Too much light for the co2 and nutrients you're providing. Reduce the intensity by half to get low/medium light.
more co2?
so i have some sort of hair algae on the edges of my plants, maybe a couple kinds, but basicly is is on my slow growing plants mostly not on any equiptment or anything. it's not over running my tank but it is unsightly. on the edges of my swords and valliserna, and it's all over my crypts and my anubias.to treat it so far i've just been pulling it off manually.
it's a 48x18x18" tank with soil substrate which is fairly new. for lighting i have 2x48" 54w t5ho bulbs with a tinfoil reflector. i dose about once a week with seachem flourish. for co2 right now i'm just using a 2 litre diy rig with a air stone as a diffuser, which i know is not very effective. i am planning on building a paintball co2 system soon.
am i right in thinking that boosting and keeping a stable co2 flow will help reduce/eliminate the algae? from what i've read and everything, i need my plants to out compete the algae and it often says algae can be from insufficiet co2. but i've also read that there needs to be balance for the algae to dissappear. will adding the new co2 system be the magic cure for my tank??? is there anything that i should consider as well?
it's a 48x18x18" tank with soil substrate which is fairly new. for lighting i have 2x48" 54w t5ho bulbs with a tinfoil reflector. i dose about once a week with seachem flourish. for co2 right now i'm just using a 2 litre diy rig with a air stone as a diffuser, which i know is not very effective. i am planning on building a paintball co2 system soon.
am i right in thinking that boosting and keeping a stable co2 flow will help reduce/eliminate the algae? from what i've read and everything, i need my plants to out compete the algae and it often says algae can be from insufficiet co2. but i've also read that there needs to be balance for the algae to dissappear. will adding the new co2 system be the magic cure for my tank??? is there anything that i should consider as well?
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ok so what your saying is that without getting super deep into all the different fert dosing etc, my best bet is to decrease the light? ok. that is easy enough. i was planning on decreasing it eventually anyway after my plants are more established, i just wanted to get some good growth out of them fast because i'm impatient. and the light that i have currently makes the tank look great. oh well.Too much light for the co2 and nutrients you're providing. Reduce the intensity by half to get low/medium light.
any other suggestions?
well the flipside, is u can increase co2, but the more light u add the harder it is to control things. the EASIEST solution is to reduce lighting
You can keep the lights. Just raise them above the tank a bit
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Get shrimped out!
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Get shrimped out!
ok, i am planning on making an aluminum reflector/fixture soon as well so i would probably be raising the lights up a little bit, maybe 6". for now i've just unplugged one because with out co2 or a way to raise the lights this is the easiest option, to just slow everything down.
hd blazingwolf when you say it would make it harder to control, do you mean in the sense that the tank can easily get off balance and i would have to supplement with more nutrients and i can have algae blooms and the like or do you mean that the tank is hard to keep up with the trimming and maintenance?
hd blazingwolf when you say it would make it harder to control, do you mean in the sense that the tank can easily get off balance and i would have to supplement with more nutrients and i can have algae blooms and the like or do you mean that the tank is hard to keep up with the trimming and maintenance?
BOTH.
as it was explained to me
think of light as the gas pedal on a car, the more u push it, the faster u go.. thus the harder it becomes to control the car when things happen. turning, emergencies, stopping. it all becomes harder the faster u go.. more light does this to plants
in high light situations. just a few days with something being off (mostly co2) algae fly's in at mach 3 and becomes a battle just to get things back into control. you have to be diligent to keep thigns good
as it was explained to me
think of light as the gas pedal on a car, the more u push it, the faster u go.. thus the harder it becomes to control the car when things happen. turning, emergencies, stopping. it all becomes harder the faster u go.. more light does this to plants
in high light situations. just a few days with something being off (mostly co2) algae fly's in at mach 3 and becomes a battle just to get things back into control. you have to be diligent to keep thigns good
Same here.Too much light for the co2 and nutrients you're providing. Reduce the intensity by half to get low/medium light.
What happens if you reduce the photoperiod instead of the light level?
Say by 50%?
Say by 50%?
You will be reducing light either wayWhat happens if you reduce the photoperiod instead of the light level?
Say by 50%?
I would still raise the light though.
You can still get light from the sun or even ambient room lighting so reducing the photoperiod will help. Even a few inches may help. Put the feet for the light fixture on blocks of wood. It may be be unsightly, but so is algae right?
I had the high light/low light plant problem too. I eventually went low light and things got easier.
You can still get light from the sun or even ambient room lighting so reducing the photoperiod will help. Even a few inches may help. Put the feet for the light fixture on blocks of wood. It may be be unsightly, but so is algae right?
I had the high light/low light plant problem too. I eventually went low light and things got easier.
So I've removed on of the lights and the algae has gone down a lot, I still have some algae that is pretty dug in on the older leaves of one of my swords and here and there around the tank. I also have been slacking on getting my hands wet and ripping it out. But since I have now reduced my light, will adding a steady co2 supply help further stabilize my tank?
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