# Eldaldo's Natural Aquariums



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Welcome to TPT!

You've got way too much lighting over your 15gal if you're running 56 watts over it! I recommend just running a single or perhaps even double T8 bulb (one bulb is 17 watts so 2x would be 34 watts total) as none of your plants are extremely light-demanding.


----------



## tuffgong (Apr 13, 2010)

I completely agree with Laura. If you cut your lighting in half you should see a significant reduction in algae buildup.


----------



## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

eldaldo said:


> 15g fish tank
> 56W generic Fluorescent Lighting.
> I have been battling hair algae in this aquarium for some time Most of the hair algae is dead now, but it is slowly recovering.


Have you tested you nitrates? Wondering if dosing KNO3(potassium nitrates) would help balance your ecosystem. More info on it at Rex Griggs site. It has to be diluted. I found Spectricide stump remover, which is sold at Lowe's, is 100% KNO3. Dosing 5ml mixture weekly may help.


----------



## eldaldo (Sep 12, 2007)

Thanks for the replies forever ago. I just figured I'd update. I moved earlier this summer and subsequently had to go out of town and have been very busy otherwise since moving. 

I have not had time to seriously set up my tanks. I basically moved them to my new house and just randomly planted the rooted plants, and left floating plants/java ferns float. I didn't set up my lights. It has been two months since I moved and I finally have started having time for my hobbies. I expected all my plants to be dead from lack of care and light but was pretty surprised to see that almost all of them are alive and well. I lost my ludwigia, and bacopa.

What I noticed was that I had almost no algae growth in those two months. I have decided to start an experiment. all my tanks get bright indirect light or an hour or two of filtered direct sun. I think this is the reason the plants are still alive. I am going to continue without any supplemental fluorescent lighting and see how/if the plants grow over a long period.

In the past with my tanks I always set everything up and it all looked really nice at first, but in time there was always one plant that out crowded the others, and algae eventually became a constant battle, weekly pulling outs of algae and fast growing plants was becoming a nuisance and i have always been desirous of a balance between things looking lush and things being easily manageable. 

Therefore I am trying a new natural lighting approach. each tank has the same plants (java fern, anubias, echinodrus, hornwort, java moss). each tank will receive varying amounts of sun from indirect lighting to several hours of full sun on half of the tank. I will temporarily update to show you how they look. 

Here are my tanks. 

1. Dwarf Chiclid - 15g. only indirect light. No hornwort. Breeding pair of dwarf Chiclids.









2. Dwarf Gourami - 5.5g. direct sun through blinds. 2 dwarf gourami 1 S.A. bumblebee catfish.









3. Crested newt tank. 20g. direct sun for a couple hours. 2 southern crested newts.


----------

