Help with efficient lighting...

[MyGiants]

this is an idiotic suggestion. when you take out the plants its no longer a planted tank, and changes the whole ball game. i could put a lot of T5HO on a non-planted tank and get no algae at all.

So why did you get a pea soup tank then? You never established why other then you said you had 4 T5HO bulbs and reduced to 2 and by magic your tank became full of plants.

 

[MyGiants]

man you are really thick headed. this is getting old. you dont know how to read very well that is the problem. i told you that 'after' pic was many months down the road after lots of plants were added.

after removing the UV light, i only used two bulbs. co2 and ferts were being added all along, before and after the uv light. this did NOT CHANGE. the water remained clear and no more algae.

a few months down the road i get bored with the setup so i begin to add lots of plants. you are failing to understand that all the plants you see in the 'after' picture have nothing to do with the situation as it was many months apart. i told you time and again, that after removing the uv light and running less light i had no more algae.

can i make that any more clear to you? i dont know what i need to do. draw a picture? a timeline?

- setup tank w/ high light/ferts/co2
- get green water
- install uv light
- water clears up
- remove uv light
- start using only 2 bulbs
- a few months later add more plants
- take a pic
- myGiants see pics and is confused, thinks im lying
- CO2 & FERTS DID NOT CHANGE, EVER, NOT ONCE.

there, can you follow that? you give me a headache. i need a beer now

Well then why did you show us the after tank saying this is what I got now after less light. It been better to show us the same setup with no plants but clear water after removing 2 bulbs. You showed us a tank many months later saying this what happen when less light was used. LOL

 

[jcardona1]

So why did you get a pea soup tank then? You never established why other then you said you had 4 T5HO bulbs and reduced to 2 and by magic your tank became full of plants.

is this guy serious?

 

[jcardona1]

Well then why did you show us the after tank saying this is what I got now after less light. It been better to show us the same setup with no plants but clear water after removing 2 bulbs. You showed us a tank many months later saying this what happen when less light was used. LOL

because THAT IS what happened. less plants or more plants. takes someone with a low IQ to think all that growth happened overnight by removing two bulbs. common sense: dont be afraid to use it every now and then

 

[MyGiants]

can i make that any more clear to you? i dont know what i need to do. draw a picture? a timeline?

- setup tank w/ high light/ferts/co2
- get green water
- install uv light
- water clears up
- remove uv light
- start using only 2 bulbs
- a few months later add more plants
- take a pic
- myGiants see pics and is confused, thinks im lying
- CO2 & FERTS DID NOT CHANGE, EVER, NOT ONCE.

there, can you follow that? you give me a headache. i need a beer now

Exactly my point if you had stocked the tank fuller with plants from the get go you probably would have never gotten green water.

 

[jcardona1]

Exactly my point if you had stocked the tank fuller with plants from the get go you probably would have never gotten green water.

NOPE. that lighting was too much to begin with for a 55g tank. lightly planted or heavily planted, it's overkill. that's the point i was trying to make

 

[MyGiants]

NOPE. that lighting was too much to begin with for a 55g tank. lightly planted or heavily planted, it's overkill. that's the point i was trying to make

Well that's what we disagree with. All I know is you got green water with hardly no plants and fish with high light and co2.

I started both my tanks with 4 T5HO full of plants and co2 plus lots of fish. Never got green water.

 

[jcardona1]

Well that's what we disagree with.

 

[Myarbro]

I only stated that running four T5HO on a 100g tank is not to much light IMO.

If you REALLY did read from the beginning, you would see that I was wanting to originally run 2x 3ft 4 bulb HOT5. Now, that equals 8, yes 8 bulbs, not 4. JC suggested that that was too much. He suggested that 4 bulbs in total would be enough. Because the people I am buying it from don't sell any fixtures over 3ft, I need 2x to stretch the length of my 6ft tank. He pointed me in the direction of 2x 3ft 2 bulb HOT5 lamps. Now THAT equals 4 bulbs. He was stating that in his tank, which is half the size of mine, 4 bulbs was WAY too much. So if his tank was half the size of mine, and his lighting was exactly half the # of bulbs as what I wanted from the start, and had problems, I am going to trust him. And honestly, with as much as he has helped me out, and as much as I have read on plantedtank.net about lighting, TOO MUCH LIGHTING WILL CAUSE ALGAE ISSUES. End of story IMO.

