Lighting questions

[ecrew]

Well......I'm one of those newbies who thought a power compact light was cool and would look nice on my show tank in my den. Well.....after a few months of having it, i'm not so pleased with it anymore. :o It has caused some serious algae problems with hair algae being the most recent problem!!
I picked the power compact because you could mount it on legs so that it would hover over the aquarium which made cleaning easier for me because I could use the light as I vacuumed. Plus.....it looked really cool. :o

Anyway.....I resigned myself to the fact that I don't think this light is going to work anymore. We had put the 6700K daylight bulbs in it instead of the 10,000K, but it's still too much light of course. The Discus didn't seem to mind the light too much in the beginning, but it created a lot of work for me in the way of cleaning.

I have a 75 gallon tank that's 21" tall. I have 1 24 inch strip light that I put on top of the tank for the time being until we can figure out what to do.
I'm looking for suggestions. I want to have enough light that will reach to the bottom, but of course not so much that it upsets the Discus.

If anyone could please tell me what they use and what kind of bulbs and the wattage, I would appreciate any and all suggestions.

Thanks,
Liz

[ecrew]

I've been reading posts on lighting and algae etc.... I've come up with the following ideas. Does this sound good or not?

1. Keep the power compact
2. Put it on a timer and reduce the amount of time the light is on.
Mainly in the morning and evening.
3. Get a UV sterlizer
4. Provide more shade for the Discus
5. Control feeding and increase w/cs.

I would rather keep my power compact which I like the look of on my tank and do the above to control the algae. Does this sound like a good plan?

Appreciate any suggestions.
Liz

[ronrca]

On the right track! The most important factor is controlling nutrients. Id suggest numbers #1, #2 and #5.

Do you have real plants? If not, reduce the lighting duration to viewing only like when you are home. Monitor nitrate lvls and more wc's like you mentioned. You can also get a few sae's to build combat algae.

[ecrew]

ronrca,

Thanks for your input!! One person suggested I also get a UV Sterlizer, but I've looked at the cost and I don't think we can afford that right now. I don't have real plants and I don't want to go that route right now. IT's way too much of a learning curve for me at this time. :o

Do you have any SAE's? I was reading that they are fast moving swimmers. I put in 4 cory cats and my Discus haven't been the same since. I've removed the cory cats.
They just made the Discus nervous. If you have SAE's, do you have this problem too?

Thanks!!

[shalu]

Some people had SAEs sucking on discus. I had ottos sucking on discus.
http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/1784/ottosuck4ie.th.jpg (http://img396.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ottosuck4ie.jpg)

SAEs can also grow to big size, just adding to the bioload. I really don't have algae in my planted tank, so I don't need any of those critters anymore.

[ecrew]

I had an otto that did that too. I gave him to a neighbor that had a tank full of African Cichlids. The otto is HUGE now!!!!!!!! I'm glad I removed him!

I'm probably going to get some Bristlenose Plecos as soon as I figure out who I want to buy them from.

[shalu]

I have a bristlenose pleco in my tank. It DAMAGED my 100gallon Truvu plexiglass tank. The acrylic surface now looks like a shower pane, can't even take clear pictures anymore. If I can catch the pleco, I will throw that one out too. I don't have algae on the glass anymore, so it simply steals bloodworms from discus!

[ecrew]

That doesn't sound too good!!! My pleco was in a 40 gal, but he was extremely hard to catch. They are fast!!!! I hope you get him out. :o