Excessinve Nitrates and Phosphates

[allnatural]

I have a completely natural 55 gallon aquarium, live plants, flourite undergravel heater, 6500K flourescent bulbs and mopani wood. I am having a devil of a time with excessively high nitrates and phosphates. I have tried everything. phosphate removers, nitrate removers, multiple repeated waterchanges and NOTHING toughes these levels. I am now getting a green blanket algae that forms over night on everything in the tank, and a hairy form on the edges of all the plant leaves and filter parts. Just last night I did an 18 gallon water change with all distilled water (no phosphates or nitrates) and this morning the levels were unaffected. Could the multiple pieces of Mopani wood be causing this. I pre-soaked them, and they have been in the tank now for almost 2 years. All other levels are perfect, the water is crystal clear and the fish are happy and healthy. but I am spending alot of money replacing plants. any advice.....

 

[mudraker]

Out of control algae is caused by an inbalance of nutrients in the water.

What wattage is your lighting? How many hours a day are your plants exposed to the light?

What kind of test kit are you using for phosphate and nitrate?

What are the ppm?

I understand that most commercial phosphates test kits are wildly inaccurate. You may also want to test your tap water. One pwc with distilled may not budge your test readings.

I would suspect too much light as the culprit but no one knows for sure without knowing your other water parameters.

I doubt the driftwood is the problem.

 

[mgamer20o0]

i agree with mudraker. also if you could post a pic of the tank that can help.