Lighting for River Tank

[mlawson]

Hello,

I have a 34 gallon river tank with some Danios and 4 newly introduced Sewellia lineolata.

I want to encourage some algae growth, sort of like the algae which Martin Thoene has on his river tank on one of the articles. I'm thinking of getting a twin 55 watt PC T5 lighting unit, the question is what kind of light tubing would be good at encouraging this kind of algae growth which the loaches will eat? Would an ordinary freshwater lamp suffice or maybe a marine spectrum lamp?

Cheers,
Mike

[grizzlyone]

You may want to search the forum.

Several folks have a tanks where they grow the algae on rocks in another tank and then switch the rocks. You may start to have other problems if you have that much light and you may not get to enjoy the fish because of the growth on the sides of your tank and other problems.


Some of the folks even have a "special mixture" to promote algae growth


Kevin

[mlawson]

My tank consists of mainly pebbles and smooth rocks. I have already put some of these smooth rocks in a tub outside for algae to grow on, I know this works as I have done it before for some plecs.

If I don't have that much lighting then what should I have, I kind of want that Red algae which is in the article. I don't mind quite a bit of algae, but I guess I don't want my plants completely smothered. I just want my Hillstreams to have a good place to live in.

Mike

[Whitey_MacLeod]

I've got 2x 25w fluorescents in a 40 gallon tank- it's the standard 3ft Juwel lighting. I've had no problems getting my cobbles covered with algae, although it can take a while for new rocks to get coated. I do have a few problems with black brush and hair algae, but the high levels of phosphate in my tapwater have a lot to do with that.
Personally, I'd go with whatever spectrum lamps you like the look of- I've got two grow-lamps which gives the tank a bit of a pink tinge- probably not to everyone's taste but along with the tannins in the water it makes for a really warm look.

[mlawson]

Thanks for the pic. Whitey Macleod,

That is the amount of algae I want on my rocks, I may get a single 55 watt unit.

I prefer the whitish lamps, so I may get one with about 6500k colour spectrum.

Cheers,
Mike