# Wish me luck and send suggestions?



## darby504 (Mar 2, 2005)

Hello all,

At long last, my friend has agreed to let me try to help with an algae problem in his 125g. From his description, it sounds like BBA, but there could be others as well. The tank has been set up 3-4 years, and algae has been a problem pretty much from the start.

All this time, the LFS where he bought the entire set-up has given the incredibly useless advise of: "You're giving the tank too much light. Don't turn the lights on for more than a couple hours a day." (He has 120 watts of T8s or T12s, and, yes, the tubes are probably waaaayyyy old.) After months of (my) begging, he brought me a water sample. The readings were:

NH3/NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: >160 (yep, cherry red)
PO4: >10 (yep, midnight blue, Lou Gramm is still singing in my head days later ;-) )
pH: <5 (maybe suppressed by the high nitrates?)
alkalinity: <1 degree
iron: 0

Regarding the NO3 & PO4, I tested several times, using ever-greater amounts of water while keeping the test reagent amounts the same. By the time I ran out of sample water, I had tried up to 10X (50 mL of water tested with reagent for 5 mL).

Though the color saturation for the NO3 in the 10X test sample was less intense, the hue was still the same. >1,600 ppm? Is this possible?! I'm not using a fancy test (Aquarium Pharmacheuticals), but I've never had cause to question its accuracy at lower levels. I've experimented with it at higher levels, too, using Flourish Nitrogen and thought the readings were believable (taking into account the test would only read the nitrate portion of the Flourish product).

It seemed the PO4 level started to show a change at the 10X test sample, but it was hard to be sure (you know, the whole light-blue, dark-blue, blue-blue thing).

I don't have a sample of his well water to test (and I'm on main water), but, based on our area, I wouldn't expect nitrates and/or phosphates to be present in his source water.

His bio load is quite heavy: many big, messy eaters, including his daughter's fancy goldfish (just one, I think).

The LFS sold him some shrimp at one point, but, of course, they (the shrimp) promptly disappeared. I don't believe he has any algae-grazing fish at all now.

I'm willing to weed whack every fast-growing stem plant I have for him, but right now he doesn't want anything other than the bit of Java fern he already has.

Three weeks of :axe: him has resulted in one 50% water change ](*,) . He has been using activated carbon. I gave him some Seachem Purigen to use instead. I also sent along Phosguard and Excel with detailed instructions.

All in all, it's a touchy situation. He wants his tank to look nice but is discouraged after years of LFS help and expense that hasn't been any help at all. At any moment, he could turn stubborn and :toimonst: the whole deal. I need very simple, effective baby-steps.

Whew! Sorry for such a long post. I wanted to be as thorough as I could. If anyone can share experience they have had with helping resistant people in this type of circumstance, I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,

Darby


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

The reason that people generally put up this type of resistance is that they have tried lots of the wrong things and are starting to believe that there is no way to make it better.

Most of the time these people have never seen a really beautiful, healthy thriving aquarium so they have nothing to set their aspirations on.

Maybe as a first step have him take a look at some nice aquariums on the net? Try the AGA contest results here http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2004.cgi.

Another great site with wow tanks is portfolio section of the ADG site: http://www.aquariumdesigngroup.com/.

Once he realizes that these types of tanks are possible, the next question he'll ask is how to do it!

Good luck!


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## darby504 (Mar 2, 2005)

Thanks for the great links Laith. The aquaria really are beautiful. I think that will help a lot. 

Congrats, too, on being named the new Algae Specific Problems forum moderator. 'Glad you're here, and I appreciate your help.


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