Thanks for your advice. My tap water is alkaline off the scale of my pH kit,
over 7.6pH. The buffer, salt, and FloraPride treated water brings the
numbers to:

6.6pH +/-0.1
KH is 4dKH (60ppm)
GH is off the scale +16dGH (400ppm) or my test kit is expired. I find it
difficult to believe my tap water is that bad. I tried the test in my tank,
the tap, and my treated change water. Discus Buffer is supposed to soften
the water by precipitating minerals, so I doubt the treated water could be
that hard.

I have to run a nitrate/nitrite test on the tank again, though I doubt they
will be remarkable with my matanenece routine (now that I've said that, I'll
be in for a suprise). I just stopped adding Seachem Neutral buffer to the
change water, now I'm only using the Discus Buffer to soften/acidify the
water. This takes the amount of phosphate buffer I'm adding to the water
from 2 tsp to 1/8tsp.

I do not have a CO2 system, however I am considering one, and the
pressurized tank kind (Thanks Ian). It seems from what I've read, if the
plants do well, the algae/cyanobacteria won't. I saw some resonably priced
regulators on e-bay, and pH monitors to ensure the pH dosen't change
drastically. Anyone have brand reccomendations? Thanks again



-Jim



"Mood" wrote in message
...
I have kept two discus and some other small fish (Cory, 2 brislenose
plecos, 12 cardinals, 5 otos) in a 55 gallon for over 2 years now. Over
the years, I made some half-hearted attempts at keeping live plants, mostly
Amazon Swords, but never had spectacular results.

Suspecting my poor plant results were due to anemic lighting, I switched
out the old 40w 48" fluorescent tube for a dual 55w 6000K compact
fluorescent setup from AHSupply, and purchased some more plants. Within a
few weeks, the plants were slowly growing, but the algae was growing much
faster. I now have types of algae I have never experienced before,
including this particularly nasty stuff that carpets the tank every day,
and vacuums off the gravel in sheets. It re-grows every day. It grows on
the glass. It smothers the plants. Every few weeks I have a water-borne
algae that I remove with a Diatom filter.

I am using Seachem Neutral Buffer and Discus Buffer to treat/buffer my tap
water to 6.8pH, and I am aware that the phosphate buffers are probably not
helping. My LFS did not have a suitable phosphate free replacement,
insisted that I am probably not changing the water enough or my tap water
was causing the problem, and offered to sell me RO water for 50
cents/gallon. He insisted that the phosphate buffers were different types
of phosphate, and they would not cause algae growth, I should by his RO
water. I think he's full of sh*t. And I'll be darned if I'm going to
shuttle 5 gallon buckets of water around every day.

My matenence includes daily 10% water changes, adding the Seachem buffers,
Tetra FloraPride, and a tablespoon of seasalt to the change water. I
perform a bi-weekly cleaning of my Fluval 304. The lighting is on for
12hrs a day (down from 15.)

Is there a good chance that using RO inplace of my tap water would resolve
my algae problem? Can reducing the light duration more help? What would
be a good products to buffer the RO with? Are my water changes not
enough, or are the Seachem buffers a likely culprit? I'm looking for the
fastest way out of my algae problem if possible, including an RO filter
purchase if necessary.

Keep in mind, I like looking at my tank more than I like farting around
with it. I've dropped about $100 on new lighting and I'm not stopping now
Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

-Jim