Increasing Light

[Iceman]

I currently have 40 watts over 40 gallons. I've been adding plants and waitng till they grow a bit to think about adding more light. I think I'm ready. But, if I double the wattage to 80 watts, am I going to end up with a tank full of agae, or will the plants increase their growth rate to use up the nutrients and starve the algae?

[TBarb]

I can only speak from experience and not any scientific means but...

I did the same. Yes, I got an algae bloom but it went away. I cleaned it all off and it never came back significantly. Measure your water parameters including iron.

It is well worth gettting to the 2 watts per gallon. That's when you can actually start to see growth and can plany many more plants.