Lumens Per gallon Sticky/ algae question.

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nfored

nfored

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 4, 2008
2,597
14
68
Missouri
Tank 48 x 16 x 12 11k lumes 128watt


Red Rotala. Is this enough light to grow this plant? just yesterday I nuked my whole tank, removed all the plants, cleaned the tank all rocks and drift wood. I bought Red Rotala, Anacharis, and Water Wisteria.

I know th anacharis and WW are good with low to moderate light but I am conserned with the Red Rotala. I uses 5ml a day of Seachem Excel and does for a 40-60 gallon tank using EI and dry NKP fetz.

I nuked my tank due to algea that i noticed after uping the lights from 34 watts to 128 watts. my secondary question is do you see what might have been causing my algea? I was using EI dosing for the 20-40 gallon range but just this friday after nuking went to the 40 - 60 gallon EI dosing range.

my exact setup is as follows

Light On at 9am, off at 3pm, on again at 4 pm, and off again at 9pm.

5ml Excel Satuday - Thursday
25ml Excel Friday

Sat 1/2 tbs kn03 and 1/8 KH2PO4
Sunday 1/8 Plantex CSM+ B
Monday 1/2 tbs kn03 and 1/8 KH2PO4
Tue 1/8 Plantex CSM+ B
Wed 1/2 tbs kn03 and 1/8 KH2PO4
Thur 1/8 Plantex CSM+ B

Feed fish in the two 20 gallon setups 2 times a day 6 -7 algea wafers * depending on how much they eat* some times I only feed them once aday.

Thanks you to every one that reads this.
 
No body?

Well thank you reading it anyway.
 
sorry man, i dont have an answer for you! i can tell you that something is out of balance, but i dont know what - of course! what types of algae were you seeing? i dont think you saw algae because of too much light, perhaps the co2 levels arent high enough?
 
After adding all the extra plants and pruning all the current plants, and scrubbing everything down. My water is cleaner then it has ever been, and I haven't seen any algae.

I don't know if this was because of upping the EI dosing or adding 400% more plants :-)

but seriously no one has any ideas about the first question about my Red Rotala and the ammount of light I have.
 
Just some pics.

Comments Welcome, Good comments, and bad comments alike.

I am open to suggestions on how I might improve the aquascapping.

IMAGE_235.jpg

IMAGE_236.jpg
 
6 - 7 algae wafers a day :WHOA:

How many fish you got that eat them in your tank? I never had to drop more than less then half a wafer for 2 days. Now I only got 3 Oto's and 4 pygmy Corie's and a SAE and snails that might eat wafers.

You should run some Co2 and I think you keep your lights on too long, 8 to 9 hours a day should be better and not split up.
I would think turning off your lights would interrupt the photo period of your plants, but I don't know?
Why do you turn your lights off for 1 hour?

11k lumen's? I hear that 6700k works best for planted tanks

I think you should bunch those stems plants in groups of at least 4

You need more plants if your going to dose ferts every day so your plants can absorb what your putting in the tank.

Spread the groups out a little more, to much green plants of different species grouped together looks like a mess.
 
Jag1980;2384893; said:
6 - 7 algae wafers a day :WHOA:

How many fish you got that eat them in your tank? I never had to drop more than less then half a wafer for 2 days. Now I only got 3 Oto's and 4 pygmy Corie's and a SAE and snails that might eat wafers.


Not sure what size your wafers are, but mine are less then 1/2 inch around half of one of those for two days wouldn't feed the first 20 gallon let along the second

You should run some Co2 and I think you keep your lights on too long, 8 to 9 hours a day should be better and not split up.
I would think turning off your lights would interrupt the photo period of your plants, but I don't know?
Why do you turn your lights off for 1 hour?

I split it up for the algae, it interrupts the algaes photo to give the plants a better chance. As far as CO2 I dose with excel, for a tank this size CO2 might be a little over board. However I believe CO2 is always cheaper in the long run.

11k lumen's? I hear that 6700k works best for planted tanks

When you see somthing like 6700K, the k is for kelven which is telling the color of the light, and 5000 - 7500 is good for plants. When you see a small number such as 11 with a k behind it its reffering to thousand, and lumens is how bright the light is. If you look at the stickies you will see its much better to messure lumens then WPG as you get a more accurate picture.

I think you should bunch those stems plants in groups of at least 4

You need more plants if your going to dose ferts every day so your plants can absorb what your putting in the tank.
I disagree the plants are absorbing, before I added these plants you may have been right. However after adding them I am having a hard time keeping the nitrAtes up.

Spread the groups out a little more, to much green plants of different species grouped together looks like a mess.This is what I was thinking also, I havent figured out how to re arrange them.
Click to expand...

Thank you for all your advise, but really what waffers are you feeding I might want to get some of that brand if they are as large as your suggesting. Also snails will eat the the waffers.
 
Red Rotala
 
Mine doesn't look like that at all, maybe the LFS mis labbeld it?
 
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