Aquarium co-op light

[SandSea]

24 in deep, 24 inch wide tank, the top is 5 mm thick acrylic. I put one aquarium co-op lamp on top of that side of the tank that is planted. I've tried only lighting it for an hour and a half. Or 5 hours. At low level light. At high level light. And everywhere in between. But all of my plants and the walls of the tank on that side where the light is are covered in brown algae. I have four fish tanks all with the same tap water and the same substrate which is fluorite. This is the only tank that has brown algae. The other tanks are all by a window and get several hours of sunlight during the day and they all have fluorescent lighting on top. You can still buy fluorescent lights in the reptile section of your local pet store. Do you think it is because I need more lighting or less? Again this is the only tank that does not get any sunlight and moving this tank is out of the question at this time. The algae

is brown and my phone takes terrible pictures so whatever color you see just know that in real life it's brown.

Edited February 24, 2023 by SandSea
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[Cory]

You need balance. The question becomes, what fertilizer are you using? Is it only root tabs for that val? Is there some liquid for the anachris? Can you solve this issue easily with 1 bristlenose pleco?

[SandSea]

there is one large 10 year old bnp in there, root tabs in the substrate and ive tried the aquarium coop liq fert and also done a 70% water change and added charcoal to remove it, neither way made any difference. never did have good luck with plants in this tank, always have good luck with sunlight,  but alas, spouse doesnt want this tank moved . in the tank where this val used to be it did sooooo well and grew so fast and algae free, i ONLY used root tabs, sun light and fluorescent bulbs

[Andy's Fish Den]

First of all, you cant change so much and when things aren't what you expect, think its just one of the things that you changed. When you make changes, do one thing at a time and wait a couple of weeks. I always allow two weeks between any changes I make, whether its fertilizer amount, lighting time increase or decrease. I would have to assume that the new co-op light is putting out quite a bit more light than the fluorescent bulbs that you have been using, especially if the bulbs are older than a few months. I do not have one of the co-op's new lights, but I'll tell you what I would do, and it is the same thing I did when I got a Fluval 3.0 for a couple of my tanks. Set the light intensity for about half of where you think it will need to be, you say 24" tall tank,. I would run it at about 40% power to start, put some root tabs in and liquid ferts if using them, Set it on a timer for 6 hours a day. Use a timer, don't say I'll turn it on when I get home from work and turn off when I go to bed, no one is home the same time everyday and goes to bed same time every night unless maybe you were in marine corp for 30 year and just programmed like that. Use a timer, that way its consistent, not 6 hours one day, 10 hours another etc. Leave it for two weeks, do any regular maintenance you do in that time frame, and add your weekly liquid ferts if that's how often you do. Then, after two weeks, if you don't see any algae and/or plants are struggling, turn light up a notch, Be sure the plants aren't using up the root tabs trying to grow in that time as well. After two more weeks, check tank and plants again, do the same thing, no algae, bump it up a notch. It is a delicate balancing act between, plants, light, nutrients, and sometimes it takes a while to sort out. I have a tank I set up and planted back in October that I am still trying to get balanced, but I know it won't happen overnight, but it will be soon I'm sure once the plants really take off. 

[SandSea]

rephrasing my original question.

Do i need 1 lamp or two, to grow plants, not brown algae? (like one lamp at back of tank & one lamp at the front.

24 in deep, 24 inch wide tank, the top is 5 mm thick acrylic

 

[knee]

Is it 24" top to bottom and front to back? I ask because people use deep and wide interchangeably.

Have you tested your nitrates in that tank? How long has this tank been up and how were you lighting it before?

 

[nabokovfan87]

There's a sheet in the algae thread in my signature that might help.  Brown diatoms for me is usually just extra ferts.  Dosing root tabs is perfectly fine.  If you're dumping in a lot of fertilizer (or have a ton of fish) then perhaps you just need to dose in half as much and see how things progress.  The nice thing is that brown diatoms are very very easy to remove.  Take a small brush / toothbrush and keep the leaves of the plant clean.  Just be delicate with it to prevent damage.  Give the plants time to do their thing and don't change too much too often.

Let the BNP (maybe add some otos) to clean up the algae and give the tank weeks to let you know if it's doing ok or not.  I would suggest minimum ~2-4 weeks between any changes.  Longer is better.  If you see some pretty severe issues right away and it's clear that one change caused those issues, then it makes sense to back off on those changes in some instances.  My example being... I had my tank doing ok for a good amount of time, a few months.  I had added a bit more plants and so I turned the lights up, then I saw the algae go off very very intensely after the plants were acclimated.  It wasn't just small diatoms of small growth, but very big intense growth.  It was essentially change on monday, issues on saturday and pretty clear A caused B. 

Sometimes you just need to wait things out and give it time.  Keep the plants clean, check how they are doing and adjust accordingly.

[SandSea]

True,  the brown algae is soft and wipes off. More accurately, the tank is 65 in long, 24 inches wide (depth from front to back) 24 inches in height. The lighting I had before was two reptile spotlight holders and the bulbs used in them were LED spotlights (the kind you put in recessed lighting in your kitchen) The only plants in there were anubias. So I took my anacharis & vallisneria from another tank and put it into this tank with one long led lamp from aquarium co-op. The current plants are only on one side of the tank, as my synodontis enjoys the shade. The current plants were free of any algae before they went into this tank. When I put them in I put the aquarium coop lamp at half light since it was pretty bright and I only left it on for a few hours a day within a week I had brown algae. I've adjusted time & brightness to no avail. I'm wondering if I need another lamp. I hear what you're saying each setting that I had I left on for at least a week

Edited February 28, 2023 by SandSea