Changing from High tech to low light

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migdem

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 13, 2010
206
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Malta EU
Hi all,

I have a high tech setup or at least something like that.
So, I have a Juwel Rio 400 which is 450 litre tank, I have 216 W of T5's that runs on for 8 hours a day with reflectors on them, CO2 with PH controller that gets the ph to 6.6 whilst I have a KH of 3. I dose PPS-PRO daily with recommended dosage.

Now I need to change it to low light plants and if I can reduce light it is better. The problems that I have is that 216 W for 8 hours a day it is a bit high in electricity expenses and I have loads of algae grrrr that I cannot cope with and I cannot find out why!!!!

So as regarding plants I have Amazon Sword, Red Lotus, Vallisneria Spirals, Crypts and ECHINODORUS TENELLUS. I beleive that these will be good with low light right?

Now as for CO2 I can leave it with no problem. Practically it is better to leave it on for me because I can adjust the PH to my liking since my tap PH is 8 and I love fish that likes acidic water. I know that some of you tell me that with a lot CO2 i should have a lot of light but with 2Kg of CO2 it serves me for 4-5 months so I do not think that a lot of CO2 is diffused in the system.

About lightning how should I do this? How much time should I leave them on? I have 2 power of 108 W each so I can switch on 1 and then 2nd one for less hours.

About ferts what should I use? I do not think that PPS-PRO is suitable for low light also I do not love how much algae I have and the plants that are getting bigger so much fast with this method.
Also at home I have Seachem Flourish Comprehensive that I could use weekly.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance
*hoping in much much less algae*
by the way the algae that I have is Green-Blue algae which I believe is Cyanobacteria a bacteria.
 
Sounds like you just need to stagger your lighting...

216 W of T5's is several bulbs. Maybe run X amount of bulbs for the full 7 hours and Y amount for a 2 hour max light burst.

So does each bulb or set of bulbs have a separate switch or power plug? Do you have a timer with multiple programs? If so this is your answer. As a low tech system does not use pressurized C02.

You need to just work on your photo-period and keep experimenting.
 
What I have is 2 sets of power with 108W each of T5's. Mainly I am using the CO2 to stabilize the PH apart for plants :)

They are on a timer for 8 hours a day.
 
I would leave one set on for all 8 hours then adjust the amount of time the second one is one.

Say 8 hours and a 2 hour burst for midday full lighting as a start.

You will have to fine tune it yourself to see what works best.
 
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