Algae Gone Wild!!!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
need a lot more info here to find out whats going. my initial thoughts:

- your lights are wrong, youll want something below 10,000k for it to be useful to freshwater plants

- that is a lot of light for a tank w/o co2. metal halides are very high intensity. conisder cutting your lighting but 50% or more

- what is out of balance? EVERYTHING. you need to balance your co2/lights/ferts. all you have right now is lights and none of the others, doesnt work that way in a planted tank.

- do you have a picture of the tank? is it lightly planted? heavily planted? this will greatly affect how much you need of everything.

- im thinking you have a lightly planted tank with waaaaaay too much lighting, and its causing your algae farm
 
jcardona1;3489266; said:
need a lot more info here to find out whats going. my initial thoughts:

- your lights are wrong, youll want something below 10,000k for it to be useful to freshwater plants

- that is a lot of light for a tank w/o co2. metal halides are very high intensity. conisder cutting your lighting but 50% or more

- what is out of balance? EVERYTHING. you need to balance your co2/lights/ferts. all you have right now is lights and none of the others, doesnt work that way in a planted tank.

- do you have a picture of the tank? is it lightly planted? heavily planted? this will greatly affect how much you need of everything.

- im thinking you have a lightly planted tank with waaaaaay too much lighting, and its causing your algae farm
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I agree with all the above. If everything is not present in adequate amounts, the plants won't photosynthesize, meaning they won't really use any of the light, nutrients, or CO2 in the tank. Since all that good stuff is available, algae uses it. Little thieves they are......


Also, try about a 5 hour "lights on", 2 hour 'lights off', and then another 5 hour "lights on". Algae usually need more than 5 hours of continued lighting to thrive.

Good Luck!
 
The tank is medium planted. I got the halides, but the lower wattage because of the size of the tank. I've only got 2.5watts per gallon. And the tank is 2' deep. and i set it up so that each light is covering a 2x2x2 portion of tank.

also isn't the flourite helping the ferts? i add liquid as well.

Also thanks for the light trick... i will definantly give that a try.
 
2.5wpg of metal halides on a tank that doesnt have ferts/co2 is extreme overkill, that is why youre getting algae.

the liquid stuff is not that effecient on such a big tank. as i stated, you need to balance all three components, not just one or two. the fluorite doesnt take care of your nutrients.

a complete dosing routine needs to include carbon, nitrogen, potassium, phosporus, and your trace minerals. sounds like you got a lot of reading and research to do.

check out www.rexgrigg.com and www.plantedtank.net they are great resources :)
 
I will do some reading up... thank you so much for the links.
 
I'd recommend a lower spectrum bulb, around 6500K. I'm a big fan of 8000K (looks and results) if you can find it (not sure if this color exists for MH bulbs). You just do not have enough of the other parts. I'd definitely get rid of the carbon in the filter, add co2, add a good fertilizer regimen (look up "Estimative index") and definitely for now stagger your lights as suggested above with 5hrs on 2 off 5 on again.

These planted tanks can be a real experiment when you first start out, but you'll get the hang of what works and what doesn't, as long as you stick with it and keep doing your research.

What kind of plants do you currently have, and how many? (a picture would really help out here!)

Also, give us specifics about what you are adding to your tank, ie nitrogen/phosphates/potassium/iron/liquid carbon, and also how much and how frequently.
 
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