ok, thinking of going planted currently, 2wpg on my standard 60. If i Lightly planted the tank, say 2-3 plants and mybe some light ground cover would i need co2? I've read a lot of the posts and they say I should otherwise there will be a huge algae outbreak. But why does algae grow in the first place, does it grow if lighting is at 2wpg and there are no plants? Because my tank is pretty algae free. Or do the plants need to be there for the algae to grow. As you can probably tell, I know absolutely nothing of plants so as much help as possible would be much appreciated.

There's a pinned topic on algae at the top of this forum. It will answer a lot of your questions. Good luck.

A lightly planted tank with plenty of light is a recipe for nuisance algae, CO2 or no CO2.

I'd suggest either running less light and sticking with low-light plants or increasing the planting density and adding CO2.

120W in a 60G (2 WPG) is quite a bit of light so CO2 is essential IMO.

As leafs mentions the pinned algae article will answer most questions you have, if there's anything you don't understand then just ask.

If you have been running 2wpg for some time (3 months plus) and are having no algae then plants can only help. If you've just set up the tank with 2wpg then algae will be on the way. Algae spores are in the air. They WILL find a way into your tank and when they do they will grow if given the opportunity. A lightly planted 2wpg tank is that opportunity. I just manage to hold off algae with a 0.9wpg tank full of loads of low light plants. When I added enough light to bring it up to 2wpg the algae quickly started taking over. Within a week I had noticeable plant growth, all spoilt by a light covering of algae.

WK

Thanks WK.