Using Water Directly From Well??

[Radar]

New to this site and need help with big problem.
Started with 15 gal. and used water directly from well ( bypassed water softener ) and tank flourished for over a year.
Decided to get into larger tank and got a 45 gal. bowfront, but then everything went downhill fast. Used Eheim 2213 filter.
Lost all plants and most fish. Had ugly brown and green algea over everything.
Ques. 1: was it the well water?
         2:  was it the high, high ph
         3: was it not understanding the filter ( confusing )
Not new to fish keeping but have always had city water in past.
Any help appreciated.

[robinserena]

Well, I know absolutly nothing about well water, but what fish were you keeping and what was the PH?

[Julie]

Hi, did you test your well water?  The hardness and PH are often linked.

I use partially hard well water and distilled/spring in my 55 gallon.  No problem so far.

[ambushman2j]

you likely lost the plants due to your lighting being insufficient, bow fronts are usually tall and small lights, being tall would cause not much light to reach the bottom of the tank where the plants are.

algae is normal, brown is something you often see when first starting out your tank, it usually changes to green at some point, which is unavoidable, the best method of control is to get something like a pleco..