# Won the battle against GSA, hair algae coming back.



## peterphonic (May 9, 2018)

Hello,

I already posted this thread a while ago : http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/23-algae/1274857-gsa-hair-fuzz-algae-how-get-rid.html

Back then, I had problems with GSA and what I thought hair algae. What I did :

1 - Dripped my plants on a 5% bleach solution. This unfortunately killed my hygrophila siemensis 53b. But My anubias, bacopa and microsorum looks like new now!
2- Did a lot of trimming
3 - Came back to my original LED light (800 lumens), which I think is enough power for the plants I have. I think my T5HO 2x24w was wayyy to much light for my aquarium\plants.
4- I am using my LED light (800 lumens) for a total of 8 hours a day, separated in two 4 hours photoperiod.
5- Switch for the premium tropica fertilizer. This fertilizer does not have ammonia nor nitrogen. I think it is better for my needs, since I have already a good bio load (16 fish)

So, I thought that everything was ok. GSA definitively gone, but hair algae is coming back slowly (it was kind of an outbreak the first time). I say hair algae, but I am not sure anymore. My amano don`t like it. My snail either. I *can`t* remove it manually, it is firmly attached to leaves.

My questions, 
1-what is the algae is the picture below? 
2-What can I do ? 
3- Should I cut in the photoperiod, 5-6 hours of light a day? 

My tank running since 90 days, have plants since 80 days.


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

peterphonic said:


> Hello,
> 
> I already posted this thread a while ago : http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/23-algae/1274857-gsa-hair-fuzz-algae-how-get-rid.html
> 
> ...


What's the "par" on the led vs the t5's, lumens is just what our eyes see, par is the key factor in plant growth, I would say the t5's had more par than the led which could is plausible. 

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## peterphonic (May 9, 2018)

p0tluck said:


> What's the "par" on the led vs the t5's,


A plantedtank.net user that has same tank than mine  said that the par at substrate level with the LED is ~30. I unfortunately have no idea about my T5HO 2x24w, but I guess it is much more. I think that 30 PAR is enough for my plants. I have anubias, bacopa, buce, taxiphylum, hygrophila.



p0tluck said:


> I would say the t5's had more par than the led which could is plausible.


I know. This is the reason why I switched back from T5 to my LED. Now, GSA is gone, but the hair algae is back, and I am trying to figuring out why. I am actually even not sure it is hair algea. The only way to get rid of it is to drip to bleach solution. I would prefer to find the root cause!


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

peterphonic said:


> A plantedtank.net user that has same tank than mine  said that the par at substrate level with the LED is ~30. I unfortunately have no idea about my T5HO 2x24w, but I guess it is much more. I think that 30 PAR is enough for my plants. I have anubias, bacopa, buce, taxiphylum, hygrophila.
> 
> 
> 
> I know. This is the reason why I switched back from T5 to my LED. Now, GSA is gone, but the hair algae is back, and I am trying to figuring out why. I am actually even not sure it is hair algea. The only way to get rid of it is to drip to bleach solution. I would prefer to find the root cause!


I'm by far no expert , I'm Battling bga I'm still new to the hobby honestly, but if i run my led at 100% algae goes ballistic, I have a fluval 3.0 that was tested at 82 umol at 18", more plant mass helps alot though, I would look into getting either wisteria /water sprite, it's a great plant for nutrient consumption, plus over shadowing the lower light plants can be floated as well, more plant mass will limit the chances of algae being able to take a foothold from what I've read on dennis wong's site here's a link. https://www.advancedplantedtank.com/


There's many many things on there to read, if you just want to read on algae, the causes and the fixes here's that link https://www.advancedplantedtank.com/control-algae.html

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## peterphonic (May 9, 2018)

p0tluck said:


> but if i run my led at 100% algae goes ballistic


What you mean 100%, 24h hours a day? On my side, my LED his much weaker than yours and I decided to reduced the photoperiod to 7 hours and half of light every day. So, I think light should not be the problem for me.



p0tluck said:


> more plant mass helps alot though


This could be one problem for me, I would say that I have lightly/moderately planted aquarium. See picture (the hygrophylia in the picture died in the because of the bleach solution) :











p0tluck said:


> wisteria /water sprite, it's a great plant for nutrient consumption,


I am waiting for a Limnobium laevigatum and an hygrophylia siemensis 53B. I guess it should help a bit with nutrient, is it? I currently have a buce, bacopa, anubia petite, gracilis and nana, taxyphilum and microsorum. I have more slow growing plant compared to fast growing



p0tluck said:


> There's many many things on there to read, if you just want to read on algae, the causes and the fixes here's that link https://www.advancedplantedtank.com/control-algae.html


Looks interesting, I'll read that tonight!

