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4x55 on 55g AHS PC...


<Snip>
I'm not an expert on light bulbs, but these bulbs
seems to be MUCH MUCH brighter than regular florescent bulbs. In my case,
I am thinking I need to turn off one or two bulbs as I'm having green
water and Algae issues after running things for just two weeks.
(end-of-Snip)

wrt the 4x55 on a 55g tank, and algae....

I too went the AH supply route (and am a firm believer that you cannot go
wrong here, service AND product is excellent) on my 55g tank. Initially I
had 2x55W 5Ks and then later added 2 more 55W 6.5ks. This sucker is bright
(Thermonuclear comes to mind). It hurts the eyes when I need to clean the
inside of the glass.

After the addition of the two additional 55W lights, came the algae. Lots of
it. An unbelievable amount. For weeks and weeks. Nothing I did worked. CO2
bps was about 3 giving me a pH of about 7.1/7.2, KH holds constant at 3dKH
(CO2 at about 6-7ppm, was having trouble getting saturation). I was using
TMG.

Then I followed Tom's "Rule of thumb": Add MORE CO2. And I did (along with a
daily 4ppm addition of NO3/small amount of PO4, and limited/eliminated iron
(almost complete elimination of TMG, I have fluorite substrate)). I also
made minor changes to my home-made "Barr-like" reactor to get better
dissolving of the CO2.

Now I have about 10 bps in my bubble counter (yup, 10). pH is constant at
about 6.6/6.7 for a CO2 saturation of about 20ppm.

Still doing minor tweakings, but here is the result:
   - Algae (green thread was everywhere) was GONE in a week (a little fuzz
here and there still left, we will see if it goes away),

   - The Rotala Indica is almost as red as R. Macrandra and looks like RM v.
Narrowleaf (gorgeous).

   - The giant "green" hygro is turning red on the leaves nearest the light.

   - I have a "pile" of pearlgrass (and after having it for several months
finally understand why it is called that) that is 5" high and 6" in
diameter.

   - The Glosso is taking off like never before.

   - The Wisteria is actually growing again (can anyone believe that I was
having problems growing _this_ stuff).

   - The tank looks like it's filled with a mild "champagne" from pearling.

Well, so far, so good.

And, to quote Tom again (thanks Tom), "Add more CO2".

The only drawback now is I'll probably need a larger CO2 bottle. The one I
have now is a 5lb and will probably last only a month (got me a needle
valve.... Yahoo, verified no more EOT disasters!!!). Anything larger wont
hide under my tank....

- Jeff

p.s., Now that things are coming back in-line, willing to trade some
Pearlgrass for some Rotalla Wallichi and Rotala Magenta (I know, not quite a
fair trade...)