Do I Have Too Much Light?

[fluffycabbage]

my tank is a 4ft juwel panorama (200l) with 2 x 38w interpret tropical bulbs - is this too much to have in a planted tank? i have BBA (is it?) in there over the last week. a couple of plants are going a bit red, the amazon sword looks a bit yellower than when i put it in a week or two ago. the anubias have new leaves already, only a week old. cabomba is doing really well. dwarf sag not grown, a bit yellow at tips, lots of algae.

had the lights out for 2 days, taken the yellowed bits off of the sag, still loads of algae.

do i need to reduce the light? it seems a bit much for a tank which doesnt use carbon or ferts. i need to get some tpn+ (had some on order but they said it wasnt in stockm gotta find someone else now, reliable!) do i need to put some flourish excel in there?

 

[ian]

BBA=unstable C02, turning the light off isn't gonna make a difference. The light is OK if you're willing to dose c02 (excel) and i would be dosing some kind of fert. I'd be dosing some ferts, even if you're not dosing macro ferts (NKP) at the min.

 

[fluffycabbage]

BBA=unstable C02, turning the light off isn't gonna make a difference. The light is OK if you're willing to dose c02 (excel) and i would be dosing some kind of fert. I'd be dosing some ferts, even if you're not dosing macro ferts (NKP) at the min.

so basically, either lower the bulbs, or start dosing ferts and co2? whats NKP? ive only heard of TPN

 

[ian]

BBA does best when c02 is all ove the place, so if you even water change every week, you are gonna make your c02 flutuate. This doesn't meen you can stop water changes, thats a whole new ball game. I would be dosing flourish excell (liquid carbon) and ferts. TPN plus is a fert containing NKP (phosphate, potassium, and nitrate) the things that plants need most.

 

[ian]

I'll just add as well, lowing the light would help a bit as the plants would need less c02, but it may not eradicatethe problem.

 

[pauld]

I'll just add as well, lowing the light would help a bit as the plants would need less c02, but it may not eradicatethe problem.

i agree with the above algae is the curse of low tech tanks and many hi tech , its all a balancing act to get optimum growing conditions for plants without increaseing the conditions that promote algae , ive been following your posts with intrest because you planted your tank at about same time as i planted mine , dont worry to much about plant die back that normally happens in new planted tanks the plants need time to get used to there new enviroment , start doseing as mentioned above read james algae giude and start implementing the steps to eradicate bba and keep smileing ,

 

[RadaR]

dont worry to much about plant die back that normally happens in new planted tanks the plants need time to get used to there new enviroment ,

If the plants were in an emersed state before entering the tank then I'd expect some to die back. However if they were already in a submerged state then I would be worried if anything started dieing. It shows you are missing something.

 

[pauld]

dont worry to much about plant die back that normally happens in new planted tanks the plants need time to get used to there new enviroment ,

If the plants were in an emersed state before entering the tank then I'd expect some to die back. However if they were already in a submerged state then I would be worried if anything started dieing. It shows you are missing something.

the poster has already said they are going to start adding ferts , would have thought that was what is missing , ive always had some die back or slow growth when adding new plants either to my low tech or high tech i mainly put that down to the plants settleing into there new enviroment i would say it would be pretty hard to duplicate there old . lots of plants grow slow at first because they use there energy to re root (thats only a opinion not a scientific fact )

 

[RadaR]

the poster has already said they are going to start adding ferts , would have thought that was what is missing

I was speaking generally, not just in the case of the OP.

,

ive always had some die back or slow growth when adding new plants either to my low tech or high tech i mainly put that down to the plants settleing into there new enviroment i would say it would be pretty hard to duplicate there old . lots of plants grow slow at first because they use there energy to re root (thats only a opinion not a scientific fact )

I agree that there would be some slow growth, but for parts of the plants to die off, something isn't right. Damaged leaves could die back because it takes less energy to make a new leaf than repair an existing one.

 

[gearhead65]

I had a really bad case of BBA and so I bought a couple SAEs and an Amano shrimp and over a weekends time, it was gone! Every last bit of it! Those guys really are amazing!

 

[RadaR]

I had a really bad case of BBA and so I bought a couple SAEs and an Amano shrimp and over a weekends time, it was gone! Every last bit of it! Those guys really are amazing!

It's important to treat the underlying cause though. You had BBA because the plants were missing out on carbon. Most likely, they still are. Therefore they are not healthy/growing properly.

 

[fluffycabbage]

ok thanks - i'll get some flourish excel today, got tpn+ on order now.

 

[gearhead65]

ok thanks - i'll get some flourish excel today, got tpn+ on order now.

Me too

 

[fluffycabbage]

How long will the flourish excel take to get rid of this horrible algae then?