Uv lights effectiveness /diatoms

[Metalhead88]

Yeah I think it is different.

Do you really need both lights? That sounds a little excessive.

 

[jlo718]

I probably don't to be honest. I had the nicrew by itself and it wasn't strong at all. So I invested in the beamswork for my baby tears and they took off. But so did algae. Maybe I wont use the nicrew at all and see what happens. I posted above the exact beamswork if you want to see if it's strong enough on it's own. I'm not good with light specifications.

 

[Metalhead88]

Give it a shot and see how it works.

 

[jlo718]

Will do. How long do you recommend I keep the light on? 8 hours or less? Have 6 or 7 plant and a nice carpet of baby tears in a 29 gallon.

 

[Byron]

Will do. How long do you recommend I keep the light on? 8 hours or less? Have 6 or 7 plant and a nice carpet of baby tears in a 29 gallon.

This depends upon that balance. If the reduced intensity solves your problem, with the lights on the present schedule, you could increase the "daylight" period slowly. When you have exceeded the balance, algae will reappear.

I worked mine the opposite way; when I moved here I had a 10-hour daily photoperiod, but brush algae was a problem. So I reduced an hour, after a few weeks another hour, down to 8 hours daily. End of algae problems. I had obviously found the balance. In a couple tanks, I increased the plant additives and brought the algae back, so that had to be fixed.

Once all seemed OK, I noticed two summers in a row that my BBA increased during the summer. I worked out that the additional daylight entering the room in summer (longer daylight and brighter) was enough to throw off the balance. As my tanks were in a dedicated fish room, I was able to use blackout drapes and blinds to completely (almost) eliminate ambient daylight. No more BBA for the next several summers.

 

[jlo718]

Thank you everyone, I will be using all this great information and advice