Re: Profile

["Wayne Jones" <waj at mnsi_net>]

Roger wrote:

It seems unlikely to me that phosphate would cause the problems you
observed,
but then I don't know what would cause those problems so I suppose that
one
guess is as good as another.

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The 90 gallon tank to which I added Profile as well about 3 months ago
is also acting strange. The nitrates/nitrates also went very high but I
thought it was because of a large dead Pleco in the tank. It was
actually the Profile that killed the poor fish. The Profile only makes
up about 10% of the substrate but I notice now that with aereation the
pH only comes up to about 6.8 when I test the tank water even though
every week I do a 25% water change. The KH is about 4.5 same as my tap
water. This sure acts like a phosphate buffer. I am completely unable to
control the algae in that tank now despite the fact that it was
previously mostly problem free for several years. As soon as the fry in
that tank are large enough to give away I am redoing the whole thing
with concrete sand covering a 1/2" of topsoil/peat. This substrate is
basically free and gives me good results. No way I can afford Fluorite
for a 90 gallon tank. Just to get to the bottom of this I am ordering a
phosphate test kit with the Fluorite (well actually I am going to go
with Onyx sand) I can choose between the Seachem or the Salifert. Does
anyone have an opinion on which one is the better one?

Wayne