AM I starting to get the idea???

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nfinit1

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Jan 12, 2003
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All...Hope everyone is well

I am having a problem with a 75 gal tank, 1.73 watts per gall, 2215 eheim..Been running since Nov 2003

I started having a problem with this brown stuff on the bottom of the tank and on the leaves of plants, but only on one side of the tank the problem really escalated when i trimmed most of my fast growing plants...Tropical Sunset, Rotala Indica back

Researching...the brown stuff is diatoms..caused by insufficient lighting and High nitrates(High Bio Load)
1)I Changed the 6700k bulb(it was time to change)
changed to a 8800k bulb...
2)the Sunsets and indica like the 8800 bulb, there are turning pink on the tips even though the tips arent near the surface


I still have a small issue with the diatoms...so I figure its my bio load..I do have alot of fish in the tank...so I am thinking
1) Get more fast growing plants to help lower the nitrates( I do have room)
2) When I fert, use no N but use more potassium, traces, Iron
Am I correct???
3)I am using Flourish's Excel...So I cut back on it.
But the plants need CO2 to process the Nitrates(right???)
Am I correct to assume a CO2 setup will help me also???
4) Will snails or shrimp help???

I think I am on the right track
Am I???
 
One problem seems to be that you still don't have enough light. While adding a bulb with a higher spectrum has helped the overall wattage hasn't changed. I would also suspect that if the flourescent bulb was old that just changing to a new bulb increased the wattage slightly so the plants are reacting to that.
 
TKOS
From Setup in November to March I never had this diatom problem
I am using a Custom Sea Life Power Compact 2x65w

Plants where doing fine until I did a huge trimming of allmy fast growing plants

WHy would the wattage be the difference now???
 
WHat is the difference now

TKOS
I guess I mean to say

Whats the difference now??
Same lighting...just different bulbs

Never had diatoms till I did the huge trimming???

Is there something I am missing???
 
Unfortunatly I am not a big plant guy but things are definatley out of whack in your tank. Co2 would help but food, CO2 and light need to be balanced. I would work on getting more light first. At least 3 wpg as your tank is quite deep and the plants aren't getting much light filtered down to them. The higher spectrum light obviously helped as maybe it can penetrate deeper into the water.

But just so you know I went through diatoms in a betta tank, 5 gallons with plants. Certainly my tank was not overstocked. But now I have 3 wpg, snails and shrimps and do better water changes and everything is fine. It could be an age related thing but I would still have to guess that your lights are far too low for your size of tank.
 
I feel you TKOS

Increasing my wattage to 2.4 or above would puch me to setup a CO2 unit...correct???

that has me to question...why where the plants growing beforeand now diatoms before???
Why the need to add more lighting???

Its a good thing...pushing for the questions
 
I run tanks at around 2.8 to 3 wpg. They are small tanks and well planted but I do not use CO2 as my water is super soft and I don't want a pH crash at the moment. My plants are growing well. Anything above 3 wpg is just asking for problems without added ferts and CO2 from what I have read.

When you change water do you gravel vacuum? The nutrients could be building up over time and leading to strange things happening. Hoepfully one of the big plants people will arrive here soon and help me out of this. LOL
 
Time to re-balance. Basically, what you did as I understand your post, is that you pruned out a large percentage of your nutrient hogs.
Your tank is a deep one and would be considered low light which diatoms love when you lose your balance.
The kelvin rating means little with regard to plant growth. The new bulb(s) probably gave you a bit more wattage.....hence, better growth.
Re-build your plant mass, clean up the diatoms(keep after them with scrubbing and water changes) and keep your fert. parameters in spec. and you'll see improvement in the tank.



Len
 
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