Juwel Light Unit Algae Issues

[Jimbo1984]

Hi,

I bought the Juwel T5 High-Lite unit for my Rio 125 ages ago but changing to T5 tubes brought on an algae explosion. So I reverted back to the old T8 unit that came with the tank.

The T8 unit has now ceased to work unfortunately (they all do this sooner or later apparently) so I had no choice but to give the T5 unit another go. Which once again has caused a major increase in algae growth. I've heard T5 is generally better but I guess it's harder to keep things balanced. My plants don't seem to like it either! They're coated in Cyanobacteria.

It does make sense to use this T5 unit, as it wasn't cheap! I just find the algae increase hard work.

Does anyone have any tips on controlling this algae growth?

 

[Truck]

Remove as much of the Cyano as possible then do a 5 day black out, then reduce lighting down to 4 hours a day and your plants should be fine, adding some duck weed or frogbit will cut some light out too, thus reducing the problem.

 

[Bobtastic]

The T5 are quite a bit more powerful than the T8 tubes. So if you switched from T8s to T5s with the same photo period (lighting time) and didn't change your nutrients and Co2 addition its not that surprising that you had algae problems. Tho I am assuming that this is the case.

Did you change the amount of time u had the lights of for, did you increase the ammout of nutrients and Co2 that you add to reflect the increased demand?

 

[Jimbo1984]

Thanks for your replies.

I did reduce the lighting time when switching, but that's about it.

I'll increase my Flourish Excel dosing after a big tank clean this afternoon!

Plus if the problem continues, i'll knock it down to 4 hours and do a blackout as suggested.

Thanks again!

 

[Bobtastic]

The suggestion of floating plants is a good one as they will reduce the amount of light that gets through to the substrate.