How do you get rid of hair algae?

Hmm.. that's a problem. LOL! What do you suggest I change my bulbs or fixture to?
Is it the fixture that's the problem? or the wattage?
I'm really new to all this aquarium lighting stuff...
Is it the bulb that's the problem? and what does t5ho even mean? Do kelvins play a role in all this?

Thanks for providing that graph btw, it really helps :)
 
You can cut your photoperiod down, cut back to a single bulb, or raise the fixture up several inches.

T5ho is a fixture/bulb type. The most common is t12, t8, and now in recent years t5. The ho stands for high output.

Also, adjusting the kelvin rating aka bulb spectrum isn't going to help, you need to reduce light intensity
 
this might not help you very much because I only have t-5 normal output lighting, but i used to have algae pretty bad. I added more plants and the problem seemed to go away. I also had a larger snail population, but it wasn't excessive. if you could add a few large crypts, or marimo balls, it might be enough to get rid of the algae.

another solution is to turn the lights off in the middle of the day for a few hours which could stunt the growth of the algae, but not the plants. I read that in a book but dont' have experience that it works It's worth a shot though.
 
how to get rid of algae.

this might not help you very much because I only have t-5 normal output lighting, but i used to have algae pretty bad. I added more plants and the problem seemed to go away. I also had a larger snail population, but it wasn't excessive. if you could add a few large crypts, or marimo balls, it might be enough to get rid of the algae.

another solution is to turn the lights off in the middle of the day for a few hours which could stunt the growth of the algae, but not the plants. I read that in a book but dont' have experience that it works It's worth a shot though.
 
With high light and low CO2 you're likely to switch from hair algae as a pest to black beard and black brush algae. As others have mentioned, you'll need to significantly up your CO2 however a pair of t5HO lights on a 20 gal is probably overkill.

As for Kelvin, the Kelvin measure is sort of a shorthand for making sure the light is in the right spectrum for plant growth. Most chlorophyll absorbs light at between 400 and 540 nm of wavelength. A light at between 6500K and 10,000K tends to emit larger proporitions of its light within that particular spectrum. Most plant and "daylight" bulbs will have a chart on the side that indicates the spectrum they emit. To be more effective in your lighting, you'll want to select bulbs that most closely match the absorption spectrum of the plants. Keep in mind that just like watts per gallon, kelvin is not an exact indicator, but also a generally useful rule of thumb.

In case you're curious, the Kelvin measure basically is the brightness of a pure black body heated to that particular temperature measured in degrees Kelvin.
As far as appropriate levels of light for different types of bulbs, there are some articles online by quite a few folks, with Tom Barr being the most prominent. I particularly found his article discounting the need for high light for most tanks interesting. I don't completely agree with his methodology though since he measures par, which is a measure of the total amount of light within the entire visible spectrum, rather than just the light within the cholorophyll absorption spectrum, but that's probably a discussion for a different thread.

To help out, here's a graph of the chlorophyll a and b combined absorption spectrum from Wikimedia Commons.

Chlorophyll_fluorescence.gif

Chlorophyll_fluorescence.gif
 
Hmm.. cutting back to a single bulb is probably the most ideal option for me.
If I were to do that, which bulb should I stick to?
I have one 12,000K and one 8,000K bulb.
They both seem to be t5ho.
they are both 24 watts too.

I also have another question, is it bad to put such an intense lighting for the fish only or is it bad for the plants too?
If it's bad for the fish, I can always relocate them in my other bunch of tanks I have set up.
If it's bad for the plant, then I will most definitely do something about the light.

Thanks again for all the suggestions, it definitely is letting me learn something about aquarium lighting a lot more than before. :)
 
some fish prefer lower lighting but it doesn't really matter to be honest. The plants will provide some cover and adding some caves will make a lot of fish happy as well.

Either bulb will do well, just go with the one that you fins more aesthetically pleasing. The 8000K will be a little more yellow, but to be honest it may be imperceptible to the human eye.
 
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