An enlightening observation on lighting

[julielynn47]

As soon as I can get the pics on my pc I will post them. I always have to wait for them to transfer from my phone, to icloud, and then back to my pc.

Anyway, I have a lot of floating Hornwort, Water Wisteria, Anacaris (sp?) and a Amazon Sword I think it is is planted with quite a few plants.

I cycled the 10 gallon with plants in it, the same kind as above and they did fine. Actually, the water wisteria has just taken over the tank. It is like a jungle. I am fixing to take more out. And all the water wisteria I have in the 75 came from cuttings from the 10.

I am trying to patiently wait for the pictures to get where they need to be so I can post them.

I also took a pic of my 55 gallon. It is running both LG and AG in it as well. It has 2 light fixtures. Life Glo on one side and Aqua Glo on the other. The plants under the AG are doing much better than the plants under the LG. When the pictures are ready I will post them and then you all can see what I mean.

I had no idea that cycling caused algae growth. But I did start cycling about the same time I started using the LG

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Cycling causes algae because of the ammonia. Ammonia causes algae growth.

 

[julielynn47]

I did not know that....

Here are the pics

Above is the 75. It has quite a few plants in it I think. I love the hornwort floating about like it does. I wanted to post a video but I can't figure out how.


This is the 55. The big Amazon swords are under the AG bulb. The little Amazon swords are under the LG. And the floating hornwort in this tank seems to be dying, and it is under the LG. But I think that the fish may be nibbling on it, I am not sure if that it why or not. I use Flourish Comprehensive liquid for it, but it is still not looking so good. (sorry the light is glaring in the pic) It use to be a ball of that stuff twice as big as that, and I honestly thought you couldn't kill it. But I guess something is either killing it or pecking away at it. Anyway, it seems to me the AG is doing a better job for the plants in this tank.

And I did not know that cycling caused algae....I really did not... I guess that explains a lot. It might not be the LG causing it at all.

 

[StevenF]

I always thought that algae grew when you had either to much light or too many nutrients.

That was the common thought for a long time but Tom Barr has shown that when all nutrients are available in slight excess of what the plants need algae struggles and may die back to almost nothing. Its Called Estimative index. It is a quite popular way of controlling algae. However

Here is what Tom wrote: http://www.barrreport.com/forum/bar...tive-index-of-dosing-or-no-need-for-test-kits

Note: Tom provides some guidelines on how much to dose per day and then claims you don't need a test kit. However that said he purchase a $1000 LED photometer capable of measuring 90 water parameters accurately. he used it to figure out how to do this. However when people have problems getting it to work it can be very difficult to identify the problem.

When I first started using fertilizer the one I purchased had all nutrients in it except copper. Since I was using RO water a copper deficiency eventually set in and the plants stopped growing or grew very slowly. Algae was then able to take advantage of this. The Fish food supplied enough copper for the algae but not the plants. So only the algae would grow. So if you are missing or just slightly low on one or more nutrients, Estimative Index it will not work.

So in my experience and Tom's nutrient deficiencies are the primary fuel for a algae bloom. Not excess. However no one knows why it works.

 

[julielynn47]

So in my experience and Tom's nutrient deficiencies are the primary fuel for a algae bloom. Not excess. However no one knows why it works.

So maybe I am not dosing with enough Flourish Comprehensive? Or am I not reading this correctly? What I am understanding is that maybe there are not enough nutrients?

 

[flchamp89]

The answer is specific to your tanks plant mass, species, bioload, par, photo period, traces in ws, co2, your macro and micro schedule.

Light is limiting factor. Focus on growing plants equals less algae. Co2, macro, and micros must match your par.

It is possible you dont have enough. But more probable not right ones. Niether tank has a heavy plant mass. Swords are heavy feeders and will uptake from roots.




Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[Byron]

That was the common thought for a long time but Tom Barr has shown that when all nutrients are available in slight excess of what the plants need algae struggles and may die back to almost nothing. Its Called Estimative index. It is a quite popular way of controlling algae. However

Here is what Tom wrote: http://www.barrreport.com/forum/bar...tive-index-of-dosing-or-no-need-for-test-kits

Note: Tom provides some guidelines on how much to dose per day and then claims you don't need a test kit. However that said he purchase a $1000 LED photometer capable of measuring 90 water parameters accurately. he used it to figure out how to do this. However when people have problems getting it to work it can be very difficult to identify the problem.

When I first started using fertilizer the one I purchased had all nutrients in it except copper. Since I was using RO water a copper deficiency eventually set in and the plants stopped growing or grew very slowly. Algae was then able to take advantage of this. The Fish food supplied enough copper for the algae but not the plants. So only the algae would grow. So if you are missing or just slightly low on one or more nutrients, Estimative Index it will not work.

So in my experience and Tom's nutrient deficiencies are the primary fuel for a algae bloom. Not excess. However no one knows why it works.

I have definitely caused brush algae twice in my 90g simply by dosing too much Flourish Comprehensive. In my smaller tanks, I have cut back the amount of FC I use, and brush algae (this seems to be my only "problem" algae) always lessens. I have also had this result by reducing light duration. In these cases, the CO2 gave out first.

You must remember that Tom is using diffused CO2. I have had several discussions with him. He admits, as I have often written, that low CO2 causes algae too, because it is not sufficient to balance the other nutrients/light. This is the principle behind the "siesta" approach (though for the record I do not advocate this). It is fine to add excess fertilizers, but if the light and CO2 are not balanced with those nutrients, algae will take advantage.

One must also remember that massive water changes to "restore the balance" are part of the EI method. Back to that balance again.

Algae in a planted tank is caused when the balance among light and nutrients is out, whichever nutrient or light is to blame.

Edit: I posted before reading subsequent posts, but #21 is saying the same thing.

 

[Byron]

So maybe I am not dosing with enough Flourish Comprehensive? Or am I not reading this correctly? What I am understanding is that maybe there are not enough nutrients?

The nutrients are probably lacking. There are also not many plants in either tank in the photos, so you have to be careful not to overload the system or you really will have algae.

Here are some of my planted tanks, all with LG tubes (the smaller tanks) or two tubes of 5000K and 6500K combo (the 70g and 90g, each photo is named with the tank size first). As I have previously explained, I can easily get problem algae simply by overdosing the Flourish Comprehensive a tad. It takes a few weeks to find the balance, and along the way changes have to be minor, not several at once, because you are tweaking the balance/system.

 

[julielynn47]

Byron, what is that floating plant with the roots hanging down?

 

[Byron]

Byron, what is that floating plant with the roots hanging down?

In the 70g, that is Frogbit. In the 90g, there is Water Sprite, plus several adventitious sword plants on several inflorescences from the main sword before I culled them. The 40g has Brazilian Pennywort floating. And the 33g has Water Sprite.

 

[julielynn47]

Thank you Byron, I love those roots hanging down