War against algea: Photoperiod

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kaaikop

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Mar 9, 2005
Messages
223
Location
Val-David, QC
Okay, I was doing a lot of things wrong, no wonder I had algea.
Got my CO2 in order (30-40ppm), Using E.I. for dosing, getting good measurements now (NO3, PO4, Iron, etc.). I think I got this pretty well covered now.

Now comes the photoperiod. I did research on the forum, seems like most here are going for 10 hours. Man, I was doing 13+ hours (too much?)
I was thinking to reprogram my timers as follow:

1st set 60W: on at 9:00am - off at 9:00 pm
2nd set CF 2x96W: on at 10:00am - off at 8:00 pm
3rd set CF 2x96W: on at 11:00am - off at 7:00 pm

Would that still be too much? (tank is 150G, 24" deep)
 
That looks like a reasonable light schedule. With only 10 hours per day of high light, you may not see any less plant growth, just less algae growth.

Why the 60w for 12h though? for viewing? Are you home that whole time?
 
Yeah, the 60W is just for the pleasure of watching the tank (2 x 30W Hagen "lifeglo2" 8700K).
The fish look great with this bulb. I work from home lot of the time, so it's nice to enjoy the tank!
Thanks for the help, I think I am slowly getting there...
I Introduced new plants last weekend, still no sign of algea on them, normally they would be covered already! :oops:
 
WAR against algea: UPDATE!

Update: This tank is doing much, much better! I corrected several things, other than the photoperiod, upped the CO2,
thanks to a drop checker telling me the real story. I dont test so much anymore, just got to a point where I know what I've got to dose.
Every week I change 50% of the water (in a 150G, that's a lot of water, LOL), I use that time to trim, replant,
clean some of the old brown algae that remain, and no, it does not seem to come back
(other than on the very slow growing plants, my mistake, have to put them in the shade), and once a week I need to wipe the glass with the magnet, that is all!
For me that is quite a victory, finally the tank start to look good, without all the damn algea!

I found one important thing by trying things out, my filtration was totally inadequate.
I have 2 Eheim 2128 filters, and I always had cloudy water, ALWAYS!
Now I just added 2 Aquaclear 70 powerheads with quickfilters, for circulation and polishing, man, what a difference!

So here is the tank as it looks right now: http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i20/kaaikop/?action=view&current=tank230307.jpg
So for now, I am still learning how to grow plants instead of algea, eventually I will try to work on the aquascaping part...
 
Wow! That is a wonderful tank. You can tweak your aquascaping at any time, but that looks good to me right now! You've got a great mix of plants and leaf shapes.
 
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