Light/algae balance

[Taelen]

Ok, I've determined that keeping live plants is tough!

I have stock lighting in both my 10g and 44g planted tanks. I was typically leaving those lights on for 10-12 hours but then having issues with various algae and/or diatoms. I cut back on the duration of the light and my plants started to struggle.

The 44g has anacharis, java fern and anubias barteria in it and doesn't really get any natural light.

The 10g has a hornwart and anacharis and is beside a window and gets quite a bit of light which causes green algae on the glass. In my mind I assumed that the tank was getting enough light since the anacharis was growing like mad. So I cut way down on the light and now I think my hornwart is dying (which is too bad, all the cories love to hide out in it).

[Purrbox]

Keeping live plants is a balancing act. Trying to grow plants with stock lighting will definately make things tougher, but not impossible as long as you choose your plants well. Generally you'll want to keep your lights on between 8-12 hours. More in the 10-12 hour range if you're growing plants out, and more in the 8-10 hour range if you're maintaining your scape or fighting algae issues. While having the lights on long can help a little bit with insufficient lighting, it's generally not going to help enough. Making sure that your bulbs aren't overly old will help the most (replace if over 1 year old).

The Anubias and Java Ferns are a good choice for your lighting. Some other plants to look at are Java Moss and Crypts. These will tolerate the lower lighting conditions much better and improve your chances of success. While Anacharis and Hornwort sometimes work in lower light aquariums, it's a bit of hit and miss.

Something else to consider is whether or not you need to fertilize some. You might find that by dosing a little bit of a good Trace Fert (Flourish "Comprehensive", Tropica Plant Nutrition, or CSM+B) and some Potassium after each water change, you'll see better growth with a shorter lighting period.

[SpeedEuphoria]

I have some crypts in my low light 10 gallon and they grow nice. I also have Java Ferns and they dont seem to grow much but are still there. I'm going to try Java Moss also to see. So far I have no ferts but was reading up on the subject may wait till I get a better bulb to try it.

Also I dont have any algae problems using 13hrs of light, well I do have brown diatoms which I've read should go away after a little time, so far 3 months and still present

[Taelen]

Thanks Joy, informative as always. =)

I did initially dose my 44g with a Seachem "Plant Pack" which included:

Flourish
Flourish Iron
Flourish Excel

But the Excel completely disintegrated my anacharis so I stopped dosing, but that was a long time ago. Should I continue to dose with the other products maybe?

One thing you mentioned is the age of the bulbs, the 44g bulbs are ancient, no doubt there. I will replace them, what wattage would you recommend?

The 10g has incandescent bulbs (the tank is pretty old), one of those bulbs is brand new while the other is pretty ancient as well.

The 10g

[Purrbox]

Of those you have, Flourish is the same as the Flourish "Comprehensive" I listed. It's a really good Trace Fert. For Potassium you can pick up some NoSalt (KCl) at the grocery store.

On the 44 gallon, you'll have to stick to the same wattage with the bulbs, unless you either mod or replace your fixtures. Try to stick to 5000-10000K for the Kelvin rating. On the 10 gallon you can switch to screw in compact flourescents and actually bump your lighting up if you'd like. A pair of 15watt or 20watt bulbs would bump you into some descent though still low to moderate light levels.

The age of the bulbs is probably a large part of why you used to be able to grow the plants well and avoid algae but the reverse is true now even with extended lighting periods. The spectrum on the bulbs shifts over time, decreasing the amount of light that can be used by the plants. This is why it's important to replace them, even if they haven't burnt out.

[Taelen]

Sounds good, I will hit up the LFS this weekend and make the lighting changes. With household flourescents, different "types" of light exist, ie cool white, warm white, daylight etc...do these different types exist with aquarium lighting and if so, which ones would be best?

Sorry if that's a silly question.

[Purrbox]

Those descriptions generally give an idea of what the Kelvin rating is. You want the Kelvin rating to be between 5000K-10000K. Bulbs with this rating will usually be labeled Daylight.

[JohnPaul]

Originally Posted by Purrbox

Those descriptions generally give an idea of what the Kelvin rating is. You want the Kelvin rating to be between 5000K-10000K.

This is the key. Different manufacturers can choose to put different names of all sorts on their bulbs, and those names don't necessarily tell you a whole lot. That's why you need to look for the Kelvin rating ("K"), which is a scientific standard so you know exactly what you're getting.

[Taelen]

The Petsmart close to my home had a limited selection, I found some Flora-Glo bulbs which said they were for optimizing plant growth in a FW aquarium, but they were only rated 2700K, these were the ones I bought. They had others at 4700, 6700 and 16000K but one of the descriptions seemed to match up.

On a side note, I tried to find compact flourescents to replace the pair of 15W incandescents in my 10g, but they didn't have any.

[Regen311]

You could also go the more natural route (instead of flourish excel, etc.). I have a 55 gallon planted aquarium, and I switched to compact fluorescents about 4-5 months ago. A week later, my aquarium was so covered in algae I almost gave up. I'd clean the glass of daily and it would be covered again the next day. I didn't want to mess with CO2, I have limited money and the pop bottle method was frustrating. I found a bushynose plecostomus (also known as a bristlenose) at a local LFS and added him to the 55. As he's grown over the past few months, the algae problem has decreased. You have to be careful though because most other types of plecos won't eat algae as they grow, or will get huge. This type is good with algae though if you can find one. I inherited a farlowella catfish (full grown) from a friend as well, and with the combination of those two fish, my aquarium has hardly any algae. I even had a piece of driftwood in there that was just coated in dark green algae. It now looks like wood again. Overall, it was an easy cheap solution. My tank is beautiful, and I have 2 fat happy catfish to thank.

Also, the relative size of these fish is something to keep in mind. The bushynose pleco gets about 5-8 inches, the farlowella gets a little bigger, I'm not sure of exact numbers, but it's very long and thin. So, they wouldnt' be suitable for the 10 gallon... but perhaps it's an option for the larger tank.