too much light for a 3 gallon NPT? - El Natural

Teresa0208 · 06-18-2012, 07:09 PM

I have a 3 gallon NPT that I set up about a month-ish ago. I am using a plastic 3-gallon "Pet Keeper" with MGO Potting Soil and regular aquarium gravel. I planted 5 full size plants and have 10 neons, 1 long-fin dwarf pleco and two netrites. Plants are hornwort, wisteria, java fern, Egeria densa and Apologeton Crispus. I've trimmed the hornwort and wisteria a couple of times already.

The tank cycled quickly and is currently at zero for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. pH is 7.8 and temp is 79. I have a heater and a small HOB filter turned down to the lowest flow.

The tank sits next to a south window and I use a 2-light floor lamp from IKEA to light it. The bottom light is a cone-shaped task light with a 40w R14 mini reflector bulb. The light is about 6" above the top of the tank.

I have some algae growing on the Java fern and tank walls - either GSA or GDA. My question is about the light: is it too much? Or is it fine as is and I just need to wait out the algae? It's not too bad and I think is getting better than it was 3 weeks ago.

Jark · 06-18-2012, 09:00 PM

Need a little more information to help you.

Is the light bulb incandescent or fluorescent?
If fluorescent, is it rated at using 40W or is it 40W equivalent to incandescent?
Lastly what color light does it give? Is it warmer/normal housing lighting (more yellows and reds), or is it daylight/cooler light (white almost blue tint)?

Jark · 06-18-2012, 09:07 PM

A caution on the pleco. I don't know about the dwarf long finned pleco but plecos have a habit of destroying planted tanks. I have a smaller bread of pleco but it is still 8 inches long when grown up. I had to put it in a 30 gal tank with a bunch of driftwood to give him something to chew on.

Teresa0208 · 06-18-2012, 10:33 PM

The bulb is incandescent and it's actually 25W rather than 40W as I originally stated.
The Pleco came out of my 45 gal community tank. I hoped he would help w the algae but the only thing he seems interested in is the heater. LOL I previously had two common plecos but traded them in when smaller fish started coming up missing and they started sucking holes in the head of my gouramies. They were both 6+ years old and 8" long when moved them out. This dwarf is supposed to max out at 3".

Michael · 06-19-2012, 05:10 AM

Hi Teresa,

The 25w incandesent light may not be doing much, depending on how close it is to the tank. Most of your light is coming from the window, which means that it can be very intense at certain times of day, and difficult to control.

I've experimented a lot with very small Walstad tanks in natural light. Consistently, I must keep fish stocking levels very low, or the result is algae. For a 3 gallon tank, your fish population is very high. It's great that you have been able to maintain good ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels, but I think that with this many fish you are always going to have problems.

I suggest that you reduce the number of fish, starting with the pleco. One 3" fish by itself in a 3 gallon tank is pushing it. In my 3 gallon, I keep 3 micro-rasboras (smaller than your neons) and two panda cories, and I'm going to move the cories out soon.

Second, set your filter on high--with high stocking level you need maximum filtration. The best medium is something that encourages biological filtration. I use small lava rock, with a little temporary filter floss or a sponge if I need to remove particles.

If the above doesn't work, the last step would be to move the tank out of the window, and use artifical light that you can control precisely. A 15w spiral compact fluroescent would work well, and you can adjust distance and photoperiod to fine tune.

Very small tanks are inherently less stable than larger ones.

Good luck!

Teresa0208 · 06-19-2012, 06:51 PM

The pleco is back in the big tank. I don't think he liked the little one much anyway.

The light is about 6" above the tank, so about 13" from light to substrate cap. My dear husband tells me it is a halogen bulb, not incandescent.

I know it is 25W because that's on the bulb. So, is a 25w halogen enough light? (Now I know why the lamp was so cheap at ikea - it takes a weird size bulb that they don't carry any more!)

Michael · 06-20-2012, 05:50 AM

There is very little information about use of halogen lighting on aquaria. I will guess that it is better than incandescent simply because it puts out more light per watt. But the light may not be a wave length that is very useful for plants.

Your window is probably giving you more than enough light.

Teresa0208 · 06-22-2012, 08:34 PM

I'm going to re-do this tank over the weekend. The animals will all go into 45tall. My question is about the plants, substrate and cap. Can I keep any of it, do I need to get rid of the leaves w algae on them, or pick off the worst of the algae? And I assume I can keep the gravel - just get the gunk out w/ out rinsing out the BB? I'm going to take michaels advice about fish load, location and lighting.

Michael · 06-23-2012, 04:09 AM

Dump the soil. Re-use the gravel cap if it isn't too much trouble to clean it. Groom the plants to remove as much algae as possible. Some people use a 10% bleach dip or hydrogen peroxide to kill remaining algae, but this is harsh and tricky.

Don't clean the filter unless it is clogged--it is a great source for beneficial bacteria.