[robxc80]

Hello Everyone,

I am hoping to get some help and possibly calm my concerns. First, i'll give you my livestock list.

I have a 60 gallon standard aquarium with Crypt Wendtii, Crypt Lutea, 1 melon sword, 1 "regular" sword, a bunch of anubias barteri on driftwood, water wisteria, rotala indica, and a few of those red lillies.

My substrate is flourite black about two inches thick. i have pressurized CO2 that is timed with my lights by the solenoid. Because of one of my filters being a HOB Emperor 400, my CO2 levels aren't too high and are reading Blue on my drop checker. I also run a Rena XP3 with water temp being at 83 degrees F. My pH is 7.25 and my lighting consists of a 48" 4x65 watt power compact from Current USA. The lights are on timer and set for a 4 hr period, followed by a 1 hr break, and then finished off with 7 more hours of continuous light.

The tank currently houses tetras, ram cichlids, and Discus (thus my high temps) and i do bi weekly 45% water changes with tap. I dose with Flourish Fe, Flourish K, and Flourish trace one a week according to mfg recommendations and Flourish Excel every two days. The tank is mature and up and running with no algae problems for over 6 months.

my question is:

1. I recently upgraded my lighting from a 2x65 watt PC with 10K bulbs to my current 4x65 watt PC with dual daylight bulbs. Will the upgrade in lighting cause any seroius problems with algae and what not?

2. Will the new lighting hurt my crypts since they like lower light?

3. What bulb colors are recommended for my setup?

4. Most of my plants have been thriving in my setup under my old lights except for ludwigia and hygro corymbosa which i believe is due to my high temps. my rotala have thinned out and lost their red color under my old lights hence my recent upgrade on lighting. Will i have problems?

Sorry for the long post, i appreciate all the knowledge, advice, and expertise any of you can provide. Thanks.

 

[lauraleellbp]

I think that since you've already got pressurized CO2 on the tank you should be fine. You'll probably find you need to increase the CO2 levels and your fert dosing a bit to help the plants keep up with all that light, though. You might try just running 1 bank of bulbs for most of the day, and the 2nd for just a short "burst" if you start noticing algae issues.

Personally, I'd go with 9235k and 10,000k combo bulbs, as combining pink and white is my own favorite combo. Really it's just a matter of aesthetics on your part, though.

Your Crypts should be just fine under the new lights. :fish:

 

[Hoppy]

The most important step is to take care of your CO2 system. To use that much light you need to keep the CO2 concentration about as high as the fish will accept. Clearly you aren't doing that now. Crypts will grow pretty fast with high light and good CO2, so be ready to do some serious culling of the plants, and doing it often. The other plants, other than the anubias will also grow very fast, needing at least weekly pruning. The Anubias will most likely become a problem. High light, in my experience, means BBA on Anubias, even with good CO2.

 

[captain_bu]

Agree that you need to concentrate on CO2. Increasing light does not guarantee red plants staying red but it does guarantee that you will need to increase ferts and CO2 to match light levels if you want to maintain plant health and avoid algae. If your drop checker is staying blue and your pH is 7.25 it means that your CO2 levels are too low, too low even for your old lighting.

How are you diffusing/circulating CO2 and are you using 4 dKH water in the drop checker?

 

[robxc80]

my co2 is being diffused by a hydor reactor that does expel really small bubbles. My bubble counter is at about 4-5 BPS. I do use 4dKH water in my drop checker. Its an EHEIM drop checker.

I think it might be my HOB emperor 400 Bio Wheel filter that is allowing the CO2 gas to escape. The surface agitation not to mention the wheel turning must be letting out the CO2. Only thing is, i need to leave that filter on at least a little while longer since i just installed my XP3 and want the bio filter in that to fully seed first so as to avoid an ammonia and nitrite spike.

Ultimately, i will replace the emperor with another canister filter.

Thanks everyone, please dont stop, this newb can use all the help he can get.

 

[captain_bu]

If your tank has been running any length of time there is probably plenty of bacteria in the substrate and on the plants and hardscape. If you can remove some of the media from your HOB filter and put it in the XP3 there should be no reason you can't remove the HOB filter and see if it helps with CO2 levels. If your drop checker is staying blue (with the 4 dKH water) it means you have little to no CO2 in the water or very poor circulation. Have you tried moving the drop checker to a different area of the tank?

I can't find any information about a hydor reactor except for the Green NRG one that is powered by a 74 gram CO2 bottle. Appears to be similar to using a paintball CO2 cylinder and does not look sufficient for use with a 60 gallon tank. If a reactor is doing a good job of dissolving the CO2 running through it there should not be any bubbles of undissolved CO2 coming out. By chance are you not using a reactor but a Hydor mini-elite filter to diffuse CO2? I tried that on my 50 gallon tank (with pressurized CO2) and could not maintain adequate CO2 levels. I went back to using a DIY "Rex" reactor which has given me the best results out any of the diffusion methods I have tried so far (ADA ceramic diffuser, direct into canister, Hydor mini-elite)

 

[robxc80]

i replaced my emperor filter with an old aqua clear thinking that it will be an improvement sine it does not have bio wheels nor is it spray bar driven like the emperor. Hopefully the surface agitation isn't too high.

i moved my reactor around and placed it in between the inlet pipe of both the XP3 and the aquaclear. Flow is good in my tank since the XP3 creates quite a current. I actually had the adjust the setting down to prevent my fish from being stuck to the glass.

i just ordered some new bulbs from marine depot and some more ferts. I will be using two 10K and two 6700K bulbs. I am going to monitor my CO2 levels and check to see if the filter swap made a difference. The reason i am hesitant to run the XP3 solely is that i have a relatively high bio load and i've always been the type to over filter my tank.

Thanks everyone for the great advice. Please chime in if you have any other suggestions?