Q? about lighting and algae and co2?

[utahfish]

i have a 29 gallon tank with 130 watts of light so about 4.5 watts/gallon. i also have a DIY co2 is this too much light? if so do i need less light or more CO2?

it seems like i go through a different algae every week, one week slime algae, then beard algae then hair algae, so i'm wondering if it's too much light or c02 or both or what?

 

[smithrc]

whats you PH and KH at?

That'll let you work out your co2 content

Also if the plants have used up the nutrients in the water the algae will get a hold as the plant wont growing... if you test you Nitrate levels you might need to add some.

 

[utahfish]

how much c02 do plants need. is there a co2/ light ratio as a rule of thumb or what?

 

[utahfish]

also what is KH?

 

[bigmick474]

This will tell you what KH is and how to measure your co2
Measuring CO2 Levels

Hope it helps

 

[Nospherith]

Also if the plants have used up the nutrients in the water the algae will get a hold as the plant wont growing... if you test you Nitrate levels you might need to add some.

you defenitely need to be adding nutrients with that much light (4wpg). IMO, you need 30ppm of CO2 w/ nutrient supplification (heh, new word). You can use that Seachem stuff or whatever it is for the dosing. Anyways try to get your NO3 up to at least 10ppm. And try to crank the CO2 as close to 30ppm as possible. >30ppm starts to get stressful for the fish.

I forgot, what substrate have you got? and what are the K ratings for the lights? and another question, what kind of CO2 diffusion are you using?

 

[George Farmer]

I completely agree with Nospherith.

With that much light you need a constant CO2 level of 25 to 30 ppm and heavy dosing of nutrients (macro and micro). This assumes you have a heavily planted tank with plenty of fast growers. By heavily planted I mean at least 70% of your substrate covered (at least half of which should be fast-growers).

If you acheive this then the algae will quickly die back.

 

[utahfish]

i have pool filtre sand mixed with some tahitiian moon sand wotih a few pieces of amazonian drift wood. i'm not sure what the kelvin is on the lighting. i'm using a DIY co2 the outlet tubing feeds into a power head and it shoots it out.

 

[utahfish]

the lighting is two 65 watt coralife power compact fluorescents. one is 1000K daylamp the other is 50/50 daylamp/actinic blue. the tank is about 17 inches deep to where the sand comes up so the light shouldnt have any problems gettting to the bottom.

i think my problems are the fluxuation in my co2 levels which effect my ph and kh levels.

 

[George Farmer]

i think my problems are the fluxuation in my co2 levels which effect my ph and kh levels.

This will contribute to your algae problem but I would say that your lighting may also be inappropiate. It sounds like it has a very high blue content - great for marine corals and macro algae, not so great for freshwater plants. Great for freshwater algae though.

 

[utahfish]

i think my problems are the fluxuation in my co2 levels which effect my ph and kh levels.

This will contribute to your algae problem but I would say that your lighting may also be inappropiate. It sounds like it has a very high blue content - great for marine corals and macro algae, not so great for freshwater plants. Great for freshwater algae though.

so is it bad to have any actinic blue for fresh water even if it's 50/50? also realistically do i need 4.5 watts/gallon to grow even high light plants? or is this just too much light?

 

[George Farmer]

so is it bad to have any actinic blue for fresh water even if it's 50/50? also realistically do i need 4.5 watts/gallon to grow even high light plants? or is this just too much light?

Personally I would avoid any actinic light in freshwater.

As for 4.5 WPG being too much light - basically yes, unless you have LOTS of fast growing plants in a set-up with at least 25 mg/l CO2 (constant), being dosed regularly with plenty of macro and micronutrients.

 

[utahfish]

what would be the ideal light requirements for high light plants then?

 

[George Farmer]

You could grow most "high light" plants with 3 WPG providing you have sufficient CO2 and nutrients.

 

[utahfish]

i checked the Kelvin on the one lamp is 6700K and the other the one that is 50/50 is 10000K is 67K more suitable for growing plants?