Dosing problem or too much light?

[Petr]

Hi, this is my first post here so let me thank you very much for this forum.

I´d like to ask what I do wrong. I have 15 gallon tank (60x30x36cm). Some people (including Amano) use two 36W PL lamps for such aquarium. So I bought a light with these lamps to have enough light for every plant. I use EI dosing, pressurized CO2 with inline Up Atomizer, filter is Tetratec ex700 (should be 700l/h but is about 450l/h) with i-Flo lily pipes .To control CO2, I use drop checker, I turn on the CO2 one hour before turning on the lights and after 3-4 hours the drop checker is light green. But with both lamps algae problems appear and I have to turn off one lamp. I´ve tried to double and than also triple the nutrients but with only a little of success. The biggest problems were with slow growing plants such as anubias or microsorium needle etc. Stem plants were doing quite well but I have to admit tips of Rotala green were more white than green.

With one lamp everything is fine, much slower but almost no algae. But with only 36W it is impossible to have plants like glosso or HC. My substrate is Akadama, maybe I should use Aquasoil for such aquarium. I read here that most of the problems are caused by lack of CO2 but I think it isn´t this problem.

I know it would be better to take some pictures but I don´t have good camera right now.

Thank you in advance for your advice

Regards
Petr

 

[ShadowMac]

Ideally you want your CO2 level where it needs to be when the lights turn on. I would try turning on CO2 2 hours before lights, maybe increase CO2 SLOWLY as well.

 

[Petr]

Hi ShadowMac, thank you, I´ll try it. Maybe one hour isn´t enough to have good level of CO2. But when I can see some nutrients deficiency it should be dosing problem, shouldn´t it? Are these slow growers able to thrive on strong direct light when the CO2 and nutrients have optimal level?

Does anybody have Up Atomizer? The bubbles of CO2 are so small that when I increase CO2 to more than 2 bubbles/sec the water looks like "cloudy". I´m satisfied with the Atomizer but it is quite unsightly.

 

[dutchy]

If you get algae under high light good chance it's a CO2 problem. Thinking that CO2 is ok, is the most common mistake aquarists make, I think. So adding more CO2 is useful, but do it slowly, make small adjustments and wait some days afterwards.

The next is patience. Even with good CO2 it can take weeks before you see any effect on algae.

 

[Petr]

OK, I will focus on CO2.

Thank you