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A question of balance



Greetings...

And thanks for a lot of great advice over the past year or so. I finally 
pulled out the overgrown E. bleheri from my 30-gal. tank. Things are much 
brighter now... The Lilaeopsis has already picked up. The bleheri was 
occupying about a third of the tank, had put out a bushel of huge leaves that 
grew to the surface and shaded everything in the tank. I assume it was 
consuming a lot of nutrients as well. I removed it to try to restore visual 
balance to the tank; now I need advice on restoring ecological balance.

I have purchased new light bulbs, since my old ones have been in operation 
since February. (Old ones haven't burned out but APD advice tells me they are 
much less bright than when new.) There are now three 17w T8s of two different 
types (one is SPX50 but I can't remember what the other is). Now I am afraid 
to put the new bulbs in. I'm worried that the formerly shaded, less-than-
robust plants will be too slow-growing to prevent an algae bloom. Hygro, 
Cabomba, and Anacharis (??Elodea?) don't actually look too bad but I know they 
have slowed down a LOT in the past 3 months or so. Java fern looks pretty good 
but again has been slow growing. Lilaeopsis is hanging in there but is sparse 
and has some black algae. My fear is that there is a small but developing 
green-water problem that the 3 big SAEs are not quite handling (though they've 
developed a real taste for flake food). DIY CO2 continues as usual, as does 
regular dosing with Flourish. Should I change the light bulbs and fertilize, 
maybe with the fertilizer tablets at the roots of some plants; fertilize and 
wait for a growth spurt before changing bulbs; purchase additional Hygro and/
or other plants to increase nutrient use before installing new bulbs; change 
20% of the water every day for a week; tear down the whole thing (after about 
a year in operation) and start over (please don't say yes); or try something 
completely different!? The algae is not a big problem right now, but it is a 
little problem and I'd like to make it even less of one. 

Thanks for any and all advice.

Christine in Palo Alto, still basking in the sun while awaiting El Ni–o