New double T5's worth it?

panamera

Ive got a 150L/40G tank. that is 30" across. and my current lighting system is some aqua one with double T8's in it. flourecent/white lighitng. and to be honest i dont think its working that well. because the top of my plants look really good. and slowly comming down to the bottom looks like they're dying...not to mention the algae take over. so im thinking maybe if i get new better lights. not to replace. but to work alongside my one.

Hollywood Fish Farm - Product Detail - Glo T5 HO Lighting System 24

one like that. do you think it would help the plant growth and help fight the war against algae? cheers

jay2k6ie

T5s will definitly make a big difference, T5s with reflectors- a bigger difference again..And t5s with reflectors and Co2 a huge difference!

panamera

hmm i was thinking along with the new T5's i could make a DIY C02 as my friend insists....and have it going into the intake of the filter. but im not sure that'll get rid of the algae. as alll that is good for the algae too

andulrich4all

I have just purchased a new light from HelloLights.com

I got the Coralife Aqualight Compact Fluorescent Single Bulb.
I have a 30" 29 Gallon Tank, you have a 30" as well so it should work, you could even get the double bulb.

I do not have any algae problems in my 29 Gallon tank, My cousin says that if you have a lot of plants, they take all of the nutrients that algae needs to grow. So the more plants, the less algae.

Here is a link to that light if you are interested, HelloLights.com is great by the way!
Complete Hood Systems - Coralife Aqualight Compact Fluorescent - Freshwater Systems - 30" Aqualights

fish_4_all

The ligths could very well help your plants. Or it could make algae worse than you ever imagined. CO2 Could help too and shouldn't make alage worse if you can keep steady levels of CO2.

Adding light means more nutrients are used up quicker. So does CO2. If you don't fertilize and keep the balance the plants need, the algae feeds off the excess of whatever nutrient you have and takes over.

It can't hurt to get the light and/or do the DIY CO2 but be ready to have to diagnose what your plants need as far as fertilizers and nutrients and be ready to provide them. Otherwise both may be no more than an waste of time and money because algae could simply take over.

panamera

hmm what do you mean? alot more lights will help the plants grow alot better, therefor using alot more nutrients that the algae needs. so shouldnt that stop it?


also the petstore is telling me to double dose the flourish excell becaue it will deprive the algae of nutrients. but that aside. the lights. i dont want them if it'll be a waste of money. they arent cheap

fish_4_all

More light faster use of nutrients. Simple but not simple.
Micros are used in a certain rate, what you dose it what they get.
Nitrogen in the form of nitrates are used at a certain rate, if your tank produces 20ppm nitrates and the plants use 15ppm with the current lighting then you are fine. Same with phosphates. Up the lighting and suddenly the plants use more nutrients. You run out of nitrates or phopshates or something else but are putting in plenty of micros and all the sudden the plants can't use the micros because they don't have the needed other nutrients and you have algae galore.

Same with CO2 or anything you change with a tank. Once you create an imbalance you have to correct it or you will have algae with higher light and/or CO2.

Get the lights but be ready to get fertilizers to keep up with the plants needs if you need them. Who knows, you might not but be ready if you do because it can happen fast. When I increased my lighting I had to start adding double my micros, quadruple my potassium and I had to add phosphates for the first time. If I didn't add phopshates I had green spot algae that was so bad it covered the glass in 3 days.

The lights will help, no doubt, but if you are not ready you can fight a battle that is frustrating trying to get things balanced again.

Don't let this deter you, it is worth it because the growth you will see with the new lights is gonna be a positive change. Add CO2 injection and you will not believe the change in the health of your plants and how fast they grow. I just don't want you to go into this and not be ready for what could happen. I have seen many members and other friends do it and then get frustrated and quit because all of the sudden they have algae instead of plants and don't know why.

panamera

it was all fine until a month ago. i bought fertilisier flourish. and flourish excel which is liquid carbon. then my plants started booming hard. the ground was covered in grass and the stargrass took over i took out so many plants each week at waterchange because of sudden growth. but then green dots started appearing. and then fluffy black algae. which i believe is black beard algae. took over my drift woof and its all over my filter intake and heater etc.... i got rid of the one on my drift wood by boiling it.

i want to fight the source tho. i want to have balance. i havnt put any fertiliser in ever since the algae appeared. but it is still happening. how do i know what i need? to get it and balance it. i mean i already have fertiliser. and the fish store said i need to double dose my flourish excell to get rid of the algae...but if there is no balance they will still come back.

a friend said the first thing i need to do is to setup the co2 injection. then look at lighting later on. what is your suggestion for me?

fish_4_all

How many watts do you have now?

Potassium, magnesium and possibly calcium for starters. Test your nitrates and phosphates. If they don't exist then you need to dose them also.

Green spot algae, phosphate shortage

If you had that good of growth before then why get more lighting? If the plants are getting leggy all of the sudden then it may just be old bulbs. If they are a year or more old then replace them before doing anything. Flourescents lose spectrum as they age and it could be an easy fix.

As for CO2, if there is a nutrient imbalance then CO2 will only make it worse. Figure out the problem and get the balance back before adding CO2. Once you have the balance and good plant growth again then do CO2 or higher lighting or both.

Chuck's Planted Aquarium Calculator for Windows

Go there and download the dosing calculator. It will help with everything you need to dose. I dosed the recommended amounts for months doing 50% water changes every week and never lost a fish.

As for Excel, get a small pipete or syringe and dose the Excel directly on the black algae, it will kill it and quickly. Dose daily. I have never dosed double so I can't say there.

panamera

At the moment i have 2 24" 20W lights. one is recently replaced and one is quite old. but even when i had good growth the bottom near roots of the plants looked like they were struggling hardout thats why i thought of better lights. so more light can reach the bottom as i have quite a alot of plants.

i have to be honest im not the best when it comes to chemistry and testing and stuff i have never done testing things. maybe thats why it has gotten out of control. as for the phsphate shortage....i guess i need to buy the supplement for it? and how do i test the things i have now? to see how bad it is. i think my phosphates may be low thats why the green spots started comming, before the black beard algae. i was wondering, do you have msn? if yes i would greatly appreciate your help. if you could PM it to me.