New To Hobby

[manwithnofish]

I am new to the hobby. I purchase and set up a new 70 gallon fresh water planted tank on February 16th. The tank measures 36” (left to right), 18” (front to back), and 25” (top to bottom). I started with fishless cycling using ammonia for the first week. Ammonia was from Wal-Mart and contained ‘chelating agents’. Hardness went through the roof so I did a 95% w/c and started over, cycling with 10 small fish. Fish are doing fine so far. I am at the end of the second week of cycling. Ammonia is 0.00, Nitrites are ranging 0.50 to 1.0, and Nitrates are usually at 5.00 or 10.00. Phosphates are 0.00. I have hard well water. The kH is 7 and the dH is usually around 15. The pH has fluctuated from 7.2 up to 8.4 (usually below 8.0). I have done several major water changes. Filtering with Fluval 405 (top 2 trays have BioMax, bottom 2 trays have carbon, ClearMax, and Pre-Filter). Lights are Tek-Lights 156 watts (T-5 HO), turned on 10 hours / day.

My problem is Fuzz Algae, sort of brownish in color and attaching to plants and objects. It flows in the water like hair. It’s not Thread or Brush Algae. I have been burning just half the lights (2 of the 4 lamps). Yesterday, I decided to turn all 4 lamps on to try to accelerate plant growth (to consume more nutrients and stave the algae). This morning the tank is very cloudy (with algae, I think). I don’t know if I should just keep doing what I’m doing and give it time to become established, or if I should start over or what. The Algae is taking over the tank and I need help.

 

[SJ2K]

Very normal is newly established tanks just scrub it off here and there and once the tanks mature ill go away by itself.

 

[manwithnofish]

What about the light intensity? I've read that giving the plants lots of bright light 8 - 10 hrs/day will help them take off and therefore begin to consume the nutrients cutting back on what is available for the Algae. Others are telling me to "blackout" the tank. That I should turn the lights off. Any advice on the lamps?

 

[Dave Spencer]

You have been given some conflicting advice so far, and I am giving to give you some more confliction. Personally, I think you have been given bad advice, going on what you have written.

What you have is a high light tank, so you have two options open to you. The simplest is to run just two lamps and make it a low light tank. In this instance, you will need to keep removing the algae until you get on top of it. Dosing with Flourish Excel will provide organic carbon for your plants, and help defeat the algae. You will, however, be limited by what plants you can have.

The second option is to supplement your high light levels with a large, fast growing plant mass, pressurised CO2 and a water column fert regime. Have a read of the Estimative Index sticky on the planted tank forum.

Your algae is being caused primarily by having the high light levels without the other factors I mentioned above. This problem is being exacerbated by your plants being nutrient deficient in a high growth environment, whereby they are leaching ammonia in to the water column through their ill health and further triggering the algae.

An increase in light means an increase in carbon demand (hence, pressurised CO2).

This then means that the demand for N via nitrates, P via phosphates and K is increased. You run your water column deficient of these, probably having been told that you are starving algae. What you are doing is starving your plants. I can grow algae using sunlight and very pure RO water.

I add nitrates and phosphates to my tanks to feed the plants, but the key is that whilst the tank is less than six or seven months old, you will need a large mass of fast growers to keep the algae at bay. Exactly what mechanism is involved in this process is largely unknown. Later on, when things are more stable, you plant more lightly, and with plants of your choice, if slow growing Crypts etc are your thing.

An analogy I like to use is comparing a planted tank to your car. If you uprate the engine on your car, there comes a point when you need to upgrade the suspension and brakes too. Liken the lights in your tank to the engine in your car, and you will get the idea.

Dave.

 

[manwithnofish]

156 watts in a 70 gallon tank. I didn't think this was too much light. I don't think I'm starving the plants, they've barely even established themselves in the tank yet and started growning. I definitely do not intend to do the CO2 stuff. Hum. I'll weigh your thoughts with what I get from other replies.

 

[manwithnofish]

Can't find a way to upload digital photos from my computer.

 

[manwithnofish]

Any help? Any ideas?

 

[littlest]

open a photobucket account and upload the photos to there, then paste the IMG tags into your post and the photo will display.

 

[OldMan47]

You will get lots of conflicting information on algae control. The essence of the various approaches is to balance light and fertility to choke out the algae through competition with the plants. If everything is well balanced, the plants will use up the nutrients leaving nothing for the algae. So much for the theory. In practice, people who have as much light as you do, usually find it necessary to provide fertilizers and CO2. The options open to you incule cutting the light down to about 1 1/2 watts per gallon and down to 8 hours a day to limit the light available to the algae. Another approach for a quick fix is to do a tank blackout for about 3 days. It will definitely help in the short term but if you don't get things in balance, the algae will be back. Another approach is to choke the tank with fast growing plants that like the level of light that you have. This can consume basically everything available and choke out the algae.
As long as people do not have every minute detail about your setup, they will keep telling you what worked for them. It depends on what the imbalance was that they started with what they will tell you. If they had too much light they will tell you cutting the light works, if they had excess fertilizer of a particular type they will tell you to cut back on that fertilizer, etc. The best answer is to compare what you have to an idealized setup for your plants, figure out what factor is out of whack, and fix it. In my case, I had a little too much light so I cut back on the light timer by an hour per day and the algae went away. No telling from here what you need.

 

[manwithnofish]

cutting the light down to about 1 1/2 watts per gallon and down to 8 hours a day to limit the light available to the algae

I didn't think that 156 watts for 70 gallons was too much. Many things I was told and read, was that for a heavily planted tank, 2 to 4 watts / gal. were needed.

Now, there are two ways to reduce light. One is to cut the wattage and the other is to reduce the time lights are turned on. If I have a heavily planted tank, should I leave the 2+ watts / gal but just turn them off after maybe 8 hours?

I'll work on finding a host site to upload photo.

 

[SJ2K]

Thats a little over 2WPG (Watts Per Gallon)...For a tank without additional nutrients from CO2 etc that is quite high, without the right blanace its very easy to have algae problems