plants dying/water a little cloudy

[willbldrco]

I've been there, man!! I've had swords covered with beard algae so bad it looked like Halloween in my tank! I threw them out and and gave up for a couple of years.

Seriously, buy some cheap fast growers (several bunches), let them starve out the algae. Swords won't do that - they simply grow too slowly to be able to. You need something like water wisteria which seems to grow an inch/day to really suck up those free floating ferts which the algae so love.

GOOD LUCK!!!

Will

[mmorris]

Several years ago I had a cloudy water issue in my planted tank. Interestingly enough, so did several of my neighbors. I bought a diatom filter and it worked like magic. I still use it once in a while for a few hours if I've been messing around in the plants and want it clear quickly. I, too, had a bearded algae problem until I went a bit higher-tech. I now have about 3 watts per gal., and fertilize both liquid and roots. I also add a lot of Excel- up to double dose daily. There are some threads on this forum that discuss using Excell for a bba problem. I still see the algae here and there but the plants are now on top of it. Of course, it looks like a jungle... My planted tank is not a discus tank. Martha

[Apistomaster]

I don't know if there are Discus in your tank yet but if so, 80dF is too cool and they discus will not have good appetites and will be susceptable to diseases.. I have always used 84F as my standard Discus keeping temperature. Most plants will tolerate this temperature.

By now your problem should have cleared up. If it is still a problem, check the nitrite/nitrate levels. Continued cloudy water indicates over feeding in a new setup. You might be surprised at how much food finds it's way into the substrate. You should hydrovac the gravel when making your regular water changes.