Plant, lighting and algae help for the experts...

I learned real quick that having my t5 ho on my 75 gal was nothing but trouble. Black beard algae, brown algae and green water algae. I also had a tank full of high light and fast growing plants. I only ran the light 9 hours a day and only had in two bulbs. And i was dosing flourish, excel and i had diy co2 on it. Im still having algae with just a two bulb t8 so i have no idea what to do. But your tank is deeper too so that may help. I wouldnt use all 12 bulbs though. I ran two 6700k, one flora and one 10k bulbs. I hate to say it but i think ho's are only good for saltwater. Hopefully someone else chimes in to help though.

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For my old 75 gallon planted tank it had the following equipment

Lighting - 48" Coralife Freshwater Deluxe 4x65w power compact light, 48" Cheap T5HO 2x54w light
Heating - 300w Hydor Theo submersible heater
Filtration - Eheim 2213 canister filter, Jebao 915 4-stage canister filter
Co2 - Azoo co2 regulator w/ 10lb co2 cylinder

My lighting period was simple... Front 2x65w pc lights come on at 8am, rear 2x65w pc lights come on at 10am, running all 4x65w pc bulbs at the same time until 2pm then front 2x65w pc shut off, then at 4pm rear 2x65w pc shutoff. During these times the T5HO bulbs come on at 11am, and shut off at 1pm. Now I never had an algae outbreak because it had 1), 2), and 3)... I had a pair of True Siamese Algae Eaters in the tank, I had an automated co2 system on the tank, and had plenty of plants in the tank.

Live plants will out compete algae for the available nutrients in the tank when you have a good amount of plants in the tank, and the True Siamese Algae Eaters are really great at taking care of any algae that shows up in the tank. The automated co2 system is simple, I got tired of making DIY co2 using the yeast/sugar method... The lighting period was only 8 hours from 8am to 4pm, but because I was using 2 separate lighting systems I was able to give it a big light burst from 11am to 1pm which was able to supply different lighting spectrums...


The lighting spectrums are more important than the photoperiod.

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The image above shows the chlorophyll spectrums for live plants, when you're able to achieve the right combination of lighting spectrums then you can work out a photoperiod for the lighting. Here's a list bulbs the light fixtures had...

Coralife 4x54w pc was using 1 x 6700k bulb & 1 x 420nm actinic bulb in the front, then I used 1 x 6700k bulb & 1 x 420nm actinic bulb but were crisscrossed from each other like this left front bulb 6700k, right front bulb 420nm actinic, left rear bulb 420nm actinic, right rear 6700k bulb. Then in the T5HO fixture I used 1 x 10,000k bulb, and 1 x 5000k bulb.

But with the bulbs now-a-days I recommend a T5HO wavepoint ultra growth wave bulb, because it hits all of the spectrums for plants, it's specially designed for these wavelengths...

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So I would definitely go with at least 1 ultra growth wave bulb for your tank, had one on my 30 gallon planted tank, and the plant growth was steady, fast, and healthy! T5HO are great for freshwater tanks, especially planted tanks; They allow you to control the wavelengths by letting you choose a 2 bulb system or a 4 bulb system. Once you start to understand the wavelengths for live plants chlorophyll A & chlorophyll B nanometres absorption peaks as well as the pigment protein complexes then you can choose the right spectrum of bulbs that correspond with the said wavelengths.

420nm Actinic blue lighting is fine to use for planted tanks because it plays into the plants chlorophyll spectrum wavelengths, however I suggest a 12000k white actinic bulb like this one...

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+13821+16769&pcatid=16769

It's easier on the eyes for one because you don't get that overwhelming blue hue in the tank, and I've used them for my planted tanks which have since been tore down and turned into a cichlid tanks. They're great for planted tanks!!!!

The ultra growth bulb is from WavePoint, but they're amazing for planted tanks because they were specially designed for both planted tanks, and reef tanks. Because they hit the photosynthesis peaks in plants, and in corals. No other bulb has been designed like the ultra growth wave has, which is why they're becoming one of the leaders in aquarium lighting products.

What kind of fish are in your tank right now? The reason I ask is because depending on the species you can add an algae cleaning crew to the tank. A cleaning crew will depend on the type of fish in your tank, and can be fish like True Siamese Algae Eaters which are amazing at keeping tanks clear of algae and will eat flake foods, or a school of cory catfish which are known for feeding on algae, or you can go with some amano shrimp also known as japanese algae eaters.

39w bulbs are fine for growing plants in a low tech aquarium, if you were to go high tech which means lots of plants, a co2 system, and stronger lighting. But for a low tech planted aquarium you can actually dim the lighting down to just 4 bulbs, or if you went no tech you could go with only 2 bulbs on your lighting.

Also I would go with a dosing regime like EI for low light using either dry fertilizers, or a liquid solution like Flourish Comprehensive. You base the amount your tank will need by using this calculator...

http://calc.petalphile.com/

Just put in your tank volume, if you're using dry fertilizers select DIY or if using Flourish Comprehensive click premixed fertilizers, then in the scroll down menu click EI low light/weekly and click on gimme. Hopes this helps...

Giesemann bulbs are great, they're on of the top companies as well when it comes to lighting... Well with an Arowana it pretty much eliminates the cleaning crews I suggested lol, as they'll become lunch sooner or later. The snails are most likely pond snails which reproduce like crazy... If you ever want to get rid of them just get a couple good size Clown Loaches and they'll go to town on snails. But yeah snails are great for diatom algae, they love it...

Green Hair Algae is a cool kind of algae, I'm a fan of it as well... I used to just let it grow because it would look like moss when it grows in a big bunch, here's a video of my old 55 gallon acrylic native tank that you can see some of the big clumps of hair algae...

[video=youtube;iJaAsHYReIg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJaAsHYReIg[/video]