So, for now my plan is
1- Add two new plants (not that much, I can't considered be heavily planted)
2- Once more, dip my plant on a bleach solution to kill hair algae (I have to unroot my stem plants, but it is fairly easy)
3- Reduce photo-period once more, to 7 hours a day
4- I am also thinking to add excel. I read this good paper where is says that even with low-light, some CO2 is good. Maybe if my plants grow a bit better, it will use nutrient that algae needs?


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## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

@peterphonic - La belle province! Nice to see another Canadian on here 

I think you might benefit from switching to a better fertilizer. Colin (NilocG) makes one that lots of people seem to like, Thrive. Available in Canada here, here, here, and here  

Your tank is still really young. I would expect to be seeing different types of algae for the first few months. Focus on growing healthy plants and the algae will gradually disappear. 

My recommendations:

Reduce photoperiod to one 6hr block
Start dosing with Thrive (you want a fertilizer with a good mix of NPK and micros. even with the fish you have it's a good idea to dose to at least "low-light" levels)
Spot dose Excel on the algae, don't worry about a bleach dip for now
Keep on top of tank maintenance - 50% weekly water changes, cleaning filter, vacuuming substrate, removing dead and dying leaves, etc. 
Maybe get a PO4 test kit and track your NO3 and PO4 levels over the course of a week or two.


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## peterphonic (May 9, 2018)

@MCFC I really did appreciate Vancouver by the way. Been there long time ago =)



mcfc said:


> i think you might benefit from switching to a better fertilizer.


Noted. First I'll finish the bottle I have now, then I'll switch. But are you sure I need the one with nitrogen and phosphate? Because I thought that 15-16 fish was giving enough of those nutrients.




mcfc said:


> your tank is still really young. I would expect to be seeing different types of algae for the first few months. Focus on growing healthy plants and the algae will gradually disappear.


Good to know, It is hard to take it easy. I am new the the hobby and I am trying so hard. Since 3-4 months I am reading almost every night information about planted aquarium!!



mcfc said:


> spot dose excel on the algae, don't worry about a bleach dip for now


Ok. Following excel instructions, I should dose around 2ml every day. Could I use this 2ml to do spot treatment? And actually, I wanted to use excel not only for algae, but to have better growth. I think that having better growth might help a bit too, is it? 



mcfc said:


> Maybe get a po4 test kit and track your no3 and po4 levels over the course of a week or two.


Noted. By the way, I am doing WC ~30%-40% every week, and my no3 is around 5ppm. It never went more than 20ppm. So, I guess my plants are already doing their job, otherwise, I would expect more nitrate?


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## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

@peterphonic - I prefer Montreal to Vancouver haha!

I don't have a lot of experience with low-tech setups. I run CO2 and higher light in most of my tanks. With that being said...




peterphonic said:


> First I'll finish the bottle I have now, then I'll switch. But are you sure I need the one with nitrogen and phosphate? Because I thought that 15-16 fish was giving enough of those nutrients.


There are a few people on here that seem to be able to get away with low or no NO3 dosing because of their fish load. I don't think people do quite the same with PO4, but I could be wrong. I'm in the camp where I feel I need to dose NO3 and PO4 even though my fish seem to be adding their own to the tank. 

I would recommend you dose everything to low-light levels and adjust from there. NilocG has a good page on dosing, but it can be confusing. I'd focus on this part for now:




You were dosing 14ml Tropica Specialized/week. That adds up to:




Now you're dosing 14ml Tropica Premium/week:




So compared to NilocG's levels, you can see that the Tropica fertilizers have some weird ratios. Specialized is the best because it has N and P, but just compare the two:





I was going to recommend targeting the 0.5ppm of Fe per week, but then I realized that the calculator was giving me N, not NO3. The conversion rate is almost 4.5x so that definitely changes things a bit haha. For me, the ratios in the Tropica ferts are just soooo far off, I wouldn't recommend using them. You have to choose between either high NO3 and low PO4, or really high NO3 and regular PO4...

I would order the Thrive. If you order today I'm sure you can have it before the weekend. 




peterphonic said:


> It is hard to take it easy. I am new the the hobby and I am trying so hard. Since 3-4 months I am reading almost every night information about planted aquarium!!


