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.