Path: utzoo!hoptoad!mejac!decwrl!labrea!husc6!mailrus!umix!nancy!eecae!super.upenn.edu!linc.cis.upenn.edu!salex From: salex@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Scott Alexander) Newsgroups: alt.aquaria Subject: green water Message-ID: <4576@super.upenn.edu> Date: 9 May 88 19:01:49 GMT Sender: news@super.upenn.edu Reply-To: salex@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Scott Alexander) Organization: University of Pennsylvania Lines: 23 About two months ago, I finally went ahead and got an aquarium. The guy at the fish store suggested that goldfish were the most difficult to kill, so I started off with 2 choclate orgamis and a 10 gallon setup. I have the tank, a fluorescent light/hood, one of the little bubbler/filters that sits in the corner, and some gravel. About 3 weeks after I set up the aquarium, I suddently got a thick growth of algae on the sides of the tank in about 1 week. I then added a snail. The snail made some inroads, but certainly showed no signs of cleaning the tank. I then talked to a (different) aquarium store. They suggested that I start checking the pH and that I scrape the sides. The pH was a bit high, but using the stuff they suggested, I brought it back down and it's been steady since. I also scraped the algae off the sides. Two days after scraping, the water turned very green. It's green enough that I cannot see all the way through the tank even on the short dimension. Their next suggestion was to change 1/3 of the water. This had no noticeable effect. At the suggestion that the aquarium was asserting that it needed more plant growth I added the plants with no effect. What have I done wrong and what should I do next? Thanks, Scott Alexander salex@linc.cis.upenn.edu