Haha I'm exactly the same way, although I've been at this a few years now 




peterphonic said:


> Following excel instructions, I should dose around 2ml every day. Could I use this 2ml to do spot treatment? And actually, I wanted to use excel not only for algae, but to have better growth. I think that having better growth might help a bit too, is it?


I've never used Excel for it's carbon, only ever as an algaecide, and I always used a syringe to spot dose directly on the algae. I've also never really paid attention to how much was recommended or how much I used, but I don't recommend you doing that haha. I would start off like you suggested, using the daily dose amount to spot treat the worst affected areas. If your plants start to melt, maybe just go to general water column dosing. Pure speculation though. Maybe @Greggz could help with that one, I'm pretty sure he mentioned running a low-tech setup without CO2 way back when...




peterphonic said:


> By the way, I am doing WC ~30%-40% every week, and my no3 is around 5ppm. It never went more than 20ppm. So, I guess my plants are already doing their job, otherwise, I would expect more nitrate?


Your dosing with the Specialized fertilizer was adding about 11ppm NO3/week. 50% weekly water changes mean the concentration of your dose would max out at ~20ppm over time. So if you never tested over 20ppm, I don't imagine your fish are adding much. The reason it's at 5ppm now is probably because you've switched to the fert without any N.


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## peterphonic (May 9, 2018)

@MCFC - Let say that both cities have their charm =) And by the way, your replies are of great quality and it is really appreciated. Really!. 



MCFC said:


> I would recommend you dose everything to low-light levels and adjust from there. NilocG has a good page


Found on NilocG page, near the picture with the dosage you showed me : "_Low light and no CO2 simply use 1/3 of the dosing listed_" 

Question:
1- Should the number in the picture be divided by three then?



MCFC said:


> For me, the ratios in the Tropica ferts are just soooo far off,


Funny because this morning, in my obsessive search to understand what was my fertilizer, I actually found this calculator! I then realized that tropica, as you said, was way off dosing regime like EI, Walstad etc.

Question :
1- With this calculator, there is a result chart that compares iron with other regime. Could it be possible to compare with other nutrient? I'd like to know what is the target for No3, Po4, K etc etc.

2- After hours of reading, I understand that there is many school of thought, low-light dosage, EI, ADA, walstad etc. That would make sense to go for low light. But as you can see in the picture below (be indulgent, it is my first tank!), my tank is sparsely planted. I am waiting for an hygrophila siemensis. But no matter what, maybe I could cut a little bit more on the low-light dosage then? 

I realized after 4 months that it was a mistake to have a tank just lightly planted. But well, I am learning, and I do like my tank. My future corydoras will have plenty of places to dig =)



MCFC said:


> The reason it's at 5ppm now is probably because you've switched to the fert without any N.


That makes so much sense. I did not think about it!


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## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

peterphonic said:


> Question:
> 1- Should the number in the picture be divided by three then?


Nope. For full EI dosing you would dose those PPM's 3x a week. So for you, we're going to use those as the weekly totals. 



peterphonic said:


> Question :
> 1- With this calculator, there is a result chart that compares iron with other regime. Could it be possible to compare with other nutrient? I'd like to know what is the target for No3, Po4, K etc etc.


I think I understand your question. And it's one of the few limitations of that calculator: you can't pick what the target element is. So, depending on your end goals, you have a few options. General EI guidelines: 

CO2 range 25-35ppm
NO3 range 5-30ppm
K+ range 10-30ppm
PO4 range 1.0-3.0 ppm
Fe 0.2-0.5ppm or higher (?)
GH range 3 degrees ~ 50ppm or higher

Now keep in mind that's NO3 and PO4. When the calculator shows N and P you need to multiply N by 4.4268 to get NO3, and multiply P by 3.065 to get PO4. 

If you just want to see what the different ranges are for the different regimes, all in one chart, then maybe try using the most common compounds with the targets you're looking for. So:

KNO3 for NO3
KH2PO4 for PO4 (not K2HPO4  )
K2SO4 for K




peterphonic said:


> 2- After hours of reading, I understand that there is many school of thought, low-light dosage, EI, ADA, walstad etc. That would make sense to go for low light. But as you can see in the picture below (be indulgent, it is my first tank!), my tank is sparsely planted. I am waiting for an hygrophila siemensis. But no matter what, maybe I could cut a little bit more on the low-light dosage then?
> 
> I realized after 4 months that it was a mistake to have a tank just lightly planted. But well, I am learning, and I do like my tank.


I would say the main methods are EI, PPS, Walstad, and then like ADA/Dennis Wong style. 

