# Hey, your advice needed :)



## Sudi (Feb 3, 2005)

Hi,

My 75g aquarium just won't stabilize . I'm fighting it for a couple of months now and there are only little results. Ok let me just tell you how it's been and how it looks like now 

Tank was established somewhere in the beginning of the year. My first mistake was ferts with little plants. That gave my every kind of algae there is  Here is a picture of the disaster during the battle.









I wanted to give up, but I spend too much of my time on the tank already to give up then. I was trying different things. I did a black out for a few days, water changes etc. Thanks to that I got rid of most of the algae, the only thing that won't go away is cloudy/green water. Here is the tank few weeks later, without any serious algae but with cloudy water.









Right now the situation looks like this... I change 50% of the water, the water goes from green to cloudy, and then within few days back to green. Today I took some measurements, and decided to ask you guys for help on this. 
Tank with green water:
PO4: ~1ppm
NO3: ~13 ppm

Tap water:
PO4: ~0ppm
NO3: ~0ppm

After changing 50% water changed to cloudy. I tried different methods of fertilizing. I am using KH2PO4, KNO3, K2SO4, micros CSM+B. I was playing with all the ferts, and I can't quite get why the tank is coming back to GW.
Lightning: 4x55W AH supply kit with GE 9325k bulbs. I tried having 8h of 110W and then 4h of 220W. Filtration: Eheim 2215+
I dose CO2. I also have other test kits, but I thought PO4 and NO3 are the important ones, if you need Kh and Gh or anything else just let me know.

Any ideas? Maybe I need another filter?

Thank you all for reading and helping.
Matt


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

1. Add (lots) more fast growing plants.

2. Once 1 is done, make sure your CO2 levels are good. Try the method of taking some tank water out and letting it sit for 24-48 hours and then measure the pH. You want to inject enough CO2 into your tank to get a pH drop of about 1 from this reading (eg from 7.5 to 6.5). I don't trust the CO2/pH/KH tables anymore because so many things can influence KH readings...

3. Once 1 and 2 are ok, make sure your NO3 and PO4 dosing is adequate (don't implicitly trust the test kits: if you want to test, calibrate the kits first). Use the APC fertilator to dose around 15-20mg/l of NO3 a week and at least 3mg/l of PO4 a week.


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## Sudi (Feb 3, 2005)

Ok, so I decided to change some water in the tank. I changed ~50% one day and ~40% 1 day later, and then the water started clearing up... I took a photo:










The next day water was completely clear, and now after about 9 - 10h of 110W light for 2 days, CO2, no macros and only 10ml of micros the water seems a bit cloudy :/ How should I fertilize?

When my water was really bad, i guess it was because of high po4, and not enough NO3... after water change PO4 & NO3 went down so they were about equal which made the water go clear. How do I find the equilibrium?

Which ine of the 2 chemicals is used faster N or P? Maybe N is used while P is still there and that makes the water go bad ?

Thx for your help


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## plantbrain (Jan 23, 2004)

edit


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## Sudi (Feb 3, 2005)

Hello again 

The situtation right now looks like this... plants are growing and pearling, *but* the water is cloudy (its not green)... 
If I do 50% water change for 2 days water is clear for 1-2 days and then it goes back to cloudy 

I'm adding micros, and macros. I am using different combos to see what's missing, or what I have too much of...

Do you have any experience with cloudy water? I know that it happens at the beginning, but the tank is 4 months old now ...
Do you think its because I have soft water in the tank and by adding co2 it makes the water extremely soft, and that changes ph?

thank you for looking


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