# Better growth with Beamswork than Finnex?



## Aparker2005 (Jun 4, 2014)

Hey guys. Interesting to see how my plants have done since switching lights. The lights are the only thing that's changed. 

I originally had a 72" Beamswork led from eBay. Plants were growing nicely with no algae. Had the light on a split 5 hour a piece light cycle. 

Back in January when the Finnex planted plus 24/7 SE was announced, I immediately ordered them. 

Originally started with the 24/7 cycle and had immediate algae issues. A month or 2 ago I switched to a 7 hour split photo period, and my algae continues to get worse with worse plant growth. 

Does this make sense? Higher powered light leading to more algae I'm assuming? I really need to get some fast growing plants to help out compete the algae or I feel I'm gonna lose all my plants :/

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## Bunsen Honeydew (Feb 21, 2017)

Aparker2005 said:


> Hey guys. Interesting to see how my plants have done since switching lights. The lights are the only thing that's changed.
> 
> I originally had a 72" Beamswork led from no ebay links allowed Plants were growing nicely with no algae. Had the light on a split 5 hour a piece light cycle.
> 
> ...


Any CO2?


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## MtAnimals (May 17, 2015)

What ferts are you dosing? and what kind of algae? I have several tanks I run 3 on 3 or 4 off and 3 on for the split photoperiod,no algae,good plant growth.

Sometimes a 3 day blackout can help stop algae,but again,depends on what kind of algae.


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## Aparker2005 (Jun 4, 2014)

No c02, never done it. And it's stringy algae on everything, as well as thick, bkack/brown algae that rubs off in clumps. A little bba here and there as well. 

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For ferts, I dose a half teaspoon of plantex after a water change 2 to 3 times per week (discus tank) 

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## Bunsen Honeydew (Feb 21, 2017)

Seems that the increase in light has given algae the competitive advantage. Seems to me (though there are more experienced folks here) that you should reduce your light more. Which Beamswork light did you have, and what are your tank dimensions? When I was looking at lights recently, I do not recall the Beamswork (that I bought) to have significantly less PAR than Planted Plus 24/7 that I compared it to.


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## jnboone (Aug 1, 2011)

Aparker2005 said:


> No c02, never done it. And it's stringy algae on everything, as well as thick, bkack/brown algae that rubs off in clumps. A little bba here and there as well.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
> 
> ...




I had a real problem with what I think was staghorn algae that came into my tank courtesy of az aquatics (I should have dipped). I tried changing everything for about 3 months. Just did the H2O2 "one two punch" whole tank treatment 5 days ago and it's all dead. I know that's treating the symptom and not the problem, but at least I'm not having to throw away or trim my plants to pieces. 


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## Aparker2005 (Jun 4, 2014)

I don't wanna do a full planted tank with discus, but would adding some wisteria and water sprite for the moment help out compete algae? 

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Also would raising the light work? I put the legs back on yesterday and it raised the light a good 5 or 6 inches. From the surface. 

I'm also tempted now to go back to the 24/7 mode and see how growth is. Hopefully having the light way too close to the tank and only having slow growers was my problem. 

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## clownplanted (Mar 3, 2017)

I would bet it has more to do with you only get about 5 hours of good plant usable light in 24/7 mode compared to full. To see this take a look at this graph that @mattinmd did when he did a full review and par readings in 24/7 mode. You can see that you only get 80% plus full par for 5 hours a day in this mode. To put this in numbers say you get 50 par at substrate well you are only getting 30-50 par for 5 hours a day, all other times will be much lower par and not that usable for plants. During the other lower par times could and will give the algae the edge as its not enough for plants to use the full potential of light. Less light means less nutrient uptake for plants and more for algae. 
Remember algae needs very little to take hold. If you were to put the light in full light mode I am willing to bet the story would be different. It also depends of course if you also have the optimal ferts for the plants.

Check the par readings I did here in full light mode
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/1...24-7-planted-par-lux-kelvin-pur-readings.html

Check @mattinmd readings he did here with it in 24/7 mode and full. I took a shot of the graph that he did in his post
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/10-lighting/871385-finnex-24-7-full-review.html

Graph of usable light in 24/7 mode


I want to add that I keep my running in full light mode during the day for 10 hours a day. I do the sunrise mode in morning for 1 hour and sunset in evening for 1 hour which is a total of 10 usable hours of light and 2 hours very low light.

I have very little to no algae. The little algae I did have(brown spot) was only on very front of glass and in corners where in my deep(24")tank the light was struggling to get to so not enough usable light in those spots for plants but enough for algae. My algae eaters took care of the very little amount I did have.

Remember if you have light for the plants you also need ferts. If you have too little usable light it slows the plants photosynthesis way down which also reduces the amount of nutrient uptake for plants. This is where algae can then grab hold and will grow. If you have good usable light and enough ferts the plants will thrive and algae will be very very little to none.


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## Nlewis (Dec 1, 2015)

Aparker2005 said:


> Also would raising the light work? I put the legs back on yesterday and it raised the light a good 5 or 6 inches. From the surface.
> 
> I'm also tempted now to go back to the 24/7 mode and see how growth is. Hopefully having the light way too close to the tank and only having slow growers was my problem.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk


I have the original 24/7 and would imagine that the SE has the ability to be dimmed. Have you tried dimming them before going through the hassle of raising them.


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## Aparker2005 (Jun 4, 2014)

I've already raised them with the supplied legs. They're much taller than the old ones sitting directly on the glass 

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## [email protected] (Aug 19, 2016)

This isn't about not having enough light, its about having to much light.

To me it seems that you upgraded you light, which is now more light than the plant can photosynthesize. This is due to a limiting factor, most likely CO2. 

When growing plants in an aquarium, the main components for photosynthesis are light, co2, and temperature. If one factor is in short supply, photosynthesis willl be restricted. In this case, something is now in short supply because you set the bar higher with a greater amount of light, without increasing other factors.

This is causing the plants to not be able to use all that light, and if they can't the algae will.

At least this is what I think.


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## Aparker2005 (Jun 4, 2014)

It seems raising the SE lights on their legs has started to help, along with reintroducing my 2 BN plecos. 

I'm running the lights on 24/7 mode again.

I have an extra 48" Finnex Planted Plus light. I'm assuming putting that light on a timer for 6 or 7 hours per day, along with the 24/7 mode of the SE, would be way too much light? 

I've started dosing my dry ferts micros one day macros the next, once per week, and adding metricide daily. 

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