Java Fern, Anubias Lighting

[Lolly123]

Hi all,

My new 250L tank has 3x39w T5's 2 white and 1 pinky/red bulb.

The white lights make the aquarium look horrible, its so overpowering. Would it be possible to only use the pinky bulb to grow anubias and java fern? It will bring down the wpg from 2.1 to about 0.7. Plants havent been in there long and so far with all 3 lights running ive been adding a capful of flourish excel and a cap of TPN+ every other day and I kinda want to get out of having to do that so much because its going to cost alot and the plants are already starting to get on my nerves. I have bad patience.

I know that people might say to take out one of the whites or change the bulb, but the hood has the internal filter running through it so not exactly the easiest thing.

Is 0.7 way too low and the is the kelvin rating of the pinky bulb okay for the plants?

Thanks

 

[FishyWishie]

Couple of small points here


1) If the 3 39W bulbs you have are the only bulbs on that tank then your light is approximately 1.772 wpg (250 Litres / 66 US Gallons) I seem to remember supercoley I think it was saying to use US Gallons.

2) The kelvin rating is way less important that you think for example my 370L tank has 2 x 54W and 2 x 39W and there all what you call pinky (plant growth bulbs usually) and both the fish and my plants seem to love it.

3) Without knowing what plants you have in there its very difficult to say if 0.59 WPG (1 bulb over 66 us gallons/250L) is enough if the plants are things such as anubias and java ferns or Amazon swords your light is more than likely fine if however you have medium or high light plants it may well not be enough.

Fertwise you can always move to dry ferts or ones you make up yourself to cut costs If you do reduce the light you would probably not need to does the excel for the plants that would remain in the tank at those light levels.

 

[Lolly123]

Hello,

I do apologise for not adding what plants I have, I was frustrated like hell yesterday because my redmoor wood came up and its really hard to position a heavy rock on the wood when you have skittish clown loaches getting in the way..thats another story, but what I will say is that they are not my fish and if I had a choice they'd be rehomed for my sake and theirs...okay rant over lol

My workings were based on UK but if we're doing it in US gallons thats not a prob

I have anubias barteri nana, anubias congensis and java fern and thats all I want i'm not interested in venturing in to any medium light plants. So far the plants are looking okay, the anubias nana has a few brown spots on some leaves, so I was thinking maybe too much light with the 3 bulbs running or maybe not enough nutrients as I have been dosing on the ridiculously careful side. But as i say if I can go down to 0.59wpg then I definately will, not only does the tank look so much better, I think the fish like it, but its more imporant to me that the plants will do okay.

Thanks for reply.

 

[FishyWishie]

No problems

If you increase the light you offer plants you also have to increase the ferts/carbon given if you dramatically increase light and dont match this with ferts it does cause problems.

With regards to redmoor what i did was superglued it to a heavy chunk of slate and then burried the slate in the substrate I could never balance a rock on mine either esp as my tank is very deep. I too was using UK gallons before I was pointed towards US it never entered my head to do anything different tbh.

 

[Lolly123]

No problems

If you increase the light you offer plants you also have to increase the ferts/carbon given if you dramatically increase light and dont match this with ferts it does cause problems.

With regards to redmoor what i did was superglued it to a heavy chunk of slate and then burried the slate in the substrate I could never balance a rock on mine either esp as my tank is very deep. I too was using UK gallons before I was pointed towards US it never entered my head to do anything different tbh.

Good idea with the redmoor, I should have thought about that when I was setting up.

Okay so, saying that I'm down to 0.59wpg, do you have any recommendations for adding ferts, should I be adding at all with such low light, or should I let my fish waste do the job. I've been having a search around and answers vary so greatly, some people saying that this amount of light will grow nothing and others saying that java fern and anubias do okay under 0.6wpg. I guess its trial and error..i just dont want to make too much error lol

Failing that, I could always just buy another of the same bulb and have 2 pinky ones running.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

I have both Anubias and Javas in the same tank..... the Anubias are absolutely flourishing and growing beautifully, but the Javas.... (same conditions - same lighting) are wasting and all going black..... are they tankmates?? or do they need different conditions??

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Both anubias and java fern can live almost in the dark. I will throw excess ones into a Rubbermaid bin I use for the purpose, no light, no filter, no heater and they survive for months and months on ambient light and some added water to top off the bin.

Both of these plants are not root feeder rather they get most of their nutrients via their leaves. They use the roots for attaching mostly. In fact abubias are not even a true aquatic plant. They just dont seem to know that they have been fully submerged and continue to live and grow- albeit at a much slower rate than when not under water.

Pick whatever K bulb looks most pleasing to your eye as almost any will be fine for these plants. Nor do they really need nuch in the way of ferts. In a stocked tank usually dosing just micronutrients can be sufficient for them.

Because they are slower growing plants, they are prone to getting alga covered when there is too much light since the algae can cover them faster than they can grow. In higher light tanks they normally need to be shaded some to prevent this.

 

[Lolly123]

Both anubias and java fern can live almost in the dark. I will throw excess ones into a Rubbermaid bin I use for the purpose, no light, no filter, no heater and they survive for months and months on ambient light and some added water to top off the bin.

Both of these plants are not root feeder rather they get most of their nutrients via their leaves. They use the roots for attaching mostly. In fact abubias are not even a true aquatic plant. They just dont seem to know that they have been fully submerged and continue to live and grow- albeit at a much slower rate than when not under water.

Pick whatever K bulb looks most pleasing to your eye as almost any will be fine for these plants. Nor do they really need nuch in the way of ferts. In a stocked tank usually dosing just micronutrients can be sufficient for them.

Because they are slower growing plants, they are prone to getting alga covered when there is too much light since the algae can cover them faster than they can grow. In higher light tanks they normally need to be shaded some to prevent this.

Excellent, thanks for such a great reply. Some of the leaves on the anubias are already starting to get some brown algae ill keep them under the more pleasing light I have and hopefully it'll be a success.

Thanks again.