eastennessee
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
In an effort to compensate for less than desirable lighting (15-20 watts I believe), I have been leaving the light on in my daughters 38 gallon aquarium for about 14-16 hours a day. As a result (duh!) I am having a terrible problem with hair algae. The hair algae is mostly growing from the edges of my sword and java ferns. My question is, how long should I be leaving the light on so that my plants will live and the algae will die? I added a Crypto Lutea yesterday in an effort to steal more nutrients from the algae. In a tank this size, do I have enough plants to do this? The otto's have helped greatly with the green algae on the glass but don't seem to bother with the hairy stuff. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. By the way, my water tests very good, but my ph is slightly high at about 7.8.