Tall Plants and Algae. What to do :|

[Trickerie]

I have swords that are so talk, they are dropping at the water level. This puts them only a few inches from my Finnex Ray 2. They are receiving serious PAR and almost all of them have little tufts of bba. What can I do? I've been chopping them down as they get too big, but other than that I don't know.

I'm running pressurized co2, EI ferts, finnex ray 2 @ 18" H

[Yo-han]

When the bba is only local, the best thing to do is increase flow so more nutrients (especially CO2) reach the plants in areas where they grow extremely fast due to the high lightning. Other options: increase CO2 (only if livestock allows it) or decrease your amount of light.

[Trickerie]

I increased my co2 a tad and reduced my photoperiod to 7 hrs from 8 today. Hopefully that will help a little

[dutchy]

A reduction in intensity works better than one in duration.

[Trickerie]

I thought about raising the fixture about 3 inches, but I'm not sure how I could achieve it. Maybe some pieces of wood on each side, and fixture on top?

[aquabillpers]

Reducing the amount of light might solve the problem with the upper leaves of the sword, but that also might have a bad effect on the plants located lower in the tank.

You might consider pruning the tallest leaves from the sword, although others will soon take their place. You might also think about replacing the sword with a shorter plant.

Bill