Is lighting the ultimate algae control? - Page 7 - Algae

thefishmanlives · 04-27-2008, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishyman

Hi,
I am relatively a very new member but have been visiting this site very often. My aquarium has all the algae you can think of and also all other which you cant think of. I wonder how come my aquarium can home so many kinds of algae.
The water parameter seems fine to me. ph 6.7, GH 3deg, NO3 10 mg/l, NO2 negligible and water temp of 26-27 deg celcius.
The tank is approx 95 gallons and i am using two MH 150 watts each switched on for 5 hrs and there after two 18 watts osram fluora. for next 6 hours. I am using pressuried co2. The plants are growing very well but even better the algae.so far i have noticed black beard algae, green spot algae, dust algae, thread algae. theres another algae some what blk brown in colour and appears as small algae balls stuck to my gravel.
before i bought these MH i did my required reiki and came across with MH with ceremic techology and found their spectrum good enough for consideration. the spectrum were peaking in red and blue, 4200 k, 14000 lumens and cri of 95.
I am following estimative index for fertilisation which involves khpo4,kno3 and microsol-b.
Any one who can render some advise.

regards
Tarun Jawa

Id be willing to bet that your co2 is too low. bump it up and get a drop checker. 2nd, with all that light your probably bottoming out your co2, stop using test kits and start dosing EI. 3rd, your tank should be heavily planted with all that light, at least until you get your algae in check. If you havent already get a bunch of cheap fast growers to get your tank under control. You should be dosing a pretty high amount of N and P with MH light and Press Co2.

fastang80 · 06-01-2008, 04:29 PM

All elements need to be balance to keep algae on check and lighting is only one of them.

chagovatoloco · 10-15-2008, 12:02 PM

I had algae issues in my main tank until went with a 6 hour photo period. I dosed ei and had pressurized co2 with a good substrate and 4wpg of pc light. If found out later that what my problem was my co2 measureing system, got a drop checker and that was fixed. My point is that IMO a shorter photo period will make up for other mistakes and keep algae at bay. I know am going to longer photo periods and seeing more growth. From what I learned most beginners should stay with a short photo period until things are well in control.

xavierj123 · 04-16-2009, 08:30 AM

Somewhere along the line, I read that a seller of aquarium light fixtures replaced the blubs in the fixtures that he was selling to prevent the growth of algae. It was mentioned that 10000k grows algae so he replaced the bulbs that came with the light fixtures with 6700k.
I have two tanks. The one with 10000k grows algae. The one with 6700k is algae free. I do not use CO2, just Florish Excel & Seachem and lots of aquatic plants.