Too little light?

[AmirM]

Hello,
I'd appreciate your advice. I tried to slow down my high-tech high lights setup to a low lights high tech one: now the system has 96W (4X24W T5) lighting on a 270 liter tank (0.35W per liter) . I'm using EI fertilisation, and pressurized CO2, but suffering from lots of dust algae on plants and glass, and hair algae now start to grow too. Currently I have echinodorus and sagittaria only.
I was advised to increase the lighting by adding two more 24W T5s- do you think too little light can cause this continuous algae attack?
I'm absolutely confused and tired of seeing ugly plants in my aquarium.
Thank you for any input
Amir
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MERCEDES-BENZ M950F

 

[VaughnH]

You are using pressurized CO2, but are you using a drop checker to help you determine if you have enough CO2 in the water? If you have the experience you can judge that by watching the plants and fish, but trying that without the experience didn't work well for me - I always had too little CO2 when I tried that method. And, the lack of adequate, consistent CO2 is more likely to be your problem than any other thing. Next to that, not having good water circulation throughout the tank is most likely to be a problem.

 

[AmirM]

Hello VaughnH,
I was using a drop checker, but it was most of the time yellowish (I did replace the 4dKH water etc), so recently I stopped using it. I will try to reset everything (especially myself and start from the basics, with a new batch of low-light-plants.
I love my fish, and after seeing how CO2 poisoning looks like- I'm very careful about adding CO2. But I guess I have no choice .... Thanks for your help, Amir.
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Uggs