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jlo718

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Hello I recently got this light for my planted tank. "Beamworks Beamswork DA 6500K 0.50W Series LED Pent Aquarium Light Freshwater Plant Discus" anyone have any experience with this light? Would you categorize it as low,mid,or high lighting?
 
Depends on how big your tank is. Look at the lumens on it.
General rule is 20-30 lumens/ liter for low light plants, 30-40 for medium and 50 and above for highlight plants.
Also depends on the depth of the tank and the PAR @ substrate.
 
4800 lumens, and it's a 29 gallon. Did the math came out to 43.6 lumens/liter if my math is right. Which would be medium/high? Not sure about the par.
 
4800 lumens, and it's a 29 gallon. Did the math came out to 43.6 lumens/liter if my math is right. Which would be medium/high? Not sure about the par.
yup you should be able to grow pretty much every plant provided you supply the proper nutrients. If the plants dont get the nutrients they need they wont grow and algae will take hold.
Its a tricky balance.
As far as PAR google PAR depth charts, or go to rotalabutterfly light calculator and plug in your specs and it should generate some numbers for you. To grow substrate plants like carpeting plants one needs at least 30 PAR at substrate.
 
As others have already pointed out, plants use light across different spectrums from approximately 400nm to 700nm.

As for your original question, in growing plants only in the red spectrum, this is possible, albeit not ideal. Chaetomorpha utilized in reef aquarium refugiums is often illuminated with red lights only. Utilized only for nutrient export, not aesthetics or plant health, pure growth is the only factor hobbyists look for in refugium lighting. Chlorophyll A and B exist in similar ratios in macroalgae to vascular plants and utilize light the same way. The rationale, although likely flawed, is that PUR (not PAR) levels highest in the red area are the most important determining factor in growth because that wavelength is the most readily used by chlorophyll A, which is the predominant type in chaetomorpha.

Again, right or wrong in their approach, hobbyists do illuminate plants in only the red spectrum and it does keep plants growing fast. However, the goals for those using chaetomorpha as nutrient export and those keeping freshwater aquatic plants are clearly on different ends of the “spectrum”. Pun intended.
 
Wow everyone thanks for all the great info! I was running 2 lights not thinking it was enough and getting some algae growth.
 

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