Co2, Lights And Algae Question

[Fintastic!]

I have a Juwel 180 litre with 2 t5 bulbs. I have them on 6 hours a day. I have a few plants (2 cabomba, 1 vallis, 3 crypts and 2 I don't know). I hope to add some more plants but not too many as I'm scared I'll kill them all.
I only bought liquid fertiliser on Friday so dosed that for the first time then. I have black brush algae that is spreading quickly.
Are my bulbs ok and are they on for long enough?
Should I also dose liquid co2? I don't want to get to into the co2 thing if I can help it.
Thanks for any advice!

 

[Fintastic!]

Anyone?

 

[Fintastic!]

 

[SO19Firearms]

You might be able to learn more about it here

 

[tanksalot]

What is the wattage of those T5 bulbs? Getting a rough idea of your watts-per-gallon would be helpful.

From what I've read, 6 hours is long enough for the purposes of photosynthesis, so that shouldn't be a problem. (I've never run any tank on less than 8 hours a day, so I don't actually know from personal experience, I should point out)

The only way I've been successful in treating BBA is by means of dosing (particularly spot-dosing) with a liquid carbon product - I use Flourish Excel, but I'm sure any of the alternatives will work too. I then try to isolate the problem that caused it in the first place - pretty easy in my case since I run DIY CO2 which is more or less an invitation to algae , but in yours could be light, flow, circulation, unstable CO2 from water-changing or any combination of the above.

I would start with assessing your lighting, though, as that's the primary driver in all this.

 

[Fintastic!]

Thanks for your replies guys! They're 2 Juwel Highlite bulbs and they're 45watt. It's a 180 litre tank. Someone has mentioned Flourish excel to me before buy I was unsure about it but maybe I should just go ahead with it?

 

[tanksalot]

So you have 90 watts total over 180 litres? That's roughly 2 watts per gallon, and as it's T5 rather than T8 it's even more.

You've got a lot of light there - rather too much to get away without some form of carbon addition, I suspect. Your plants are being driven to grow by that light, but without extra carbon and other fertilisers to give them the building blocks to respond, they weaken and algae attacks.

I never like to be too dogmatic about these things though. If it were me, I would firstly use the Excel to kill off the BBA, then keep going with the Excel at a standard dose and start a full fertiliser regime (macro as well as micro ferts) and see if that kept the algae at bay (actually, start the fertilising whilst killing off the BBA - any help the plants can get, the better). If it did, all well and good, and I might try gradually phasing out the Excel to see if I could get away with fertilisers alone. If that didn't work then I'd either be looking at lowering the light or going with pressurised CO2. (I'm not ruling out other factors, by the way, but light does look like the major culprit to me)

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[stu40]

So you have 90 watts total over 180 litres? That's roughly 2 watts per gallon, and as it's T5 rather than T8 it's even more.

You've got a lot of light there - rather too much to get away without some form of carbon addition, I suspect. Your plants are being driven to grow by that light, but without extra carbon and other fertilisers to give them the building blocks to respond, they weaken and algae attacks.

I never like to be too dogmatic about these things though. If it were me, I would firstly use the Excel to kill off the BBA, then keep going with the Excel at a standard dose and start a full fertiliser regime (macro as well as micro ferts) and see if that kept the algae at bay (actually, start the fertilising whilst killing off the BBA - any help the plants can get, the better). If it did, all well and good, and I might try gradually phasing out the Excel to see if I could get away with fertilisers alone. If that didn't work then I'd either be looking at lowering the light or going with pressurised CO2. (I'm not ruling out other factors, by the way, but light does look like the major culprit to me)

Hope that helps a bit.

a lot of good ideas there.Your set up is exactly the same as mine (including the lighting period). In the end i changed to T8 lights, but am finding that low CO2 is still an ongoing problem.
On top of this you don't have a particularly high plant mass.
You may consider using some quick growing stems (i used Egeria,Hygro Difformis & Hygro.Polysperma) in the short term to help out.
Then start replacing them slowly in the long term for slower growing varieties that you actually like.
I also use floating plants like Frogbit.
Stu

If you start using liquid carbon daily, it's recommended to do 50% water changes weekly.

 

[tanksalot]

a lot of good ideas there.Your set up is exactly the same as mine (including the lighting period). In the end i changed to T8 lights, but am finding that low CO2 is still an ongoing problem.
On top of this you don't have a particularly high plant mass.
You may consider using some quick growing stems (i used Egeria,Hygro Difformis & Hygro.Polysperma) in the short term to help out.
Then start replacing them slowly in the long term for slower growing varieties that you actually like.
I also use floating plants like Frogbit.
Stu

If you start using liquid carbon daily, it's recommended to do 50% water changes weekly.

Always best to listen to someone who actually owns the tank and lighting you do - I have a Juwel but it's a Rekord 800 and the lighting is nowhere near as fierce!

Good point about the lack of plant mass - I missed that. And yes, once you start adding carbon daily, you are into the realms of 50% per week water changes...worse luck

 

[Fintastic!]

Thanks a million guys, that really helps a lot! I'll change the lights, dose with excel, get the recommended plants and look into the carbon. Handy to know about the water changes, I think I'll be ditching the watering can and getting the hose I've been meaning to get for ages!

 

[stu40]

Thanks a million guys, that really helps a lot! I'll change the lights

Are you UK? if so, keep an eye out on Ebay & Aq.classifieds.You might find a 2nd hand one cheaper.

 

[Fintastic!]

I'm in Ireland. I'll start looking around for a second hand set as I'd like to get started on it as soon as possible. It's growing mad on my lovely hunk of redmoor wood now and I'm not happy. Let the battle begin!!