lighting: too much, too little?

[judy]

My 78 gallon tank, just re-scaped removing all the coarse sand and gravel and potting the plants instead.
The decision to do that was partly because the substrate had been there for a very long time and I was concerned that old tank syndrome might arise, and also because ever since placing the vary large piece of driftwood in the tank, which I really wanted as a showpiece, I had been dealing with algae ranging from the usual to BGA (not an algae, I know, but a cyanobacteria) and finally GHA.
Mind you, at the same time, I foolishly replaced all my fluorescents at the same time. Three T-8s and two T5HOs.
I took the fixture with the 3 T8 off the tank entirely, and things seem to be going alright with just the two T5HOs.
Now that i've got rid of the substrate, which I'm sure would have been contributing excess nutrients likely made even more excessive by the driftwood leaching organics, should I put the T8s back? thoughts, anyone?

66465

[strawberryblonde]

Hi Judy,

I'm running a planted 54 gallon with only one T5HO of 24 watts and one T8 15 watt and so far so good. The plants are thriving and with the addition of the T5 the diatom algae is gone (was a HUGE problem with the T8 that came with the tank!).

So I guess with your current setup, so long as the plants are growing well, not yellowing and you're not seeing any diatom algae, you could leave off the T8's.

If you start seeing any bad effects from too little light, try adding the T8's one at a time till you strike a balance. My tank could probably handle 2 T5's, but for now I'm not willing to spend the extra cash since things are ok and my new discus are my main focus. Those little buggers could care less how much light they're getting. LOL

Love that driftwood piece BTW!!

SB