ADA/Dennis Wong relies entirely on using an active soil substrate, which supplies almost all of the nutrients in their regime. Without that incredibly expensive soil their tanks are little more than pretty pictures in terms of what we can use from them haha. 

Walstad I don't know too much about. I'm pretty sure it's all about building up a mulmy substrate, using low-light plants, and not doing water changes. I don't think that really goes along with your style of tank 

My understanding is that PPS (and PPS-pro?) are about figuring out how much your plants uptake and dosing at just about that level. But again, I don't know much about it and have never tried it myself. 

EI is my style of dosing. Make sure nutrients are in levels that are non-limiting, and then you can rule them out as the source of any major issues. EI is largely about being able to get rid of your test kits and just use your weekly 50% water changes to keep everything in check. In reality, it seems most people that do EI, or some version of it, end up testing their water quite a bit anyway haha. But it's a nice theory 

EI can work for any light level. Look back at those ppm's from NilocG's page. Low-light start at 1 dose of those levels per week, med-light can start at 2 doses, and high-light would start at 3 doses per week. They are just rough guidlines though. Regardless of your light level you should increase or decrease your dosage depending on how your plants respond. If you add a bunch of plants, especially faster growing ones, you should up your dosage in turn.

I think your tank looks really nice! It might be slightly more difficult to keep a tank algae free if you're low-light and sparsely planted, but it's definitely doable


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## peterphonic (May 9, 2018)

MCFC said:


> General EI guidelines:
> 
> CO2 range 25-35ppm
> NO3 range 5-30ppm
> ...


So, if I dose 6ml of thrive, I will be in the range of tom barr EI regime, but a little bit over Nilocg. Sounds good?











MCFC said:


> Now keep in mind that's NO3 and PO4. When the calculator shows N and P you need to multiply N by 4.4268 to get NO3, and multiply P by 3.065 to get PO4.


Not sure to understand. For exemple, thrive has both NO3 and N. Does that mean I have to multiply N to know the grand total of NO3? Question might seem silly, but my computer science background does not help for chemistry =)




MCFC said:


> Look back at those ppm's from NilocG's page. Low-light start at 1 dose of those levels per week, med-light can start at 2 doses, and high-light would start at 3 doses per week.


Another silly question, is it ok to dose a little bit every day, like ~1ml per day?

By the way, since the start of the thread, some hair algae did appear on my buce and my anubias gracilis (just one leaf on each), and even on a *snail*! Updated plan :
1 - Tomorrow, I'll dip clean in bleach solution. I know you told me not, but I have many plants infected now. It is hard at this point to do spot dosage. Since most of the plants are attached on rocks/driftwood, it is easy. Also, bacopa are easy to un-root without too much soil disturbance.
2- Start normal water column excel dosage, in the hope of some algae prevention and minor growth improvement
3- Next week, start thrive dosage (ordered tonight)
4- Tank already on 6 hours of light in one block

So, thanks again for your help and suggestions how to resolve the problem! I guess it would take around 2-3 weeks to see some results. I will let you know!


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

peterphonic said:


> @MCFC
> 
> Noted. By the way, I am doing WC ~30%-40% every week, and my no3 is around 5ppm. It never went more than 20ppm. So, I guess my plants are already doing their job, otherwise, I would expect more nitrate?


Make sure you're testing nitrates correctly, you have to vigorously shake bottle #2 lightly tapping the bottom on a table before shaking for 30 seconds, add drops from bottle 1 cap shake lightly for 10 seconds, add drops from Bottle 2 cap and shake for 1 min let sit for 5 min and test, (if you're using the api kit that is), bottle #2 gets people everytime 



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## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

peterphonic said:


> So, if I dose 6ml of thrive, I will be in the range of tom barr EI regime, but a little bit over Nilocg. Sounds good?


Looks good to me . The micros look a little different than what I dose, but it's not something you need to worry about at all! 



peterphonic said:


> Not sure to understand. For exemple, thrive has both NO3 and N. Does that mean I have to multiply N to know the grand total of NO3?


The calculator is just trying to be helpful (more confusing?) by showing you the equivalent amounts. In NilocG's list of PPM's he does the same thing. 

7.5ppm NO3 = 1.694ppm N
1.3ppm PO4 = 0.424ppm P

and so 

10.5ppm NO3 = 2.3775ppm N

So no, don't add them 



peterphonic said:


> Another silly question, is it ok to dose a little bit every day, like ~1ml per day?


