[sailfaster]

Plants have been in the tank for a few weeks now. I'm learning the hard way that big box store plants take time to start growing. In the mean time, all I seem to be able to grow is hair algae and the green speckles that seem to take over the glass. lighting is 4x 13w 6500k cfl bulbs in a DIY hood with DIY CO2. I'm debating draining the water level down to a few inches and effectively reverting to a semi dry start. has anyone tried this before?

 

[chris_ranger]

Reduce lighting/c02, water changes.
Probably hitched onto the petsmart/petco plants if they came from those gross tanks.
Havent had a problem so far with petsmart's topfin packaged plants.

 

[Raymond S.]

Take out two of those bulbs till lots of growth happens.
Normally one 13W bulb for a 10g and two 13W bulbs for a 20L.
And that is all that should ever be in there without CO2 and ferts.
With only two you will need light ferts at least.

 

[HUNTER]

Yeah it seems to be the lighting is the accelator of algae growth. I had a BBA started, I raised up my lights and just do 4-6 hours, the BBA seems to slow down. With that, I had to cut the ferts in half too. Same logic, cut lighting hours, blackout and it makes a dent on the algae. Algae is more aggressive in a newer tank, although I didn't get much algae by controlling the lights from the beginning.