Here's a scenario for ya... I've got a tank (75G) that has been
established for over 2 years. I just started the live plant thing
recently. The plants did and looked great for the first month... Until
they depleted their natural reserves. The water clouded up (but wasn't
green) and I got a horrendous algae outbreak. Almost to the point that
there was a green sheet covering everything in the tank. I upped the
fertilizer dose rate, (bright cf's and pressurized co2) in the hopes
to get the plants going again like they were when they were purchased.
I was a little concerned that the algae might use all of the added
nutrients to their benefit. To my amazement the plants took off and
most of the algae was eradicated in very short order. As I type I can
see that the algae is slowly turning black as it dies and is sheeting
off of everything.


On 2 Jan 2003 15:19:31 -0800, (Bugbear) wrote:

Kind of odd for it to start cycling again as it was already cycled
before the bloom. I did do a no, no. I cleaned the filter when I did
a water change but this was after the initial bloom started so this
probably didn't help any. Will do regular water changes every couple
days in hopes that this will help clear it up and leave the filter
alone. Thought about doing something like a 95% water change,
otherwise, suck all the water out down to the gravel and refill but
this may be a bit drastic. The fish may suffer a bit but but there
all hardy fish anyway and they've been through worse. Will try to get
the nitrites to 0, clean the CO2 reactor. Unfortunatley, funds are
tight, so a UV sterilizer or a diatom filter are out of the question.



(LeighMo) wrote in message ...
nitrites ~.15 if that

This might be the problem. Nitrite should be zero. If nitrite is measurable,
your tank is cycling. Cloudy water is to be expected.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/