Should be fine. I dose my micros daily. 



peterphonic said:


> Updated plan :
> 1 - Tomorrow, I'll dip clean in bleach solution. I know you told me not, but I have many plants infected now. It is hard at this point to do spot dosage. Since most of the plants are attached on rocks/driftwood, it is easy. Also, bacopa are easy to un-root without too much soil disturbance.
> 2- Start normal water column excel dosage, in the hope of some algae prevention and minor growth improvement
> 3- Next week, start thrive dosage (ordered tonight)
> ...


All sounds good to me. Can't wait to hear about your progress ! 

One last thought: 2x24W T5HO _shouldn't_ be too much light. Maybe at 8 hours this early it was a bit much. Do you have a link for the LED fixture you are using now? And maybe for the T5HO unit you were using as well?


Edit: One other last thought: Do you know your KH or GH? Just out of curiosity...


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> So compared to NilocG's levels, you can see that the Tropica fertilizers have some weird ratios. Specialized is the best because it has N and P, but just compare the two:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


This is a fjundimental issue with all purchased fertilizers. Almost all don't have calcium, many don't have copper( to make the product shrimp safe), zinc should be doused at abut the same level as boron. I have looked at a lot of fertilizer and all are missing something or the ratios are really od. This has lead some people to start making there own micro fertilizer instead of buying it. Many have been making there own macro fertilizer for years. Some people are getting very encouraging results with there own recipes in EI style tanks. 





> EI is my style of dosing. Make sure nutrients are in levels that are non-limiting, and then you can rule them out as the source of any major issues. EI is largely about being able to get rid of your test kits and just use your weekly 50% water changes to keep everything in check. In reality, it seems most people that do EI, or some version of it, end up testing their water quite a bit anyway haha. But it's a nice theory


Actually you got that all wrong about EI. The fundamental goal of EI is that if all nutrients plants need are available in excess plants will outcompete algae for nutrients. It does work. But with all the variability in tap water and fertilizers it can be difficult to get right. But when everything is right the results can be spectacular. Being able to reduce the need for test kits is a side benefit. In fact regardless of which methode you use, once the tank has stabilized you can reduce water testing.




> ADA/Dennis Wong relies entirely on using an active soil substrate, which supplies almost all of the nutrients in their regime. Without that incredibly expensive soil their tanks are little more than pretty pictures in terms of what we can use from them haha.
> 
> Walstad I don't know too much about. I'm pretty sure it's all about building up a mulmy substrate, using low-light plants, and not doing water changes.


The Dennis wong and walstead methods are similar. Again both methods are primarily trying to minimize algae. Bot use soil substrates to supply most of the nutrients plants need. back yard soil is cheeper than fertilizers and it can cover all nutrients. However not everyone has usable soil in there back yard. so some buy substrates. Many EI tanks also use active substrates but it is also possible to use inert substrates in EI tanks. and some people have success with them. But with each water change the substrate will loose some nutrients. So to slow the nutrients loss many reduce water changes to very low levels. Once the substrate is depleted you have two choices replace the substrate or to switch to fertilizers. 

So in short all methods (PPS, EI, Walstead, and Denis Wong) is all primarilyabout minimizing algae problems.


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## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

Surf said:


> Actually you got that all wrong about EI. The fundamental goal of EI is that if all nutrients plants need are available in excess plants will outcompete algae for nutrients.


Funny then that Tom doesn't mention algae once when describing what EI is and what its goals are... 

"The Estimative index is a simple method to dose nutrients for any tank without test kits. In a nut shell, the aquarist doses frequently to prevent anything from running out (plant deficiency) and does large weekly water changes to prevent any build up (Plant inhibition). In this manner, we can easily maintain a close approximation or an “estimation index” of the nutrient levels during the week, not too high, not too low and…..no need for a test kit because the accuracy is close and in most cases closer than a test kit."


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## Surf (Jun 13, 2017)

> Funny then that Tom doesn't mention algae once when describing what EI is and what its goals are...


In that description true he doesn't mention it. But in an earlier version which is no long available he did mention algae. In fact the reason he developed the EI methode was that he found that when his plants were doing well he had fewer problems with algae. He then purchased a $1000 dollar water testing equipment so that he could monitor many nutrient levels and he it help him determine how to keep maintain the tank. Eliminating test kits wasn't the primary focus of his work when he started. but in the end he did find less testing was needed. And many people liked that aspect of it and that helped promote it. 

