Dirted tank help

[Triangle08t]

Ok ball help y'all. I've sadly been ignoring this tank pretty hard for awhile and started back on my weekly water changes. I'm having a bit of an algae problem that was really bad until recent cleanings. Its a 10 gallon dirted tank with 2 26 watt 7600k bulbs. My guess is too much light so I'm down to 5 hours a day. 1 2 hour with a 3 hour gap to a 3 hour session. Thoughts?




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[Astex]

My first thought is not enough plant mass, I'd be tempted to get some water sprite, wisteria, vals or any other fast growing plant and really fill up the tank. The best dirted tanks require 90% or so of the substrate to be planted and then you can slowly swap what plants you really want for the temporary filler plants.

[Triangle08t]

Thanks Astex. I completely forgot about that part. I'm going to pick up some staurogyne repens or pearl weed for the ground cover.

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[davemonkey]

You can also reduce your water level slightly, and/or get some plants with shoots ABOVE water. That will help with faster plant uptake of nutrients since the aerial plants will be metabolizing much faster. If you reduce your water level, you can gradually bring it back up over a several week period. Siamese algae eaters and Black Mollies are known to eat that algae, so that may also help. You can also raise your light fixture by placing it up on something, which will reduce light intensity. Fast growing stem plants will also help.