It took a long time to mess it up this bad.

OK, I admit I have had aquariums on and off all my life, and last year I even worked at a LFS. I set up my latest attempt to house some community fish, and I feel like I am getting in deeper and deeper.

Lets give some background to this tank. I got it in early January, and went all out setting it up. I got 3 different sized natural looking gravel. Twenty pounds of small, five pounds of medium, and lastly two pounds of about half inch sized stones. I also put in some choice rocks that I had lying around. I filled the tank with silk flowers, and a nice piece of plastic driftwood. I over-sized the filter big-time with an Emperor 400 HOB, and used the Allglass heater that came with the tank. I was very meticulous in setting up the tank, making sure everything was just so. I cycled the tank with community fish, and Bio-Spira. I used the Master Freshwater Test Kit to monitor the cycling, and everything was good.

Once the tank cycled it started going from good to bad. I took the advice of my boss, and added a nice red veil tail Betta, and soon I was combating Ich. I don't know if it was the Betta that brought it in, or if it was from him bullying the fish that caused it, that was not important. I was treating my tank with Coppersafe, and was not happy.

In the end of June, or the beginning of July I had to move the tank from one end of the room to the other. I got a nice stand for it, and did my best not to disturb the members as best as I could.

Soon after this it seemed that I was getting a light haze in the tank. I asked the forum I was on and no one seemed to have an answer. I was told that it could have been a bacteria bloom from moving the tank, so I did the worst thing I could have done, I sat back to see what was going to happen.

Well you guessed it, It never seemed to clear up. I continued doing five gallon water changes, and I kept an eye on the water treatment, but the tank just seemed hazy. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I hoped that in time it would clear up. The fish didn't seem to mind.

Well one day I was surfing the net, and saw a planted tank. Oh man this was very nice! I think I am going to give this a try. (This is where I started learning how much I didn't know about fish-keeping)

I purchased a 65watt light fixture, and the day it came in I was at the LFS purchasing some plants. Yep, I did the "I want this one, and that one, and yea this one looks good!" thing, and from there on I have had nothing but headaches.

I found that I need a few things.
Since I have over 2watts per gallon I was told I need CO2
Since I am going to have CO2 I am going to need a Gh/Kh test kit to go with my Master test kit.
I need to download the Ph/Kh/CO2 chart so I know what the test results stand for.
I need a set of pincher's so I can reach the plants in case I need to move them.
I need a long pair of scissors to trim the plants when they grow to big and strong.

So I started ordering these as I was told I needed them. I saw my plants start to grow! One seemed to grow by the inch per day! this is great! I can't believe I never did this before. . . oh man I am starting to see a lot of algae on everything.

Back to the LFS, and I get "Don't worry about that, it will go away as the plants take over" Cool, I can clean the glass a couple of times a week . . . every other day . . . as soon as I come home from work every day. OK, this is not right, lets do some digging and see where I am messing up.

I jump on line, and was told that I should also be testing for Phosphates. OK, order one Phosphate test kit. Wait a week, and like magic the UPS guy brings it to my door. Well he didn't quite make it to the door, I met him half way down the drive.

I open the box, and gaze at the new test kit. Time to go to work . . . I take seven test tubes of water from the tank, filled to the line. My results are as follows.
Temp=76.5
Ammonia=0
Nitrites=0
Nitrates=10
Ph=6.8
Gh=6
Kh=4
CO2 Chart says 19ppm
Phosphates= . . . Oh man!. . .it is reading off the chart. Yep Grater than 10

I did a 5 gallon water change, and since it was almost time I changed my DIY CO2 bottle with a fresh batch.

This is where I am now. Now I am wondering seriously if it would be better to just tare down the tank, and start from scratch.