O.o ???

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JoannaBanana

You need to do a large water change right before blackout and then right after blackout. Blackouts usually run 4 to 5 days. And water changes are 50% or more and it should be cleared up completely.

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/sta...late-3253.html

OK, so the cover came off this morning after five days, and the water is CRYSTAL CLEAR. Ahhh, soo nice. I went ahead and did a 50-ish% water change, and did a little clean up.

All this trauma has been hard on the dwarf hair grass. I think I may have to replace it, but the red lily looks great. All the fish look happy. I am ecstatic.

So, how long should the lights stay on today? What is the recommended lighting sched. for a planted tank? I have two CFLs; not sure on the output.

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JoannaBanana

I believe it was between 5500 and 6500....

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JoannaBanana

They are 10w CFLs. There are two with a reflective metal behind them. The are not spiral, but double "U"s.

(Not sure if I mentioned before, but the algae problem did not start until I went out of town one weekend and put a gel food cake in there and an algae wafer. Big mistake, I know. After that it began to turn green. The lights definitely may have contributed to that problem, but I don't know if they caused it. Someone else who know more than I would be a better judge of that.)

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JoannaBanana

congrates.

and is sometimes seems to take forever.

hopefully the plants are ready to spring to life with super fast growing.

try 8 hours with 1/2 the feeding you used to do. then see how it goes.

and keep us posted.

still just my .02

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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks. http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden