My 12L: An Iwagumi style Nature Aquarium

[Wy Renegade]

What is the science behind it? It has been awhile since I have seen or read anything on a split photoperiod.

Agree with aqua_chem, there is no science behind it. Having tried it on the saltwater side, I can tell you that it will do nothing for your algae problem. One thing I have seen suggested, that is somewhat effective, is to leave your tank completely dark one day per week. This seems to prohibit algae getting started, but does little once it is established. A reduced photoperiod is also benificial.

That might be your problem... Maybe try moving the light higher up above the tank if you can?

In reality, raising a light higher does little beyond spreading the area of light coverage. It takes almost zero effort for light to travel through air, so raising the light is not going to effect the amount of light entering or penetrating in the tank beyond that.

 

[fort384]

I agree but the increased spread reduces PAR at the substrate... So even though the extra foot of travel through air does not reduce available light, it would lower the PAR significantly.

But alas, i think the fixture would be blinding to anyone sitting in the room if I raised it up much.

I wonder if I can put a potentiometer on it and dim it? I really think that is my problem. You can tell by how compact the HC growth is that this tank is getting blasted with light. I should have measured the PAR when I had the. PAR meter here to measure my reef.

 

[aqua_chem]

You could wrap it in window screen like I had to do with my T5HOs.

 

[fort384]

Hmmm. Maybe something like that could work. I could probably just put a small piece of electrical tape over every third LED....

 

[aqua_chem]

My only concern with that is that you would have spots of high light and medium light alternating through the tank. I have this hilarious image in my head of a tank with algae polka dots.

 

[fishfanatic]

I was looking around on the website where you got your LEDs and i thought i saw a dimmer that you could wire in.

 

[fort384]

Well I think I finally have the algae in check, after several weeks (months?) of tinkering with the CO2 injection and lighting period.

The UG is still having trouble getting a foot hold because I had ripped so much of it out will doing algae removal... but it is finally starting to spread now. You can see from the photos that there is still some hair algae, but it has improved drastically, and gets a little better each week now when I do a water change.

I have a ton of juvenile CRS and CBS in the tank now too, but they are camera shy.

Here are some recent photos of the tank:

 

[Mumma.of.two]

It's looking great!

 

[fort384]

Thanks Elise. For the first time I am really starting to like this tank. I think it will look really nice when the HC and UG collide and fill in.

 

[CorallineAlgae]

Beautiful. It's amazing what skill, work, artistry and know how can accomplish. So great!

 

[Wy Renegade]

Looking nice - diligence and hard work is finally paying off eh?

 

[meegosh]

Looking good man! Glad you finally had a breakthrough with the algae. I still can't get over how slim that fixture is!

 

[fort384]

It is slim... But if you touch it after it has been on all day you can tell they sacrificed some heat dissipation to get it to that size.

It doesn't get too hot to handle, but almost.

Thanks for the compliments. If I can keep it away and keep the UG growing I am excited to get it all filled in.

Wouldn't mind trying my hand again at some Erio if I can find some. Going to wait a bit longer though and make sure the algae doesn't have a resurgence. Hair algae chokes out eriocaulon rather quickly as I found out when this whole thing started.

 

[SHARPiE]

The first word that pops to mind is WOW

An incredibly tranquil tank.
Thanks for sharing.


Been meaning to turn my 4 Gal into a Walstad species tank.

I've decided to do a Walstad Iwagumi hybrid!

 

[sedgy90]

Reallly love itttt.

 

[tropicalmackdaddy]

Y once that ug fills in thats going to be awesome

 

[Autumnsky]

Wow is right, a beautiful tank.

How are you feeling about the problems and increased level of effort it is, and already has taken?

It looks very peaceful and lovely.

Following along It is a nice show!

 

[fort384]

Thanks for the compliments. It really isnt a huge effort. Just lots of incremental changes to find the balance.

 

[fort384]

After a few weeks, a few more inches of lateral growth on the HC. The UG has remained about the same as I had to pull a little more out that had some residual hair algae. For whatever reason, it is nearly impossible to separate it from the UG without just ripping it up.

Here are some updated photos. A few more CRS and CBS came out today for photo time.

 

[tropicalmackdaddy]

Awesome! Looks like tht hc could use a trim tho