It's Official, I'm lost in all of it

[Finntastic]

Okay so I've had my discus tank running for about a month now with plants and fish and I finally became so lost in all the lighting stuff and substrate and co2 so I have a few questions (this was mainly due to watching so many youtube vids of people setting up amazing aquascapes [James Findley and The Green Machine] and so i wanted to make my tank a little nicer). First off, how many WPG (watts per gallon) is a 24/7 Finnex Planted LED? Is this light good for a low tech planted? As for substrate should I leave it as Flourite or add something much finer than the gravel-like-flourite? Co2, should I have it or no? Also I have a large algae bloom (I think hair algae) so should I get amano shrimp and Nerite snails to help battle it along with my 6 otos, whiptail cat, and twig cat?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G800A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[RadMax8]

Okay so I've had my discus tank running for about a month now with plants and fish and I finally became so lost in all the lighting stuff and substrate and co2 so I have a few questions (this was mainly due to watching so many youtube vids of people setting up amazing aquascapes [James Findley and The Green Machine] and so i wanted to make my tank a little nicer). First off, how many WPG (watts per gallon) is a 24/7 Finnex Planted LED? Is this light good for a low tech planted? As for substrate should I leave it as Flourite or add something much finer than the gravel-like-flourite? Co2, should I have it or no? Also I have a large algae bloom (I think hair algae) so should I get amano shrimp and Nerite snails to help battle it along with my 6 otos, whiptail cat, and twig cat?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G800A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Ok, lots of questions here. I'll try to help a little. WPG is a little outdated. What you want to look at is PAR. Now, this is a really basic way of describing things, but PAR is light intensity. The deeper your tank, the lower the PAR or the light. How deep is your tank? That will really depend on if your light is good for low tech.

Flourite is a decent plant substrate. It has the ability to hold on to nutrients fairly well, but you have to provide the nutrients. It really depends on what you like to look at as well.

As far as CO2, if you have a lot of light, you will need it. Think of plant growth of needing a triangle: nutrients, light, and CO2. You need balance. If you light is low enough, the CO2 from your fish might be enough.

Since you have a lot of algae, my guess is your light is too much. How long is the light on? Do you dose any fertilizer?


Definitely not wasting time. Nope.

 

[Finntastic]

Ok, lots of questions here. I'll try to help a little. WPG is a little outdated. What you want to look at is PAR. Now, this is a really basic way of describing things, but PAR is light intensity. The deeper your tank, the lower the PAR or the light. How deep is your tank? That will really depend on if your light is good for low tech.

Flourite is a decent plant substrate. It has the ability to hold on to nutrients fairly well, but you have to provide the nutrients. It really depends on what you like to look at as well.

As far as CO2, if you have a lot of light, you will need it. Think of plant growth of needing a triangle: nutrients, light, and CO2. You need balance. If you light is low enough, the CO2 from your fish might be enough.

Since you have a lot of algae, my guess is your light is too much. How long is the light on? Do you dose any fertilizer?


Definitely not wasting time. Nope.

My tank is 18" deep at substrate layer. As for co2 I will look into that once my tank is fully setup. I do agree that the lights is one too long (I turn it on when I get up at 7:30 am and off around 11:00 pm)i should xhange the settings to turn on later and turn off earlier and for fertilizer I do dose flourish

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G800A using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[sinibotia]

I had the exact same problem when I started my first planted tank- Your photoperiod is currently 16 hours and it needs to be half of that or less You can split up your photoperiod so it's on for two four hour blocks or something like that. But 16 hours will damage your plants and grow lots of algae.

At 18 inches par from that light is around 50, that's pretty high I think. But isn't the 24/7 dimmable?

 

[Finntastic]

I had the exact same problem when I started my first planted tank- Your photoperiod is currently 16 hours and it needs to be half of that or less You can split up your photoperiod so it's on for two four hour blocks or something like that. But 16 hours will damage your plants and grow lots of algae.

At 18 inches par from that light is around 50, that's pretty high I think. But isn't the 24/7 dimmable?

It is but I have it pretty high because I have a lot of floating plants which provide too much shade

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G800A using Aquarium Advice mobile app