tedbscott
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hi, I'm Ted from Sacramento, CA. I've been dealing with my Fluval Spec V now for about a year and a half. I've never lost any fish (except one escape artist that I found on the floor). I'm guilty of going all-in on high lighting. I've been driving myself crazy with algae and other problems with my small Fluval Spec V tank. Even the non-adjustable light that came with the tank is way too bright. It can look cool at first, but then the algae kicks in and I don't think the fish really dig being in such bright conditions either.
I've dropped the intensity of the white light down to 50%, Red 70%, Green 70%, and Blue 50%. I came to this combination by picking up bits and pieces of info about LED lighting combinations and intensities. But to be honest, it's next to impossible to find out anything that is definitive on the subject of light intensity or LED combinations... even from Fluval.
What I've ended up doing is noticing how intense the lighting is on tanks at good aquarium stores. They are almost always very subdued. Maybe that is to keep plants that they want to sell from growing too fast as they are waiting to be sold.
One other thing that I did that I think added to my problems was a very cool looking reflective back on my tank. I didn't think of it at first, but I was not only using intense lighting, but I was also amplifying it with the reflection.
So at this point, I have started over a bit. I took off the reflective back, lowered the intensity of the lighting and replanted. I have a kind of a row of Cardinalis Roseafolia along the back that I want to fill in and hide the heater, etc. I have another row of Repens along the front, a Java fern over to the right and an Annubis nano to the left - hopefully giving it a bit less light until the other plants give it some natural shade.
I only have 4 fish. 2 Zebra Danios and 2 Redfin Neons.
I also am dosing with pressurized CO2, root tabs, Flourish and I'm going to start with some Flourish Iron for the Cardinalis (they say they like the Iron and it will make there red color pop more.
I'm hoping that I'm on my way now to a healthy tank that I can enjoy more and fuss over less. Once I can really get to the point where I feel like I know how to adjust to certain conditions and not just guessing, I'm going to get a bigger tank. I feel like a bigger tank is more forgiving than these small nano tanks.
I've dropped the intensity of the white light down to 50%, Red 70%, Green 70%, and Blue 50%. I came to this combination by picking up bits and pieces of info about LED lighting combinations and intensities. But to be honest, it's next to impossible to find out anything that is definitive on the subject of light intensity or LED combinations... even from Fluval.
What I've ended up doing is noticing how intense the lighting is on tanks at good aquarium stores. They are almost always very subdued. Maybe that is to keep plants that they want to sell from growing too fast as they are waiting to be sold.
One other thing that I did that I think added to my problems was a very cool looking reflective back on my tank. I didn't think of it at first, but I was not only using intense lighting, but I was also amplifying it with the reflection.
So at this point, I have started over a bit. I took off the reflective back, lowered the intensity of the lighting and replanted. I have a kind of a row of Cardinalis Roseafolia along the back that I want to fill in and hide the heater, etc. I have another row of Repens along the front, a Java fern over to the right and an Annubis nano to the left - hopefully giving it a bit less light until the other plants give it some natural shade.
I only have 4 fish. 2 Zebra Danios and 2 Redfin Neons.
I also am dosing with pressurized CO2, root tabs, Flourish and I'm going to start with some Flourish Iron for the Cardinalis (they say they like the Iron and it will make there red color pop more.
I'm hoping that I'm on my way now to a healthy tank that I can enjoy more and fuss over less. Once I can really get to the point where I feel like I know how to adjust to certain conditions and not just guessing, I'm going to get a bigger tank. I feel like a bigger tank is more forgiving than these small nano tanks.
