George Farmer Founder Offline Message Count: 6,903 New Ian Holdich used two over an 80cm I believe - and with great results. I've long term success with 1500 tiles, which use the same LEDs; just more of them.
Thanks George, though I think Ian was using the 500's (not sure how much difference that makes though). Yes maybe they're not that powerful, but then I'm none the wiser as to why I get such full on diatom problems.
I'm beginning to feel like a broken record with my posts about diatoms
, and would like to be contributing something more interesting to the forum! I think I'm close to getting the hang of this High tech set-up but cannot get good growth from stem plants P. Stellatus for example I'm on my third try with it and it still hasn't got going.
For the record my set-up is:
Fluval 125L tank
Ehiem Pro 3 350T filter
Koralia 900 -circulation pump
Up inline atomizer from FE Co2 -on a solenoid
2x TMC grobeam 600's @ 25% for 8 hrs (about an inch above the water- in a lid)
6ml easycarbo each day
Dosing EI
2 x 80% water change per week
Tank very clean filter serviced once a week (just the top bit)
drop checker is yellow - fish are fine though!
I won't blether on too much
but I have tried all sorts to get back on track. I re-scaped in August and all was good for the first 6 weeks when I then had a problem with Co2 (check valve faulty) took me about a week to correct it and I think this is what inducted the diatoms. Wasn't too worried, reduced the lighting to 10% and did 70% water changes every other day for out 6 weeks. This did not improve things and plant growth stalled or stopped for most species.
I'm sort of at the point of giving up! I'm thinking of increasing the light to 100% - the theory being I'll get faster plant growth and less static surfaces for the diatoms to grow on (I know, don't shoot me down in flames just yet though!). I've absolutely no other algae at all. If this all goes wrong and the plants melt then I'm thinking I might go low tech instead lots of Crypts, Anubias and Echinodorus and Vallis type plants.
Arrgghhh