Increasing Light

[SWerner13]

Right now I have a 40 watt 6700/10000 current usa light over my 10 gallon aquarium. I recently lowered the light to around 7 hours to reduce an algae problem. My problem is though that my micro sword isn't putting out runners at all. It seems to be doing fine on the other hand. Should I slowly increase the light? will this help? Or do I not have enough light right now to get it to spread? If I don't have enough light I was thinking about adding a light from this 10 gallon hex I picked up. The light itself says its a 20 watt flourescent light. The bulb in it is only 8 watts though. Can I get a new that is 20 watts? Also its 12 inches. If I add this light will I then start seeing some spread of the micro sword? Thanks

[TankGirl]

You ought to have PLENTY of light for the microsword. I'd look for other reasons inhibiting growth. What kinds of nutrients are you dosing? You'll definitely need to be feeding the plants with 4wpg, aside from the CO2. Do you have optimal CO2 production from your DIY setup?

Is the plant otherwise healthy, just not spreading? I'd imagine with this kind of light you'd be beating everything back with a machete, lol. Does it have good color and does not have brown or yellow leaves?

Edit: In re-reading your post, maybe 7 hours is not enough, and you need to lengthen to 8-10. If that produces algae, then the plants are not optimally fed to outcompete the algae for available nutrients, and your dosing regimen needs to be tweaked. Feeding and making the plants happy is the best way to combat algae. I know this only too well, and am constantly working to achieve the correct balance of light and nutrients that the plants thrive on to starve the algae - it is not easy.

[SWerner13]

I have mostly eco complete substrate and I currently only have leaf zone as a fert. Once I have some more money I will pick up some other stuff and also a diffuser and begin to impliment the EI method. This may be the downfall untill I can get this going.

The CO2 goes into the filter intake right now. I don't have the test kits to know what ppm I'm at right now. What do you mean by optimal?

Everything seems to be healthy. The algae I had was some brown at first then added fert and got some green then reduced light and continued with fert and got most algae down to nothing and under control. Should I increase the light slowly or bump it up all at once?

What other ferts do I need/do you recomend I get?

[fort384]

I'd bump it to 8-9 hrs and see how that goes. You are not going to find a 12" 20W florescent bulb. A 22" T5HO is only 24W.

I don't think your problem is too much light... probably a nutrient imbalance rather as TG said. I think 40W over a 10G tank is a decent amount so long as you don't bottom out on CO2, N, P, or K. It is difficult to apply the WPG rule to a 10G tank, as we have previously discussed.

Also, is your tank getting any natural sunlight?

[fort384]

Yup that's your problem then, LEafzone is only K and Fe. you are probably bottoming out on N or P. It is important to know what your CO2 levels are at too. Too much, and it can become a danger to your fish, too little will encourage a lot of algae growth.

You need to get test kits for N, P, KH, and pH. This will help you determine where you are bottoming out at.

There are several options on ferts - you can mix your own from dry ferts, or you can buy liquid ferts. Liquid is much more expensive. Flourish makes a line that includes 4 different types: Comprehensive (for trace elements), N, P, and K. You won't need to add any extra K right now, for as long as your bottle of leafzone lasts.

Anyway, 1 thing is a definite fact: 40W of light +unknown CO2 + no addition of N or P to a heavily planted tank will almost always result in a lot of algae.

[SWerner13]

No, no natural sunlight. And ya after doing some research I figured out what you said about the 12" light lol. I don't think I would be bottoming out on CO2. Nitrate never bottoms out because I have 10ppm in my tap and do regular water changes. The leave zone adds potasium. So I guess If I pick up the the Phosphate to dose I could start using the EI method and that would improve things?

And ya after talking about it before I did some more research and am convinced we should be doing more of a watts compared to a surface area to volume ratio or something like that lol.

[newfound77951]

Microsword, like non-micro swords, is more of a root feeder. Try giving it a couple of root tabs and see if that gets it to take off. My compacta sword and crypts let me know when they've finished their root tabs by slowing their growth, new tabs and they perk right back up in a week or so.

[SWerner13]

hmmm I think I might give that a try. I just haven't seen any signs of them putting out runners and beginning to grow. Thanks

[fort384]

I would try both some root tabs and some P and see where that gets you. You could do a "mini" EI routine. If all you are really worried about is P (K is tough to overdose).

Keep in mind though, if if you are at 10ppm N in your tap water, you could still bottom out on N. If you do a 50% change using EI once a week, it may not be enough N. Plants suck up the N quick under the right conditions. If you are at 0 by the end of the week, you would only be at 5 after a 50% change. I have had the best luck controlling algae by keeping my N at 15-20ppm.

[SWerner13]

Ok so the current plan for getting my tank Junglicious over the next few weeks is:

Pick up a Kh and P test kit. Pick up an N fert as well as a P fert. Increase light to 9 hours to start. Increase or decrease things as neccessary. Did I cover everything?

Would you recomend that I simply just test my levels instead of doing the EI method? it seems like that over all would result in less work.

[fort384]

I dunno. I personally don't use EI. I just use a bit of trial and error, and test P and N every week or 2 to make sure I am coming close to my goals. I dose N, P, K, Fe, and trace 2 times per week.

EI on a 10Gal would be much less daunting though. A lot easier to do a 50% PWC.

I like the security blanket that a test provides. In theory though with EI, you never need to test.

CO2 is another matter though, I think testing your KH and pH to derive your CO2 levels will give you a lot of information to work from. CO2 levels are especially important for controlling algae. Unstable levels below 25ppm or so probably encourages more algae growth than no CO2 addition at all.

[SWerner13]

Makes sense thanks for all the advice! I'm working out all the kinks with 10g tank now so that eventually when I upgrade I will really know what I'm doing.

As far as trace goes do I need to pick up a fert for that as well or does the eco complete do a pretty good job at covering that?

[fort384]

It probably wouldn't hurt to add it, but ecocomplete will provide most of what you need there. You could wait and see if your plants exhibit any symptoms of trace element deficiency before buying, or you could pick it up and dose it just to be safe. There are other benefits to adding it anyway - some plants are root feeders and will get what they need from the ecocomplete. Others are leaf feeders and will get most of their nutrients direct from the water column, so the liquid fert would do the most good for them.

[SWerner13]

Sounds good. I will probably pick it up then, I have some fire moss on my driftwood that I would like to spread across the whole thing and some java fern as well that will help them out. Thanks again for all the advice.