I will back him up with something. The big tank I have (that we are discussing) has been up for a while now and is finished its cycle process. I used a TON, and I mean a TON of feeder minnows and goldfish from a friend that breeds them to help speed this up. That same friend also gave me pre established media. I also used Prime and Stability. I have NO plants, NO fertilization obviously, and NO CO2. I was being lazy with when I turned off the lighting system that came with it. In other words, it was running FAAAR too long (17-18 hours). Guess what happened?? My water started to turn green. .

What did I do to fix this? Bought a timer, and started running the light for 8 hours. Then, to get rid of it, I started more frequent water changes and borrowed a UV pond filter from the friend that gave me the feeders.
Heres a link to the EXACT filter if you want to see (which I would like to add, does not leak UV light ) http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=5358

Sooo....after the water was no longer green, I took off the UV, gave it back to my friend, and kept with the 8 hour lighting time. Guess what? NO PEA SOUP WATER!

I rest my case...

Oh, and this provided me with a very entertaining read during a slow work morning.

 

[MyGiants]

If you REALLY did read from the beginning, you would see that I was wanting to originally run 2x 3ft 4 bulb HOT5. Now, that equals 8, yes 8 bulbs, not 4. JC suggested that that was too much. He suggested that 4 bulbs in total would be enough. Because the people I am buying it from don't sell any fixtures over 3ft, I need 2x to stretch the length of my 6ft tank. He pointed me in the direction of 2x 3ft 2 bulb HOT5 lamps. Now THAT equals 4 bulbs. He was stating that in his tank, which is half the size of mine, 4 bulbs was WAY too much. So if his tank was half the size of mine, and his lighting was exactly half the # of bulbs as what I wanted from the start, and had problems, I am going to trust him. And honestly, with as much as he has helped me out, and as much as I have read on plantedtank.net about lighting, TOO MUCH LIGHTING WILL CAUSE ALGAE ISSUES. End of story IMO.

Your right but when I made my first post I was referring to his pea soup tank that 4 T5HO bulbs was not the cause of his green water. As we all know now he was running his 4 T5HO bulbs dosing fertilizer and injecting co2 to a tank with no plants but just fish. So he was not running a planted tank. He was cultivating a algae tank! LOL

I will back him up with something. The big tank I have (that we are discussing) has been up for a while now and is finished its cycle process. I used a TON, and I mean a TON of feeder minnows and goldfish from a friend that breeds them to help speed this up. That same friend also gave me pre established media. I also used Prime and Stability. I have NO plants, NO fertilization obviously, and NO CO2. I was being lazy with when I turned off the lighting system that came with it. In other words, it was running FAAAR too long (17-18 hours). Guess what happened?? My water started to turn green. .

To enlighten you just because you were not fertilizing or adding co2 you don't think all those feeders fish a ton of them were not producing nutrients in the water from urine feces building up as ammonia first then cycled down into nitrates. Plus the respiration of a ton of feeders giving off carbon. Coupled with running the lights 17-18hrs! a day That is a ton of nutrients! Of course your water turned green. silly rabbit LOL

What did I do to fix this? Bought a timer, and started running the light for 8 hours. Then, to get rid of it, I started more frequent water changes and borrowed a UV pond filter from the friend that gave me the feeders.
Heres a link to the EXACT filter if you want to see (which I would like to add, does not leak UV light ) http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=5358

Sooo....after the water was no longer green, I took off the UV, gave it back to my friend, and kept with the 8 hour lighting time. Guess what? NO PEA SOUP WATER!

I rest my case...

Oh, and this provided me with a very entertaining read during a slow work morning.

Great now your ready to stock your tank with plants