New Lights for plants, now i have algae...what happened

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Hagermanfd

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Jan 19, 2007
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I just switched over to two Satellite Light Fixtures for my 125 gallon freshwater planted aquarium. The lights specs are: 2x96W 1-dual daylight and 1 dual actinic light, with 1 lunar light for nightime.
I have the lights on a timer to run 7 hours and i am getting a lot of green algae on my rocks and glass, as well as brownish black algae on the plants filter intake and output and co2 diffuser. Is this because of the new bulbs? I have about 15 plants in the tank all ranging different sizes from a few inches to 2 feet. What should i do>?
 
Change up the lights and you get and algae outbreak. Yep that sounds about normal.

You don't say what your old lighting levels were at but it sounds like you increased the amount of light. The first thing that I would do is spend a few weeks cleaning off the algae by hand. This will give the plants time to adjust to the increased light levels and grow faster. The other thing to do is to make sure that your ferts are adequate for the plants.

What and how much are you fertilizing?
What species of plants do you have?
How many fish are in the tank and what species?
What are your current water parameters?

All these will help in diagnosing where the imbalance now is.
 
yes, I have Co2 for the plants as my only fertilization, i have nothing in the sand bed for them. I did increase my lighting by a lot at not sure how much though but was nowhere near the 96 watt bulbs that i am using now.

I have java ferns, kleiner bar swords, melon swords, red rubins, and moneyworts. I also have about 35 fish in the tank, 3 angels, 10 cory cats, rainbow fish, diamond tetras, sunburst platy's, bolivian and gold rams, swordtails, and gouramis.

ph is 7.2, ammonia is 0, nitrites are 0, nitrates are around 5. Water temp is 76
 
You'll need to start fertilizing the plants. High light + CO2 + No Ferts = Algae farm.

With a nitrate level of only 5 your fish are not producing enough food for the plants. You'll also need to add in other macro and micro nutrients.

The liquid ferts they sell at pet stores is very expensive. Especially for a 125 gallon tank. You can get dry ferts online and dissolve them in a bottle before adding them to the tank.

www.aquariumfertilizer.com has a good general mix with their "PMDD Pre-Mix". This works pretty well provided you have decent water from your tap. These guys are only a hour drive away for me so I generally get an order within two days.

There are other places that sell them as well. Look for a fertilizer that contains N P K and micros.
 
Sounds like too Low of CO2. What is your CO2 concentration??--in PPM.
 
light should be your limiting factor... then co2... never ferts!

i don't personally believe in pmdd for the most part because a pre mix isn't tailored to what you need personally. you can use it though.

aquariumfertilizer.com is the best place to buy ferts hands down unless you pick up the ingredients locally. they're quite odd products though (stump remover and laxative for example).
rex grigg sells ferts too...
greenleaf aquariums sells a starter pack also

this might help you too... http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
 
^ PMDD is for the beginner or lazy person (me). It's the equivalent of Miracle Grow for vegetables. It's not quite right for any of them but they grow pretty well on it compared to without. :-) I'd just recommend increasing the water changes to alleviate any over-fertilizing that you do.

In order to mix up the ferts from the basic components, you've got to have a pretty strong background in plant science. Alternatively you need to be willing to do a lot of research and trial & error to figure out how get the plants what they need.
 
THE V said:
^ PMDD is for the beginner or lazy person (me). It's the equivalent of Miracle Grow for vegetables. It's not quite right for any of them but they grow pretty well on it compared to without. :-) I'd just recommend increasing the water changes to alleviate any over-fertilizing that you do.

In order to mix up the ferts from the basic components, you've got to have a pretty strong background in plant science. Alternatively you need to be willing to do a lot of research and trial & error to figure out how get the plants what they need.
Click to expand...


The only thing I hate about PMDD is the lack of P (phosphorous) fertilization. The system was developed more than a decade ago, and phosphate at the time was blamed for algae growth. A much better route that I recommend is purchasing the starter pack, it comes with all macros and a micronutrient mix, and follow the EI method dosing. It is completely explained in depth in our planted stickies at the top of forum, and EI can be dosed dry with a grocery store teaspoon set. Much easier than PMDD that needs to be disolved into water first then dosed by dropper, imo.
 
No chem really needed for EI, dose(prevents anything from running out), do water changes(prevents anything from building up).

Pretty simple, dosing calculators can be used if you are interested in ppm's etc.

Still, the 4 things we might add are pretty simple and old hat after you add them, just like any mix of 4 things a "commercial" company might suggest to add to a planted tank, you still gotta read directions and follow them;)

So might as well use KNO3, KH2PO4, Gh booster and trace mix.
Or you can buy directions and pretty bottle, and pay for that + mostly water, with a tiny bit of ferts added to them for 10-20$ each that will last 1-3 months.............or spend 20$ for 2 year's worth for everything.

Up to you.

You already came this far and using CO2 is harder than dosing ferts, that much is certainly true. Folks kill fish all the time with CO2(see the thread recently started here), I've yet to see it done with KNO3 or other ferts to date after 13 years or so on forums.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
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