Avalon

A few years ago, I had a 100g "natural" tank with NO lighting (4x40) and no CO2. Awesome tank; easy to maintain, no algae, etc. I moved over a yera ago, got some PC lights (5x55w AHS), injected CO2, and tried a variety of setups. No matter what I tried, BBA has plagued me to this day. A few months ago, I took out 2 of the 55w lamps and have been running only 3.

I have tried upping the CO2 to unthinkable levels...6.0 pH (down from 7.8 tap) with a KH of 13. I'm not worried about NO3 or PO4. Big cichlids produce tons of it considering their daily diet and waste. The fish load is 1 8" Green Terror, 1 9" Midas, 3 5" Green Severums, 4 4" Clown Loaches, and 1 6" Pleco. I've almost killed them with the CO2...and anyone that keeps big cichlids knows they are very tough. In summary, I'm tired of screwing with this tank.

While doing water changes today, I removed the CO2 and scraped a lot of BBA off the glass and pruned infected leaves heavily. I planted a three more swords, bringing the total to 8. They are fairly large, and produce plantlet stalks all the time. They grow well, but after pruning all the BBA covered leaves, they really don't get a chance to get nice and bushy. I'd like to add some crypts and anubias when the BBA problem is solved.

My question is, will the 3x55w PC lights be too much light? I can replace them with NO lights again, or maybe 2 80w T5's. Substrate is Flourite & plain gravel mix. I'll resign to dosing only Flourish at water changes.

Any thoughts or advice on this setup?

edit: Filtration is an Eheim 2026 and a Hagen 802 ph w/ quick filter attachment.