Yenko
Fish Addict
The time has come... I've decided I don't have enough lighting. I have 2X20w bulbs over a 32g tank. I can grow some low-light species slowly, but I want to acheive nearly the performance I get in my 10 gallon tank - 2.6 WPG and CO2 work wonders on plants. I'm actually looking for more fish to put in that tank to further increase the bioload and give the plants more nutrients - Nitrate is non-existant in the tank. The only kind of alage that can grow is bluegreen - it can fix nitrogen from the air. I killed the nasty bluegreen with a dosage of Erythromiacin Phosphate and all is well.
The tank had another important sucess - It convinced my mom that getting rid of black brush alage is not an issue of cleaning it out of the tank - I've cited incidents where people have nuked their tanks with ammonia and it's returned for more. In my 10 gallon tank, there is certianly BBA present, but it doesn't grow or infest plants like it does in my 32gallon tank.
I tried the only sane method of BBA removal: growing plants. The fastest-growing plant that would grow in the tank was Saggitarius, and that wasn't enough to keep the nutrient levels in check. My tap water isn't the greatest; I grew BBA in a jar by my window in dechlorinated tap water. Only thing I added was a bba-covered rock. Due to expense a RO unit is out of the question.
So, I bought a ballast. An Advance REL-2P32-SC instant start electronic ballast. It's only enough to overdrive one light; I'll need 2 of them to OD both tubes. So tomorrow I'm going to do a test in the garage; far away from any water. If it all runs for 24 hours with no problems, I get to figure out how to retrofit my canopy. It doesn't have instant-start ballasts; I'll need to acess the insides of the endcaps, which should be interesting, if not impossible. If it is impossible, I'm going to gut it and retrofit it with 3X20w bulbs - one ODed. It's a nice light-glo canopy; it will be a shame to see it with all its electronics mounted on top instead of tucked away inside. I might just get really long wires and use a computer power connector to detatch the wires.
If I get around to the test lighting tomorrow I'll post pics.
The tank had another important sucess - It convinced my mom that getting rid of black brush alage is not an issue of cleaning it out of the tank - I've cited incidents where people have nuked their tanks with ammonia and it's returned for more. In my 10 gallon tank, there is certianly BBA present, but it doesn't grow or infest plants like it does in my 32gallon tank.
I tried the only sane method of BBA removal: growing plants. The fastest-growing plant that would grow in the tank was Saggitarius, and that wasn't enough to keep the nutrient levels in check. My tap water isn't the greatest; I grew BBA in a jar by my window in dechlorinated tap water. Only thing I added was a bba-covered rock. Due to expense a RO unit is out of the question.
So, I bought a ballast. An Advance REL-2P32-SC instant start electronic ballast. It's only enough to overdrive one light; I'll need 2 of them to OD both tubes. So tomorrow I'm going to do a test in the garage; far away from any water. If it all runs for 24 hours with no problems, I get to figure out how to retrofit my canopy. It doesn't have instant-start ballasts; I'll need to acess the insides of the endcaps, which should be interesting, if not impossible. If it is impossible, I'm going to gut it and retrofit it with 3X20w bulbs - one ODed. It's a nice light-glo canopy; it will be a shame to see it with all its electronics mounted on top instead of tucked away inside. I might just get really long wires and use a computer power connector to detatch the wires.
If I get around to the test lighting tomorrow I'll post pics.
