300 litre tank lighting

[vevs1]

Hi to everyone,

Here it is some information about my tank:
- size - about 300 litre (height 0.6 meters, width 1.5 meters, depth 0.3 meters) tank with 12 cichlids in it. -
- lighting - two Aquastar F36W lamps (1.2 meters in length).
- no live plants in it

However, there is a lot of algae in it. I tried few different algae control products but nothing helped. For the last week I keep my lighting off and the water seems to get better - there is not so much algae in it. That makes me think that my lighting is not good.

Is there anyone who can give me some advice about what lighting I should use? Thanks for your time

 

[norm3000]

Algae is pretty much a given in any tank but you've got plant lights on your aquarium which will promote algae growth. So they're good lights for growing plants, but too much (so to speak) for an un-planted tank.

Options as I see it are:

1) Get regular flourescent bulbs, not "aquarium" or "plant" bulbs. I think you'll still get algae but not so much.

2) Get some good algae eating fish. Ottos, Pleco etc.

3) Grow some plants to compete for the nutrients. You'd really need more than 72 watts of lighting to do this in your size tank (minimum 2watts/gallon) which would get expensive quick.

 

[vevs1]

Thanks norm3000, will do all that you advised me

 

[PurpleSmurf]

See if you can get ahold of an algae ball. Neat looking things (I'd say they look like tribbles, but then I'd be marked as a dork ), and since it's an algae it'll out compete any others from growing in the tank.