Wanstead tried to mimic nature to control algae and and have a healthy tank. She recommends high light, fewer water changes and soil. There is also another methode that is often used in large slat water aquariums. In that methode the levels of all nutrients are checked and then only those nutrients that are deficient are added to the water. This keeps water conditions very stable and also helps minimize algae. This methode requires a lab for water testing and and isn't practical and too costly for most in the hobby.


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## peterphonic (May 9, 2018)

Surf said:


> many don't have copper( to make the product shrimp safe).


This plantedtank thread seems to say that copper has to be really high to be a problem? Thrive has a shrimp version of their products, but they say that all their products are shrimp safe. Copper seems to be really low.



Surf said:


> I have looked at a lot of fertilizer and all are missing something or the ratios are really od.


Please don't make things too much complicated for a newbie like me!  Joke apart, I think it is true that Tropica fertilizer looks more off for an EI target, at least compared to Thrive. Especially for the micro. 




MCFC said:


> One last thought: 2x24W T5HO _shouldn't_ be too much light. Maybe at 8 hours this early it was a bit much. Do you have a link for the LED fixture you are using now? And maybe for the T5HO unit you were using as well?


Talked to my LFS yesterday, where I bought the T5. He is still convinced that I should use the T5 instead of my LED. I am bit scared because the hair algae problem seemed worst with the T5. It looks a little bit under control with the LED, but I guess that my plants growing rate is slower too! 




My T5. Bulbs are 6500K.



One strip LED, included in the hood of my Vista Fluval 23G.
- W : 8.4
- Lumens : 800
- K : 8000

According to @Kaiede from this thread, one LED strip gives ~30 PAR at substrate level. It would be possible to get 2 strips to have ~50 PAR. But I would need to do a DYI modification on my tank, or find a way to order the 2 strips version from europe...

According to Tropica website, i thought that 800 Lumens would be enough for my plants (800 Lumens is the bare minimum though)



MCFC said:


> Edit: One other last thought: Do you know your KH or GH? Just out of curiosity...


No. My LFS told me not worry about GH, here in montreal GH should be ok. But well, I guess it will be the next thing on my TO-DO list, just to make sure I have good sleep =).



p0tluck said:


> Make sure you're testing nitrates correctly,


 Yes I know =) When I was using the specialized tropica ferts, I had higher reading.


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## p0tluck (Feb 17, 2017)

peterphonic said:


> Yes I know =) When I was using the specialized tropica ferts, I had higher reading.


okay sound good I just know many people who think they have 5 ppm nitrate they do the test right and they are at 40, 40 isn't a big deal though



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## MCFC (Feb 12, 2017)

peterphonic said:


> Talked to my LFS yesterday, where I bought the T5. He is still convinced that I should use the T5 instead of my LED. I am bit scared because the hair algae problem seemed worst with the T5. It looks a little bit under control with the LED, but I guess that my plants growing rate is slower too!


The T5HO is very likely to produce more PAR than the LED. You can think of the lighting, largely measured by PAR, as hitting the gas pedal in a car. The higher PAR/longer the photoperiod, the harder you are hitting the gas. And you can think of the ferts as the fuel. 

So you originally had lower light and really low/odd ratio of ferts - not much gas in the tank and not driving too fast, but still running out of fuel - so some issues popped up. 

Then you increased your PAR - put your foot down harder on the pedal, but still didn't have proper gas to the tank - so you ran into some more issues. 

Now you're soon going to be adding some proper fuel to your gas tank. It's up to you how fast you want to drive 




peterphonic said:


> According to @Kaiede from this thread, one LED strip gives ~30 PAR at substrate level. It would be possible to get 2 strips to have ~50 PAR. But I would need to do a DYI modification on my tank, or find a way to order the 2 strips version from europe...
> 
> According to Tropica website, i thought that 800 Lumens would be enough for my plants (800 Lumens is the bare minimum though)


I only know how to understand light levels based on PAR. ~30PAR at substrate (probably directly below the light) would put you into the lower levels of light. My understanding is that ~50PAR is about medium and ~80PAR+ puts you into high light levels. 

I think you would be able to grow most, if not all, of your plants at that light level. But I think your plants might be happier with the T5HO (but I am biased towards T5HO over LED haha). 

I would stick with the LED at least until you switch to Thrive. Maybe even try a week or two of the LED and Thrive and see what happens. 





peterphonic said:


> No. My LFS told me not worry about GH, here in montreal GH should be ok. But well, I guess it will be the next thing on my TO-DO list, just to make sure I have good sleep =).


You can always check online for a water quality report for your tap water. I still like the peace of mind of being able to test mine. Chances are it's not an issue but the test kits are pretty cheap and last a really long time.


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