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2nd desperate call for help!



Hi everyone!

I posted a message last week about cloudy water.  The postings at that time
were all about c02 and virtually nothing else!  For a Newbie like me, it is
interesting, but I need help with algae.  My tank has taken a bit of a turn
for the worse since last week.  Despite 2-3 water changes a week, the water
is turning green now.

I think the plant mailing list is wonderful for experts and newbies alike.
If there is another archive that could help a new comer like myself, could
you let me know, too?

To save time, here are the conditions of my tank from last week.  They
haven't changed much (except the colour of the water) since then.  I really
feel that the water changes are only treating the symptom not the cause!

Here are my (which have been quite stable for a while now):

-	48 gallon aquarium
-	Eheim professional series canister 2224
-	120 watts of fluorescent lights (1 powergrow and 2 fluorescent plant
lights from Home Depot)  Lights are on about 14 hours per day
-	Temperature 78 F
-	pH fluctuates from 6.6 - 7.0, but today it is 6.2 (after adding ph balance
a week ago) I can’t seem to keep it up to 7.0.
-	Ammonia is 0, Nitrites are 0, Nitrates are 12.4 ppm (same as always)
-	ph, ammonia, nitrites, kH, gH are from Freshwater Master Test Kit
(Aquarium Pharmaceuticals).  Nitrate kit is Tetra.
-	kH is 3, gH is 1 (always about the same)
-	C02 injector (DIY brown glass jug jobs.) It lets off bubbles at about
1-2/second
-	There is some green algae starting on some of the driftwood that I have in
the tank
-	Water is a cloudy whitish to green colour, but not like pea soup (I’ve
seen that before…where I had ammonia build up due to loss of biological
cycle)

My Flora and Fauna are as follows:

-	About 25 to 30 plants ranging from Java Fern to Wisteria
-	I use a little laterite in each area where a plant is growing
-	I fertilized with a no name brand of aquarium plant fertilizer, but
switched to Tropica Master Grow recently
-	5 Clown Loaches
-	3 SAE, 2 CAE, 1 Pleco
-	2 Weather Loaches
-	10 Neons
-	5 Rasboras
-	3 High Fin Tetras
-	3 red ball Mollies
-	2 very big Black Skirt Tetras
-	4 Lemon Tetras


Things I'm considering:

1. Ripping out the 4-6mm gravel and putting in a substrate of kitty litter
and cover with some new smaller gravel.  A lot of people say that feeding
the plants from the roots deprives algae a chance to grow in the water
column.  This option will be a major one and I'm worried about breaking my
biological cycle.  It might be worth it though.

2. Live with it and see if it heals itself.

3.  See if the Fairy weed from my friend's outdoor pond begin to grow in my
tank to take up the excess nutrients in the water column.  The problem is
that light is precious and I don't want this to become a problem either.

4.  Take out the c02.  God bless Disky for taking the time to talk to me on
ICQ.  I need more info about this one.

5. Cut the light back to 9-10 hours of day.  I don't like this one because I
won't get to see much as I work as a teacher from 8-4...

Any other suggestions to help out?  Looking forward to your comments!

Grant Miller
grantmiller at home_com