
4. I do not need to rely on 100 liters per fish ratio.
5. The colour of my goldfish are brilliant red and the white are clear and my black ranchus are charcoal black.
6. My ranchus are achieving growth rate of approximately about 4 cm every 5 months.
7. My orandas and ranchus has superb wen development.
8. My raising technique has produced many prize-winning fish from "cheapo" purchases.
9. My goldfish will swim to me when I approach the tub. This gives me a sense of ownership.
10.It allows me to correct minor faults on my fish and one has even won second prize in this year's Nisai class ranchu competition.
Brudder very very good results, can let us know your system and what you do, how you change water, how you keep algae?
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Old 23-08-2006, 02:50 PM   #10
cheangv
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Glad that everyone here is sharing their experiences.

I'm also keeping both CW and GW tanks and let me say now that I believe there are various ways to achieve the growth and development for the GF so there isn't a right and wrong way here. My CW tank is kept indoor so the development of the gf is not as fast as those kept in the outdoor GW tanks. Whether this is solely due to GW, I would doubt it. To me, the more important factor is whether the gf are getting their fair share of sunlight exposure.

I am experimenting by adopting some of RL's methods for my tanks now by topping up water on a daily basis to all 3 tanks and letting the top layer overflow so the hormones etc. are siphoned off on a daily basis. That also means that I am continously diluting the GW on a daily basis so there will be no need to do a big water change.

Like everyone agrees, the biggest con in GW is that you don't really get a clear view of your gf
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