On Mon, 26 Dec 2005 18:02:51 GMT, Suzie-Q
wrote:

I have three 2.5 gallon tanks, each with one female betta. All three
are the same except for the lights. One has the original incandescent
light that came with the tank. In the others I replaced the incandescent
bulb with one of those flourescent screw-in bulbs. I thought the light
would be more natural. I was right.

What I've realized, finally, is that the flourescent bulbs are the reason
these two tanks have an algae problem. The tank with the original bulb
has very little algae.

You veteran fish people probably have known this all along, but for me
it's news!

I'm going to replace the flourescents with incandescents and, hopefully,
reduce the amount of algae growth.

There are many different flourescents. My 5 tanks all use
flourescents, only 2 have minor algae growth.

Incandescent lights through off heat and distribute the light from
smaller area thus not only heating the water, but less even lighting.

I don't know where you got the idea about flourescents being bad
lighting, but I was happy incandescent lights were gone when I
returned to keeping fish. As a boy with several tanks with only
incandescents, I had to keep the lights off to avoid over heating the
water.

Do your tanks get any sunlight? Are you over feeding? What does the
algae look like?

dick