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Freshly set up 20 long growing algae not plants

532 Views 3 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  HUNTER
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?
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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.
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.
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.
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