How Do I Grow Plants Slowly And Still Prevent Algae?

[newfishaddict]

I now have a 55g with 3.5wpg and 25ppm co2 and the plants grow so fast I never see algae.

I am building a 90g discuss tank. I want it to have slower growing plants that require less maintenance than my 55g's faster growing plants. How do I grow plants slowly and still prevent algae?

I have read about bulbs with low K value like 3200k blubs..does this help? what else works?

Thanks for any help!

 

[plantbrain]

Use less light.
Like 2w/gal.

Next use slower growers that need less work, Crypts/ferns are nice.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[newfishaddict]

Use less light.
Like 2w/gal.

Next use slower growers that need less work, Crypts/ferns are nice.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Still use co2?

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Id say yes to Co2.

Choose plants with slow growth habbits.
Reduce the light period and like Tom says the WPG too.
You will need to be carful when dosing ferts too, dont want excess, feeding the algae, thats why stem plants are so good.

 

[plantbrain]

Fert levels are even wider ranging with less light and not an issue, algae appear namely due to defiencies or low CO2, not excesses except NH4.

I've never been able top induce any species of algae with high NO3, PO4, Fe, traces, Ca, Mg, K+, SO4, etc
I've gone beyond most folk's levels they report in the hobby.

No algae.

Even at low light.
If you run a leaner tank, that's fine and it's easier with less light(more wiggle room!), something many enamoured with lean ferts fail to realize. They often misthink that high light and low/lean ferts are better.
It's just harder or forces you to reply more on the substrate for ferts.

But you do not gain anything by having leaner ferts in the water column.
Folks can say this till they are blue, but you cannot show that the "excess" ferts cause algae, because if they did, how come I can repeat this test and have for a decade over huge ranges and never get any algae?

The observations clearly do not correlate with the hypothesis that excess ferts => algae.


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Thats very intersting.

Does this only apply to EI or can we adopt this with any comercial fertilizer's, such as NutrafinPlantGrow or Ferka and other brand names ???

 

[newfishaddict]

Tom, very interesting thanks for the insight. I like EVERYTHING I am hearing but there is one problem....in my 55g with 3.6 wpg, and a variety of bulbs, my fish look great! With less light my fish look much different...How do I make my new discus look good with low light