Algae or fungus?

[Cermet]

Post's here are by people who do this as a hobby and have experience. That does not mean it is the best way, only a way that works for them. A peer reviewed proffesional scientific paper on this exact topic was published and strongly stated that 1 ppm ammonia was ideal mostly because the nitrite consumming bacteria would have issues if the ntrite forming bacteria had high levels of ammonia and populated most of the filter media; hence, crowding them out of space.

Advice here is good and should be followed by using your judgment and deciding what to do after reading various posts - yet these posts are not facts, just best guess's. Do as you please - fact: your have a lot of algae. Another independent fact: you have high ammonia level. The two may or may NOT be related. Your tank, your call.

Hope the spot treatment works - don't forget not to forget (had to do that) that you turned your filter off and it needs to be turned on. I've done that!

[Bolsen27]

I did almost forget to turn the filter back on. Lol

[Goes to 11!]

The light is a Nova Extreme T5HO light that has 2 54 watt bulbs. 1 Truelumen flora (6700k) bulb and 1 Zoomed Ultra Sun(6500k) bulb. I use the same fixture on my 20 gal tank with the same bulbs and time schedule and don't have any problems. Of course the 20 gal is on a 24 inch fixture and not the 48 version I have on my 40 gal. but the WPG is identical in both cases.

Correct me if I am wrong but isn't your 20g tank 3" higher than your 40g? This 3" of extra intensity may be making the difference and I would certainly give lowering the photo period a try to see if it affects your issue. WPG btw is only a measure of the power consumed by the fixture. It does not measure the available useable light at all. Click here for far more than you care to know about lighting

A peer reviewed proffesional scientific paper on this exact topic was published and strongly stated that 1 ppm ammonia was ideal mostly because the nitrite consumming bacteria would have issues if the ntrite forming bacteria had high levels of ammonia and populated most of the filter media; hence, crowding them out of space.

Understood, But obviously this is much less of a factor if you have more than adequate biomedia capacity in your filter. No idea if that's a factor here but just thought I would add it

[Bolsen27]

The height of both tanks is the same. And both lights are 4" off the top.


I have 2 AC70's with extra biomedia in both.

[Goes to 11!]

Oh sorry, At 48" long I took this to be a 40 long [48x13x16]. Now I am curious about the dimensions of your 40G tank? It's obviously not a breeder by the pictures.

[Bolsen27]

40 gal is 48"x 13"x 20."
20 gal is 24"x 12"x 16"

Light is 4" above the top of both tanks

I didn't realize until just now that the 40gal is 4 inches taller.


I feel slightly stupid!!! When I bought the tank on Craigslist the person called it a 40gal and I took it at that.. But after measuring it I believe it's a 55gal. Which means more fish! Lol