Hey Yas, why not just pull one bulb out? Also, what is the spectrum of each bulb?
Eddie
I need to determine if I should swap my T5HO for stock lights.
I had a planted tank which is now BB. It's a 72 gallon, and right now the lights are 2x54W T5HO left over from the planted setup.
In the BB I have a pot with 2 amazon swords and a couple crinum thaianums. I also dose a bit of excel every day to help them grow. However, the glass develops algae and needs a throrough wipe down every day. It's becoming a pain!
Would my stock lights that originally came with the tank be enough to support the growth of the swords and c. thaianums?
Also, any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Yasmin
Hey Yas, why not just pull one bulb out? Also, what is the spectrum of each bulb?
Eddie
Yes, that's too much light IMO. I agree with Eddie that the easiest fix is just unplug one of the bulbs.
Darrell
Hey, Yasmin. How's it going?
Does your light fixture have individual reflectors? The reason I'm asking is because I have a 3x54w T5HO from Catalina and even 1 bulb on for more than 6 hours/day would give me a ton of algae on my 85g ... This was when I had anubias, a lot of neddle leaf java fern and some moss covering my manzanita wood.
I've added more plants recently and now I'm using 2 bulbs at the same time.
PS. Sent you a PM about loaches ...
the algae will still grow it needs less light then plants. either get more plants or get algae eaters.
Right? What a annoying feature!
But it will probably grow less?
I have some albino BN plecos and amano shrimp in QT right now. This weekend will be time to add them, so I'll give them a chance first.
On the whole idea ab algae still growing in stock lights... The QT has the same plants and they are growing without algae.
Hopefully I figure out a way to keep algae at bay. It's so unsightly and such a pain to clean!!!!!!
Yasmin
Yasmin :
Your BN Plecos should be able to clean your algae. I have a Nova Extreme 48W T5 for two of my 40 gallon tanks. (1-24 W 10,000°K, 1-24 W Freshwater). Seems to work fine for me. I only have one BN pleco in each tank. No algae so far.
-Larry
I added the BN plecos and about 10 amano shrimp 3 days ago.
The algae on my walls is gone, but my poor plants continue to have algae on their leaves, and it is getting more prominent. In addition, I think I had/have a mild case of green water. I switched to stock bulbs today out of desparation.
Unfortunately the WPG is now significantly less, so I am not sure if my plants will thrive in these conditions either. Strangely, these same T5HO lights worked just fine when I had sand and more plants. I had no algae or green water at that time.
We'll see what kind of equilibrium is reached.
Grrrrrrr.........
Anyway, just my update.
Best,
Yasmin
If you have the money Yasmin a UV light will solve most of your algal problems. I wouldn't want to be without one on my high light tanks. Just plumb it on the output of your filter or get a standalone pump to drive it (standalone is better because it allows you to control the contact time). Somebody was mentioning here that ebay has rip off turbo twists for 40 bucks.
Alex 92 Gallon Discus Corner Tank, 55 gallon Discus Grow Up Tank, 20 gallon Shrimp/Plant Tank, 36 Gallon Corner Planted/Fish Tank, 29 Gallon Breeding Tank
One thing you could do is raise your fixture. Light intensity decreases a lot with distance. Even a couple of inches makes a lot of difference.
Search plantedtank.net for some info on Photosynthetically active radiation. Basically, wpg is not the way to measure how much light you have on a tank. Check this thread to see how distance affects PAR. And check this one (good info starts at post#17) to see how a lot of other factors play a role on PAR measurements. I've bookmarked these two threads after finding a lot of good info on them. You can search for some Tom Barr's posts as well, detailing how a lot of Amano's tanks don't have as much light as people think.
And UV won't help with algae on the leaves, but should solve the green water problem.
Hope this helps.