Dim the lights--kill the fish:Aerate--kill the algae?

[Buck-eye-land at webtv_net (James Kennedy)]

I hope no one makes fun of my bungling along with this hobby.  I've been
on this list for a long time, but my learning curve always seems very
slow...

I added some more light to my 125 planted tank a few weeks ago, a cheap
($37) T8 fixture (48") from Lowes.  Up to that point I had only been
using big halogen spotlights. (3X90 watts)  I know nobody else uses
these but they seemed to work fairly well, and they heated the tank as
well.  After about a week I had a serious outbreak of Blue Green Algae,
which seemed to be growing under the new flourescent, so I turned it
off.  The Algae kept growing, so I turned off 2 of the halogens.  2 days
later I had to put a heater in the tank, as it was getting cold.   Algae
still growing.  Did a water change and cleaned it up (as well as I
could).  Turned some of the lights back on and tried adding nitrate,
never got a reading and no effect on the algae.  This went on for a week
or two, algae starting to carpet the bottom, turn off all the lights.
48 hrs later I find two dead fish (livebearers), and I see the others
are "breathing" furiously.  And then it hits me (like a V8)--I've got
CO2 running in there and no lights for 2 days--these guys can't breathe.
So real quick I turn down the CO2 and open up a air intake on a
powerhead.  Within an hour the fish were practically rambunctious and
"breathing" normal, but more remarkably, the BGA started to recede, and
appears to be in steady decline, even with the addition of yet another
T8 fixture.

So how do I explain to people that I killed my fish by turning off the
lights, and killed the algae by turning on a bubbler?  

Jim Kennedy

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