advice please

[iambannana]

hi there, so i gave a 250l tank that is just getting overrun with algae, and i really dont know what im doing wrong. im dosing flourish once a week and exel everyday, and the stuff is just taking over. i have 4x52w t5HO lights and ive tried turning half of them off but it doesnt seem to make a difference.. can i test my water for some defficiencys or something like that?

 

[Rutrag]

I'm by no means a plant expert, but I would stop dosing the fertilizers and do some water changes. I don't think you have enough plants to warrant the ferts, so the algae is using the excess.

 

[Rutrag]

Also, how long do you leave your lights on each day?

 

[aqua_chem]

hi there, so i gave a 250l tank that is just getting overrun with algae, and i really dont know what im doing wrong. im dosing flourish once a week and exel everyday, and the stuff is just taking over. i have 4x54w t5HO lights and ive tried turning half of them off but it doesnt seem to make a difference.. can i test my water for some defficiencys or something like that?

Holy Captain Nemo, Batman! That's a lot of light. I would wager that's your problem. You're probably past the 'obligatory CO2' threshold by a long shot. Once the algae gets established, lowering the light to 2 bulbs won't get rid of it. I think you need to dip treat most of the affected pieces in H2O2 and find a way to radically reduce your light levels to a level that you can manage with excel and ferts as you are dosing them.

Any particular reason you wanted that much light? It looks like you've only really got medium light plants in there.

 

[Lohoyan]

That does sound like a lot of light. Also i'm seeing bright natural light in the background. Does the tank get exposed to any direct sunlight during the day? It looks light it's next to a huge window or something.

 

[Koikid88]

Lots of light. Listen to aquachem, that's your best bet.
In addition to the lighting, inconsistent doses of excel can promote unwanted growth too. Excessive dosing doesn't help the plants either, sure helps algae though. Is this a new tank?
All of this can be affecting you, but the main problem is the lighting. I'll take that for my 90g !

 

[aqua_chem]

You can up to triple dose Excel, I believe, if the situation calls for it. I'm not aware of any issues with Excel one way or another. It will still be an algaecide, but you might run into issues with plant growth.

 

[iambannana]

its just the light that came with the tank when i bought it off some dude.. yeah it is by a window but honestly theres so many windows in our house thats the only place i can put it, i had to buy a uv filter to stop the green water.. ok so no ferts then? i really dont want c02 it seems like a bit of a drama plus for bigger tanks it costs o fortune. lights are on for about 10hours. so do you think even 2 tubes would be too much? 2 of them are white color, ones a 10000k and the other one is slightly redder than that, and 2 of them are just a really blue color, im just running the 10,000 and one of the blues now

 

[iambannana]

also on the hydrogen peroxide dip, so i have to pull my plants out and dip them all? thats gona cause some chaos in my tank when i try and pull some of them out. i had 4 little spikey leaf plants since i started and they have multiplied and shot off in all directions, how am i supposed to get all of them out and then replant them?