How can i make it stop!

Byron said:

Until such time as the plants are more substantial, you don't have many options. Actually, none. Algae will use light and nutrients unless there are live plants that can use both faster. Once you have a good cover of floating plants (is that Water Sprite?) this should be controllable. In the interim, you could reduce the light photoperiod, but I would not go below five or six hours.

However, another issue is the light spectrum. And here there is some confusion. Cool white light is high in the blue but low in the red. Warm white is high in the red and low in the blue. The Kelvin number tells you where this sits. A K of 4100K is warm white, not cool, so that is confusing. The 6500K should be high in red, blue and green, and this is the best light for aquatic plants; photosynthesis is driven by red and blue (nd primarily red), with green adding more intensity. Sun at mid-day is somewhere around 6000K. If this light really is 4100K, it has the red but the blue and green would be less. When I experimented with many T8 tubes, I found anything below 5000K to be insufficient on its own. If you had two tubes, one could be 5000K and one 6500K, and this is just about ideal. The duration is still a factor of course, and this brighter light would likely still have algae issues, but once the floating plants are thriving, it should be much easier to keep problem algae in check.

I should also mention that not all 6500K (or whatever) light is the same; the phosphors and how they are manufactured plays into it, especially when it comes to intensity. Intensity and duration are not interchangeable if either is insufficient.

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connorlindeman said:

I do 15% water changes every 8 days(about). I do add some prime for the plants but not much.

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Byron said:

Until such time as the plants are more substantial, you don't have many options. Actually, none. Algae will use light and nutrients unless there are live plants that can use both faster. Once you have a good cover of floating plants (is that Water Sprite?) this should be controllable. In the interim, you could reduce the light photoperiod, but I would not go below five or six hours.

However, another issue is the light spectrum. And here there is some confusion. Cool white light is high in the blue but low in the red. Warm white is high in the red and low in the blue. The Kelvin number tells you where this sits. A K of 4100K is warm white, not cool, so that is confusing. The 6500K should be high in red, blue and green, and this is the best light for aquatic plants; photosynthesis is driven by red and blue (nd primarily red), with green adding more intensity. Sun at mid-day is somewhere around 6000K. If this light really is 4100K, it has the red but the blue and green would be less. When I experimented with many T8 tubes, I found anything below 5000K to be insufficient on its own. If you had two tubes, one could be 5000K and one 6500K, and this is just about ideal. The duration is still a factor of course, and this brighter light would likely still have algae issues, but once the floating plants are thriving, it should be much easier to keep problem algae in check.

I should also mention that not all 6500K (or whatever) light is the same; the phosphors and how they are manufactured plays into it, especially when it comes to intensity. Intensity and duration are not interchangeable if either is insufficient.

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StevenF said:

Prime does nothing for the plants. Withoutany fertilizer your plants will get most of their nutrients from the water change and whatever is in your tap water. And the two fish and snails isn't going to produce a lot of nutrients. So your slow growth would be expected. Doing a larger water change at every water change might help your plants. If your plants start to die or loose leaves you will need to start using a fertilizer to save them.

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connorlindeman said:

Yes thats water sprite with one stem of water wisteria. Its not really growing as fast as I would like though... That could be a result of the K.

Would this:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-32-Watt-48-in-Medium-Bi-pin-T8-5000-K-Cool-White-Fluorescent-Light-Bulb-2-Pack/50328571

And this:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-32-Watt-48-in-Medium-Bi-pin-T8-6500-K-Daylight-Fluorescent-Light-Bulb-2-Pack/5001923155

be sufficient?

Thanks so much for your help!

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Byron said:

I'm responding to your questions here, and having read subsequent responses I respectfully disagree with some of them. I do not think this is cyanobcteria; in some of the photos I can clearly see the "fuzz" which is distinctively black brush algae. This can appear in more than one form, I have had it and managed to keep it under control. I explained previously how, that stands.

To the light question, the 6500K tube (second link in your post) should be the better of these two. On my single tube tanks over 30 years I had a Life-Glo 6500K tube. On tanks with a dual tube fixture, I used a 5000K (or 5500K if the Zoo Med Tropic Sun tube) and a 6500K tube. Kelvin isn't everything, because of how the tubes are manufactured. Example, the 20w 6500K 24 inch T8 GE tube was insufficient over my 29g tank, whereas the Life-Glo 24 inch 20w 6500K tube provided about twice the intensity. This is still low light over this tank, but with the better tube I did well with Water Sprite (quickly covered the surface, much to the dismay of the hatchetfish!) and lower plants were Java Fern and Java Moss. I would have needed more light for other lower plants, but it wasn't an issue because of the habitat aquascape I wanted (this was the tank that won me Tank of the Month last October, you might see the photo).

When it came to 4-foot tubes (two over each of my 70g, 90g and 115g tanks) I found the Phillips and Sylvania tubes to be good, and much less expensive. I used one Daylight 6500K and one 5000K. The intensity was quite good. The photo attached is the 5-foot 115g tank.

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connorlindeman said:

Thank you for the detailed response.
I'm going to buy a 6500k and a 5000k Philips or sylvania(whichever one i can find) and hope that the water sprite can grow faster and take up more nutrients.

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Byron said:

I would get both manufactured by Phillips if you can; I base this upon my success, and I did compare GE and it lost out. Lowes or Home Depot should carry Phillips. I also had the Sylvania, years ago, and I went back to HD for Phillips; may have been because Rona was out of Sylvannia at the time.

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