"jim" wrote in message
m...
Algae blooms can look white and cloudy with the tank lighting on in the
early stages. Look through the tank from the side with the tank light
off. If the water has a greenish tint, it's an algae bloom. The fresh
water from the water changes may be providing nutrients for the algae to
thrive, along with the decaying wastes from the period of infrequent
maintanence. I bought a diatom filter for problems like this.

well, my tank has cleared up nicely - 95% clarity - its still not crystal
clear when looking thru the side (4ft of water) but its a massive
improvement on what it was.

for anyone else that has similar probs - the following did the trick for me.

switched off the CO2
added zero fertiliser(s)
reduced lighting to 2 x 4ft tubes for only 1 hour per day for 2 weeks
fed every 2nd day
did ZERO maintenace and ZERO water changes

have had the lighting back to 6 hours per day for the past week - and
everything is still good.
still no CO2 - i will try a 10% water change this weekend
baby steps...

thanx all for ur previous input
cheers.