# Thinking About Going Low Tech



## Aquaman55g (Oct 5, 2010)

After long bouts with multiple forms of algae in my planted 125 gallon tank I am considering going to a smaller low-tech planted tank and making the 125 a Cichlid tank. The only issue I have is that I only own bright LEDs for this size tank. Is it possible to have a healthy nearly algae free planted tank with no CO2 and bright lights if I use Seachem Excel - liquid carbon? Thanks to any responding members. :fish10:


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## Summer (Oct 3, 2011)

Youre going to have to limit the amount of time that the lights are on by quite a bit. without plants to soak up nutrients the algae will go wild more than likely


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## henningc (Apr 17, 2013)

People grew tons of plants before LEDs and ferts, so yes. You just have to put things on timers so you keep light to a reasonable amount.


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## FishFlow (Sep 13, 2011)

greatly simplified, algae is a result of too much light. It will not be a good idea to put your current lighting on a smaller tank. You'll have even worse problems. 

Reduce your light. You can reduce the time they are on, or raise them higher over the tank.


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## Hooperman42 (Oct 23, 2011)

Bulbs are cheap. Get 6500K and forget about it. I also had one very bright white ATI Lamp (20K) along with a few 6500's and it looked great for a week - its not worth it. Your eyes will get used to the change especially when the plants start getting big!


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## welok (Jul 20, 2015)

If you have a sump, you can always make an algae scrubber in it, and remove the algae from there easier than the full tank. Also might help to add in a UV filter on the return from the sump, so the algae is dead before it gets back to the tank proper.


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## Arthur7 (Feb 22, 2013)

It's complicated.
Higher plants are stronger than algae when they have all the necessary nutrients. Then they consume everything and nothing remains for the algae.
But if a nutrient is missing or is too little, the algae are stronger.
Check the completeness of the nutrients. Also check that phosphate or nitrate is not too high.
The most important nutrient is CO2. If you do not want to take any pressure equipment, give some bottles of Sodastream every morning.
At the beginning it is good to have some Amano shrimp. They destroy the remnants of algae.


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