Lighting quesiton

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Rambo64

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Jan 30, 2007
Messages
87
So I have had a real problem with green hair algae growing in my tank. So I talked with the owner of my LFS and told him I had a 150 watt jbj k-2 viper over my 20gal tank. I also have my lights run from 8am to 8pm. So we came to the conclusion that the algae problem was probably from my lights. So I have two questions. One, would a 70 watt bulb be to little for this tank? Two, how long would you have the light s on for? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
 
What are your NO3 and PO4 readings? Do you use tap water or RO/DI for pwc and topoff?

I would cut back the lighting to about 8 hours a day to try and get ahold of the algae.
 
I would get you water parameters, cut back on lighting, PWCs will help as well.
What, how often and how much do you feed?
One other thing, how old are you lights?
 
I had my water tested at my LFS and I don't have them with me but I know everything there was good. I do use RO water from my LFS. My light is about a month old and I do PWC's once a week. Oh yeah and I feed once a day now.
 
I would be interested to see the PO4 level. Not many LFS test for this unless specifically asked to. Since your light is only a month old I do not think it is a major player in the problem. You can try cutting back on the photo-period to about 8hrs. What type of food are you feeding and how are you preparing it? Source water and food are the two most common avenues for PO4 introduction into the tank. Also, test your source water as well. if the LFS is using only RO and not RO/DI then it is very likely there is PO4 in the water. (are you sensing a theme here?)
 
Like Lando mentioned about the food, if your feeding frozen foods, you should rinse the foods prior to feeding because some of the water they are packaged in may have phosphates in it.
 
And to piggyback on what Lance said....If you are using flakes, they tend to have high phosphates, more so than most frozen....
 
Thanks for the great feedback. What I should have said about my light is that the bulb is only a month old. I have had the light as long as I have had the tank which has been about a year and a half. I do use frozen food so I will start rinsin before I feed. I will also inquire about the water that the LFS uses. Thanks again
 
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