too much lighting?

Hi there

I am running a t5 unit on my 1.5 meter. I have recently reduced the lighting hours to maybe 6 a day. Previously, having left them on for longer, i found huge algae blooms that disappeared after a few days of no lighting. Even now with the reduced lighting i find that i can never keep the water clear. Having just fixed the fluval and running another hang-on filter i'm certain i have enough filtering power and i'm assuming it could only be the lights.

It seems a pity to keep having to keep the lights off to clear the water as i cant actually see my jag.

What do you suggest i do??

 

iss it jus ons t5 light on your 5ft tank?

 

What lighting unit do you have? Dual? Quad? Wattage?

I have an Oddysea dual (2x54w T5) unit, and do notice more algae growth on anything 8 hours + a day, but water is always clear.....I just get more algae on rocks and tank glass.
What do you mean by not being able to keep the water clear? Is it discoloured? Has debris?

 

Hi do you have any plants in their? give us a bit more about your tank.

 

Hi guys
I am running a Oddysea dual (2x54w T5) unit. The tank has a few plants but they are all plastic. The water is discoloured yes, seems to just become murky. The only possible explanation i thought for the discolouring was the drift wood piece i had in it. It was however cured for a few months and didn't stain the water the usual "tea" colour.

I seem to have more algae growing on the back of the tank and sides. Not too much on the rocks which seems strange and worse is the discoloured water.

 

I have the same unit, in a tank with 2 pieces of driftwood, and do weekly 50% water changes.....my water is always crystal clear, and my lighting is on an average of 8 hours a day.

What are your nitrate levels? Do you know you water paramenters? How often do you feed and how much?

 

In my VERY humble opinion, if you push that much light into an aquarium with no plants, its a recipe for a disaster of the algae variety. Why not add some low tech plants, they are pretty, easy to maintain, will clear up your water (unless its quality related; nitrates, etc etc). It also adds a whole new dimension to the hobby. There are many more experts on TASA who will probably offer better advice than I can though...

 

I did forget to mention I have a few java ferns and anubias in my tank which may be helping.....but either way, if you keep getting massive algae blooms with 6 hours a day of light, my thinks there is something else besides lighting alone that is contributing, hence my questions above.
Either way, I'm no expert just trying to help out.

 

Add purigen to clean the tea stain.

What do you feed your fish? Any live food?

What type of algae do you propagate?

Later Ferdie

 

The only(main) reason for algae growth is high nutrients(phos and nit)? Even with longer lighting periods algae can't grow in the absence of nutrients. Seeing there is not a lot of plants in the tank to consume the nutrients, algae would start to grow. Do you use normal tap water? Maybe consider some kind of phos, nitrate remover.

 

I don't know my parameters, one of the reasons I decided to keep freshwater was to try and avoid having to monitor my water parameters so closely. I feed once a day , maybe 10-12 big chichlid pellets but my jag eats it all.

I would try plants but my jag is super aggressive and moves absolutely everything in the tank around. She even tries to move the massive pieces of slate I have in there around. Wouldn't she just rip the plants to pieces?

I do feed live food but not very frequently (maybe once a month) but she tends to swallow whole or spit out the whole dead fish which I then remove. The algae growth on the glass isn't too bad but when I had small white rocks in the tank they got covered in little lines of green algae. My water has a green tinge to it but no debris or solid matter can be seen.

I do use tap water for my water changes but I treat it with Seachem prime before I add it to the tank.

 

At least see if you can take some water to your LFS if you dont want to buy the kits.....that way you could rule out the water chemistry side (or most of it).
You may not have to monitor your water parameters "so closely", but its very handy to have the basic tests you need to test when something doesnt seem right (and in my case random monthly checks to be safe).....it literally takes a couple minutes.

 

Tough one - can you run a singe tube - since you have no live plants all the light goes to your fiend Mr algae. Algae on white rocks - happens but you changed that back to sand now if I recall - did that help? I think the excrement from the food is what you need to deal with for filtration to remove nitrates and phosphates - purigen will help with some of the organics but for the rest you need either scrubber and/or better filtration and/or a grow bed ... your water sounds like the perfect candidate to push into a DIY hydroponics thing ...

Since I have no test kits - does you water have a slight fishy sent or an earthy tone or nothing?

BTW fish pushing plants around - try planting them in terracotta pots (ah, plants that is not the fish).

Later Ferdie

 

I will be going to the lfs today so I will take so water along and post the parameters up abit later.

The sand does seem to have helped quiet allot but again the algae could just be discolouring the water as apposed to collecting on the rocks. I currently have 3 filter runnings: one fluval 404, a dolphin H-800 hang on filter and then a small internal pump/filter.

I like the sound of the grow bed idea, what does that involve?

 

Ok just an update. Added some small plants to my tank, bought a dophin C1600 to get more filtration and checked my water parameters (nitrates,,ammonia and ph all at the correct levels). Tank was fine for about 2 weeks after putting in the new filter but over the past few days the water has gotten that same green tinge. I am doing a 10% water change basically everyday and am really at a loss as to what else I could do. The water has an earthy scent to it. I am gonna be leaving my lights off for 3 days to see if that helps.

 

what is your substrate?

 

Is your tank getting any sunlight? What types of tubes do you have in your unit?

 

Washed beach sand. No sunlight, curtains are normally drawn and normal clear fish tank tubes that came with the dophin

 

Sorry man, meant what type of light tubes? Are they growlux etc or normal flourescents?

 

Or put some non-plastic plants in your tank. They will use Nitrate and phosfate as well!! At this moment the most primitive plants (=algae) will groe best !!!