The PH and CO2 affect the KH. If you test your tap water you will probably
find that the KH is lower than it is in your tank.

Recommendation: Lower PH and see what effect that has on the KH and FE. Go
ahead and reduce period of lighting to 11 hours and keep thermostat as low
as you can without hurting the fish.

Can anyone comment on adding Bisodium Phosphate to a tank with an
established algae problem?

Regards, Snark

First get the
kush wrote in message
...
Jeff, Dave, first I'm going to apologize for being a cretin and then I'm
going to try to give you my correct parameters one more time before I let
you get on with your lives. My two-year old is sleeping now, so I hope to
be able to actually read this through before I hit the "send" button...

I have 190 watts, that's one hundred & ninety watts, that's 2 40 watt
standard flourescents at ?k in an AllGlass 48" twin strip plus 2 55 watt
compacts at 5300k retrofitted into an AllGlass 48" twin strip.

The lights are turned on for 12 1/2 hours a day. I keep the temperature
down
about 72º in an attempt to brake the algae, which probably ****es off my
angels.

My Nitrite with an "i" is not measurable, and my nitrate with an "a" is
less
than 0.5 ppm.

So, if my lighting and CO2 is alright (yes?), Gh and Kh are wacko but not
fatal, trace is added in accordance with packaging instructions or when Fe
is not detectable by testing, and "N"s are within acceptable limits, where
do I stand in the algae battle?

Reduce the daytime to 11 hours? Any recommendations on tamping down the
Ph
without adding bisodium phosphate, or are phosphates OK with low nitrate
with an "a"? Anything else you can think of?

Thanks for your time. Do you find it difficult to give people useful
advice
when they haven't given you useful information?

kush

"You can't have everything - where would you put it?"

Jeff Ludwig jeff at rockytop_dot_net wrote in message
...
Oops! High CO2 plus low light. This is an imbalance which often causes
algae
soup.

I would disagree here. I have never heard of anyone implicating CO2 in
algae issues. More is better, even for low light tanks, the same can
likely
be said about potassium. In fact, Tom Barr's recommended levels work
great
on low light tanks... you get into problems when you're below those
levels
and light is too high. I must agree however, not enough light.

In any case, Plants cannot grow without Nitrate with an A, as it is an
important
macronutrient. Given that you are dosing micronutrients such as Fe,
you
are
probably creating a substantial imbalance.

I believe she's seeing NO2 because her plants are rotting away due to
lack
of light. NH4 should not even get a chance to be converted to NO2 if
light
levels are okay.

Regarding your KH and pH, these are probably not your problem,
although
it
would
be interesting to know where all that KH is coming from. What kind of
substrate
and stone is in the tank?

Recommendations: Your light level is too low for a CO2 tank. Either
stop
injecting CO2 or double your lighting.

Again, as above, I think this is bad advice. Do increase lighting to
keep
plants alive, no need to stop CO2.

Cheers,
Jeff Ludwig