I could be due to heat, or it could be due to insufficient nutrients
to keep em happy. LAck of algae is a sign of no excessive
nutrients........Yes algae is a sign of good water, for plants anyhow,
not necessarily fish, but algae and WH likes nutrients and use a lot
of it. With WH being such heavy feeders its all together possible you
depleted what nutrients you had......Lilys are also heavy feeders.

I dunno what others say, and its a mixed bag with nitrate levels, but
I have read that a nitrate level up to 40 and even 60 ppm is safe for
fish.......

On Sun, 14 Aug 2005 08:30:14 -0400, Dan wrote:

===Sorry if this is a little long, but being a noob, I didn't
===want to accidently leave out any important details.
===
===I have a 6-week old 1000 gallon pond w/ a short stream and
===waterfall and about two dozen 3" fish. About 1/3 of the pond
===is covered with water lettuce and hyacinths, plus I have one
===lily, an umbrella palm, and a taro. The pond sits in a 50/50
===mix of sun/shade (5-6 hours of sunlight a day). Equipment-wise
===I'm using a Savio Livingpond biofall, skimfilter, and a Tsurumi
===TMU-2 2700 GPH pump. Last night I returned from a week-long
===vacation and noticed that most of the hyacinths had yellow
===leaves (far more than when I left). The water is crystal clear
===and the fish seem happy, but I also noticed nearly all of the
===moss algae on the liner and stream rocks is gone. I checked
===the water this morning and got the following readings: PH: 7.8,
===Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: between 0 and 5 ppm. I know
===zero Ammonia and low Nitrites are good, but what should the
===Nitrate level be? Before I left it was between 5 and 10 ppm.
===Isn't a coating of algae a healthy sign or does it just mean
===I have more than enough plants now for the number of fish?
===Could the yellowing leaves on the lettuce just be due to age?
===
=== Thanks in advance!


==============================================
Put some color in your cheeks...garden naked!
"The original frugal ponder"
~~~~ }((((o ~~~~~~ }{{{{o ~~~~~~~ }(((((o