Hello all. I have been keeping planted aquariums for the last 3 years and would like help with lighting on a tank I bought about 6 months ago. It was sold to me as a 75g tank but after measuring it and using a water volume calculator it comes out to be something like 67g. I've never kept planted tanks larger than 30g so I'm unsure about the needed lighting for it. I am using cfl lights and decided to go with 2 85w cfl. They are hanging about 8-10 inches off of the top of the water. This is a dirted tank with about 10 plant species and it's about 90% coverage of the substrate. My problem is I have the green algae water problem with the tank. All plants are doing fine and are healthy. No dropped leaves on the lower part of the stem. No algae on the plants. It's only in the water and very little on the glass. I have trumpet and ramshorn snails as a cleaning crew. My photo period is 5 on 4 off 5 on. I'm wondering if these bulbs are to powerful or maybe my photo period is to long. I have a 30g, 2 10g and a plastic storage bin that is about 30g (used as a grow tank for trimmings from the other tanks) and they are all stable with no algae or issues at all. This larger tank is giving me a headache. I'm having to do 40 to 50% water changes every 3 or 4 days just to keep the tank viewable. If I wait 7 days to do water changes then the water is so green I can't even see fish 5 inches in. Any help would be appreciated.
help with lighting please
- Thread starter goatnad
- Start date
Is this a new setup with the dirt substrate? Could be a nutrient bloom from the soil. 170watts of fluorescent is a lot of intensity, but you've to them set high off the tank. What are the color/temp range of the lamps? My algae issues have never been with the water itself, only on the glass and hardscaping. Either way, I would keep up on the WCs and reduce the lighting to one 4-5hr session a day or even less until it subsides.
It has been up and running for 4 months now. The bulbs are 85w 6500k. I'll try as you said and reduce the lighting time. Could it possibly be that I didn't cap the soil enough and that is where the nutrient bloom is coming from? It is 1" of soil capped with 1" large black Diamond blasting sand. Thanks for the help.
Thank you freshy for the help. One of my bulbs went out so I replaced it with a 40w 6500k bulb. I also reduced the photoperiod from 10 hours to 8 ( 4on 4 of 4on). I did a very large water change and almost 2 weeks later no green water! Yay! The water does have a very minimal cloudy look but that's much better then the green. Again thank you for the help.
