20 Gallon Shrimp Tank W/ 24/7 Finnex Light

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

tinyninjafishy

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
Messages
247
Location
Ohio
Hey, I've had the 24/7 light on my planted shrimp tank for a couple days now and just have it running then normal cycle that comes preloaded on it. It cause a pretty big algae boom. Any ideas why or how I can fix it? Does this mean I don't have enough plants?
 
Stocking includes 10 RCS and some snails and plants



Yea I'd reduce the lighting period to 6-8 hours at about 60% strength for a low light moderately planted setup.

If you want longer viewing hours then go back even more on the intensity and lengthen the photo period.

Your plants will want ferts aswell with low stocking so make sure your dosing flourish and flourish excel at the least.

Hope I've helped ✌️
 
It's brown so not sure if brown algae or diatoms. I don't know what's causing it, and how do I keep it from happening if I want to use the full cycle of the light?
 
It appears to be in triangle patterns. The tank has been running for about 2 months, but the shrimp and 24/7 light were added 4 days ago.
 
Definitely going to decrease the strength of the light and run it for 6-8 hours though.
 
Definitely going to decrease the strength of the light and run it for 6-8 hours though.



If you want to use the 24/7 on 24/7 mode your going to need to dose ferts, plant heavier, inject co2. You can't put a strong light over a tank without it causing algae if you don't balance nutrients/lighting/co2.

As you increase your lighting, your plants will increase nutrient uptake. If they run out of available nutrients then algae will appear as your plants start to starve and die.
The only way to keep algae away is to give your plants everything they require to stay healthy.

If your plants are thriving then algae doesn't get a chance to get a hold on anything. All dead/decaying leafs should be trimmed on a regular basis.

Don't underestimate how powerful the finnex is. In smaller tanks like yours it would be classed as mid level lighting. To keep things under control you'll either have to dim it or look into ferts and co2.

All tanks with plants should atleast have flourish and flourish excel dosed to recommended.
 
IMG_4810.jpgIMG_4811.jpg

Here is the tank. I have been dosing flourish excel and will begin dosing flourish as well. Light is on the cloudy setting for 8 hours a day. Currently debating putting my guppy fry in to produce a little more of a bioload. Thoughts?
 
Well now I'm feeling pretty dumb and want to keep the tank healthy until I learn how to dial everything in and can afford CO2 etc. I think I'll just run it like a basic medium light for whatever suits the plants best and dose with flourish and flourish excel along with liquid ferts and see where that gets me. Does anybody know if I can run the 24 hour light cycle but decreasing the timing to run the cycle in only 8-10 hours? Or would that not work?
 
Any idea how?



Do you have the 24/7 or the 24/7 SE?

Another option is a glass top or light filter screens to cut down the lighting. Or set it to a longer photo of say 10 hours at 50% power. The lower the light the easier it is to balance the tank with nutrients etc.

Best advice I can give is be consistent. Don't keep changing lighting levels and fert dosing amounts over and over. Find a good dosage/lighting level and stick with it and after a month or 2 things should balance out and stay algae free [emoji106][emoji4]
 
Back
Top Bottom