Aquatic Plant Forum banner

How bad is algae at 2 WPG?

876 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  abcemorse
I am trying to get as much light on my 75 gallon aquarium as posssible without adding CO2, because I simply can't afford it right now.

How hard is it to control algae between 2 and 2.5 WPG without the addition of CO2 or Excel?

Thanks!
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
That's a loaded question, becaue the answer really is 'it depends'. IMO, it's definitely doable, but you have to be patient and know what you're doing

What does it depend on? Pretty much any factor you want to think of from water chemistry to substrate, photoperiods, how you set up the tank, age of tank, etc...
Thank you! If there is something I left out let me know.

It is a 75 gallon, river pebble substrate, the age of the aquarium is about 2 years.

Before adding the few plants I have now I had always run the light about 12 hours a day. But that was with just the 40 watt T-10. Now I also have a fixture that I made with 2x 32watt T-8's.

And I was thinking about adding another. Making it about 2.2 WPG total.

Fish Load:

1 red tailed shark
4 gold dojos
2 clown loaches
2 blue rams
1 gold ram
2 botia striatas
1 common pleco

Water:

ph - 7.2
kh - 3 or 4 (varies)
gh - N/A
nitrates - 40ppm
amonia - 0
See less See more
If it was me, I'd start with just adding the 2x32W for now, totalling ~ 100W. The more light you have, the more quickly things can go south if there's imbalances or problems. You can get away with the 2wpg, but you will have to add excel at least. Wtihout the extra carbon, the plants won't be able to grow well enough to keep up with that light, and algae ensues. Nutrients will also be an issue, although it sounds like the nitrate portion is OK, PO4 & Fe will need to be addressed. That's where substrate, tap water, feeding amounts, etc comes into play. If you're not planning on adding lots of plants, I'd go easy on the light.
1 - 4 of 4 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top