Please Help Me With A Lighting Schedule

[soybean]

Two tanks I'd like some lighting advice on please:

1 - In my old tank I followed the same lighting schedule that a friend recommended as working well in his tank - timed to come on for an hour around lunchtime, and then 5pm-10pm. I never had any problems with any algae (that couldn't be managed by Otos anyway) or poor plant growth.

But now I have a 180l Juwel tank and the lighting is more powerful than I had before - 2 x 45w T5 bulbs. They're the Juwel High Lite ones that came with the tank. After an initial period of excellent growth, the plants were taking over my tank and I had to cut many of them right down. They're now taking a while to get going again and suddenly after a few months of the tank running I'm suffering from green spot algae and brown patches that my otos aren't interested in. The tank is moderately planted with nothing too demanding - amazon sword, straight vallis, bacopa, wisteria and other hygrophilas I can't remember/work out the name of. They all look healthy, no brown patches etc. Just not growing as fast as before.

There is a plant substrate topped by fine gravel. I dose weekly with a basic liquid fert that I'm happy to change, just not sure which one is best.

I's rather not go down the Co2 route - I don't even know if that's the solution, but I haven't the spare cash to set it up. The plants are not my main focus in the tank - I have them because the fish like them and they look better than fake. My aim is just to have them healthy and the tank algae free. Readings: Am 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5 - 10mg/l

2 - My betta tank is lit by a 9w T5 bulb. It's on most of the day, I'm not sure what time to set on the timer. There is room for another bulb - currently it has an extra blue one I never switch on, theoretically I could add another white one if need be but my betta doesn't like it too bright. It has a dwarf anubias on bogwood which is growing very well, some wisteria (also doing well), and some java moss and moss balls. Substrate is sand, I rarely dose with fert. The anubias has started to get brown algae on its leaves that I have to wipe off - never had this problem on it before. Patches are also appearing on the tank. Really in this tank I'm just aiming to get the brown algae under control - growth isn't an issue, I don't want them to take over the tank, it's only a 4g cube with an elderly betta, though I'm thinking of adding some shrimp shortly.

Quite a long post but any help with the lighting is appreciated.

 

[PDSimon]

First tank -

Sounds like a lot of fast growing plants, you didn't say how long you put the new bulbs on for, the same amount of time I assume? If so, they're possibly just not getting enough nutrients they require, maybe macro nutrients... Got any pics? I would have thought they would be growing faster to be honest. Were you doing more waterchanges? dosing any form of carbon?

What ferts do you use/ what do they contain?

You could remove one of the bulbs... then it would be less light so the plants wouldn't demand so much.

Second tank - oto's do eat brown algae but you would need a serious amount! If you mean diatoms, then this is normally caused by fluctuations in ammonia levels. You'll be able to see bigger fluctuations by the health of the fish but smaller are almost impossible lol. If its a newish tank it might just be settling in, try and remove as much of it as you can.

 

[soybean]

First tank -

Sounds like a lot of fast growing plants, you didn't say how long you put the new bulbs on for, the same amount of time I assume? If so, they're possibly just not getting enough nutrients they require, maybe macro nutrients... Got any pics? I would have thought they would be growing faster to be honest. Were you doing more waterchanges? dosing any form of carbon?

What ferts do you use/ what do they contain?

You could remove one of the bulbs... then it would be less light so the plants wouldn't demand so much.

Second tank - oto's do eat brown algae but you would need a serious amount! If you mean diatoms, then this is normally caused by fluctuations in ammonia levels. You'll be able to see bigger fluctuations by the health of the fish but smaller are almost impossible lol. If its a newish tank it might just be settling in, try and remove as much of it as you can.

Thanks for reply.

Sorry, yes, the new tank was on the same schedule of about 5 hours in the evening and one around lunchtime (ie when I'm around to look at the tank!). So is the algae anything to do with the amount of light, or is it nutrients? I haven't upped the water changes, I do about 30-50% a week, always have. Not dosing carbon. The plants ARE growing, just not zooming up like they were. The plant substrate is the same as my LFS guy uses in his display tanks, I can't remember the name, and I'm afraid at the moment I just have P@H plant food because it was the cheapest and I didn't know which better one to buy!

There seems to be a fine balance between plant growth and algae growth that I've never had to worry about before, I really would like to crack it!

Tank 2 isn't a new tank, and yes by brown algae I think I do mean diatoms - I do a large water change on this tank weekly, probably at least 75%, just to keep on top of any ammonia, although I have a cycled filter. It's such a small volume of water though, I don't like to risk a build up anyway. So the solution in that tank is just wipe it off? Not decrease/increase the light?

 

[soybean]

A few pics taken with my phone just now, compared to one taken a month ago. I'm not much of a photographer, sorry:

And a month ago (removed the cabomba, never been a fan):

 

[soybean]

Anymore suggestions?