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RE:wood and PO4
>Has anybody encountered any problems with driftwood putting phosphates
>into aquarium water?
No.
I have had about 20 species of wood in my tanks over the years.
I have had a real bad free floating algae problem
>in a 125 gallon tank. I have tried just about everything possible. I
>just did a massive clean out of the tank plus filter over the past two
>weeks. I was able to get the water very clear (also ran a diatom filter
>during the cleaning process) but this past week it just went down hill
>with the free floating algae quantities going up.
You may be keeping your tank "too clean". Feed your fish more (or add some)
and keep filtering for a few days.
This will do the trick I bet.
I am trying to find
>the problem through the process of elimination and now I am suspecting
>that the driftwood may be the problem. It has been in the tank for about
>1.5 years. Would natural decomposition of the driftwood create
>phosphates?
I would doubt this is your problem. Wood after 18 months is well established
and seldom leaches. It depends on your source etc but it is very unlikely
IMO.
> If anybody has any ideas let me know. Thanks.
By floating algae you mean Green water pea soup? Check archives for plenty
of info.
Check up on your NO3 levels as they are likely very low. Raise them up to
5-10ppm (add KNO3 but even better- feed your fish more instead) and keep up
the diatom filtration. Add daphnia, try black out method or use a UV
sterilizer etc.
Check over your tap water for KH, NO3, PO4 etc so you know what your adding
to your tank water. The PO4 may come from tap, not the wood.
I have high PO4 in my Tap water(1.12ppm) and I do large weekly water
changes.......I have little algae problem and great growth.
PO4's in and of them self do not cause algae problems. Imbalances do. Plants
use more PO4 than you might think *if* they are growing well. A 90 gallon
with a 50% weekly water change with the 1.12ppm PO4 tap water is about 0.5
ppm after 3 days. The P04's are going somewhere week after week. All the
plants do super right after the water change also.
This isn't for just a few species of plants but all (almost) the ones we
keep.
Don't give up. I bet your pissed off! I was when I had algae from hell. Good
luck.
Regards,
Tom Barr