You're having pea soup because of the high pH, higher plant forms can't
take up the nutrients they need (or very little of, depending on plant
types) when the pH is 8.5 and up, but there is always an algae type that
can, which is a good thing in times like this.

I too, am suffering similar, tried 4 lbs of baking soda and it didn't bring
down the pH, as is rumored. Doing water changes of 20% every few days,
seems to be helping, but I'm now at the wait and see mode. We've removed
the smaller flex pipe to the filter and used pvc to get more flow, so I'm
hoping things will start to improve.

Fish seem fine, in fact, I was going to pull one of them out to sell and
when I happened to see the orange blur beneath the green murked I netted
it. After a good look I decided it was way too gorgeous to sell, had turned
into a really nice orange and white ryunkin, a keeper. ~ jan

On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 10:58:37 -0500, (Iris) wrote:

We are at a loss to figure out why the PH spiked. Nothing new added.our
water is naturally high to begin with. We are in an area where there are
pockets of water too high for fish. ,according to guy at store. He said
he wesn't aware that in our actual area this existed,but there's always
the possibility it could happen.We cleaned bottom thoroughly in the
spring. No rocks or sand in the bottom.Only different thing is that
awful "pea soup" algae. Never had this kind of algae before. Kind that
disintegrates when you try to dip it out!
Question: What is the K H supposed to be? I don't see that test on the
paper I got from store..Hardness is 425.
Was unable to do more than partial change this AM before rainstorm
hit.Guy did say yesterday that water was too high to use buffer.That's
why he advised total change.I think he knows his fish "stuff" but deals
more with aquariums I think. Iris



(Do you know where your water quality is?)