Raising the Light

[mickitaz]

Hi there,

I have a 10 gallon aquarium set up as a planted tank. The tank is 20 inches long by 12 1/2 inches high. I am running a pc of 36 watts on this tank. The bulb itself, is 20". The actual fixture is 24". I am resting the light right on the tank. I have a versa-top lid on the tank.

That being said, I realize the intensity of light is pretty moderate. I recently dealt with a major issue of algae, which was resolved by raising the co2 injection. Most of my "high light" plants did not fair so well.

Realizing the intensity of the light, I would like to raise my light bar to decrease this intensity. However, I do not want to decrease it too much. I am planning on building a hood for this tank and was wondering how much should I raise it? 6"? 12"? Thanks for the imput.

 

[mickitaz]

Bump.
Any ideas? Or just raise it for the hood? Or should I just not worry about it?

 

[MrGoodbytes]

I would leave it as is. Keep in mind that the light flux density falls off with the roughly (in the case of aquariums) the square of the distance from the source.

 

[Cory Keeper]

me too, as you raise the fixture, PAR decreases, which means less energy for plants to grow.

 

[mickitaz]

Okay. I understand the penetration issue. But as I understand it, the reason I had the algae outbreak is due to the influx of light versus lack of co2. Since I have added shrimp and snails, I cannot crank the co2 to the levels I did to get rid of the algae. I am already seeing some of it come back, as I have dropped the co2 levels.

Is there a way that I can keep my light intesity and prevent the algae from coming back? Do you think by increasing my Excel doses to compensate for the reduction in pressurized co2 would help? I don't want to risk losing my shrimp most of all. Thanks.

 

[BradH]

What kind of algae were/are you dealing with?

 

[Cory Keeper]

why drop the CO2 levels? as long as your not exceeding 30 PPM you should be fine, inverts or not.