Green Water

["Daniel Sturman"<sturman at watson_ibm.com>]

I have a established 55 gal planted tank that has been doing fine.
However, after going away for a weekend, I came back to a terrible case of
green water.  My tank's pH is 7.0 and hardness dKH is 2-2.5.  I use DIY
coke-bottle CO2 injection and fertilize with one of those iron-based liquid
fertilizers each water change.  There is no carbon in my simple,
hang-on-the-back filter.  My nitrates were at 0 so I just (after the algae
struck) started fertilizing with KNO3 and now have it at 4 mg/L NO3.  I do
water changes with the tap water about 20% every week.

My guess is I have a phosphate problem.  This, unfortunately, is the one
test I don't have.  Will the KNO3 fertilization eventually solve this
problem?  Should I increase the frequency of my water changes?

Thanks in advance,
Daniel Sturman
sturman at watson_ibm.com

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