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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #30





On Sat, 17 Jan 1998, Il KiNGS wrote:

> I have been struggling to gather up anough money for 4 40-watt bulbs over a
> 75-gallon tank.  Finally, last week I got enough to go buy 1 more single strip
> light and one double-tube strip light(1 stip light was included with the tank)
> plus 2 Plen-Plex Ultra Tri-Lux blulbs and 2 GE Chroma 50's.  This makes for
> 160 watts over my tank and roughly 2 watts/gallon which is what I have seen
> recommended.  The first few days were great.  All the brown algae and blue
> green algae that had been terrorizing my tank suddenly disappeared.  Then one
> day I noticed the water looked a bit cloudy.  It has been getting cloudier and
> cloudier every day since.  Now the water looks like a miniature lagoon(green
> water).  There isn't any significant algae growths.....just the green water.
> The tank is lit for 10 hours on a combination of 2 bulbs and 14 hours with the
> other two.  So why is this happening?  I do weekly water changes and add
> FloraPride by Tetra.  The tank recieves little, if any, natural sunlight.
> This is really frustrating me and any help is greatly appreciated.pH = 6.8
> hardness = 150 ppm
> 

This light level shouldn't be too much, but the sudden increase in
lighting along with other conditions in your tank temporarily favored the
growth of green water.  This happened to me last year when I increased the
light over one of my tanks.

I suggest that you maintain your normal schedule of water changes and
lighting and temporarily stop using the FloraPride.  If you have moderate
or dense planting in your aquarium, then with stable conditions the plants
should be able to beat back the green water within a week or two.  Once
the green water clears, then gradually bring your fertilizer up to the
level where your plants need it to be. 


Roger Miller
In Albuquerque, where it feels like spring is already on the doorstep.