Lighting And Co 2

[cserra]

i am in the process of making my tank an all natural plant tank. i have been doing research on the subject and have found different answers as to the correct lighting. im hopiing you all can help. I have an 80 gallon tank, with 5 angels, one is the size of a raquet ball, the other four about the size of a golf ball. i have 10 glowlight tetras, 7 cardinal tetras and a small albino pleco. about 2 inch. my water parameters are good. i do 25% water change every week. i have two anubias ( hope i spelled correctly ) in there now. i know about the WPG rule depending on what type of plants, low , mod, and high light. i am going to upgrade my lights because i only have 1 watt per gallon right now and im want to add a variety of plants that require mod to high light. my question is what type of bulbs or bulb combination is best for growing plants. i am purchasing a four bulb light and i want to know what bulbs would be best. thanx for the help.

 

[snowflake311]

Wpg is not that good of a rule it's just about as good as the inch per gal rule for fish. It's an ok guid I guess. It's all about PAR with it comes to light intensity.


I have a 80gal planted tank. I have 2x65 daylight T5 on that tank. I raised the light up about 4" from the water surface because I was getting to much algea. Now everything is perfect good plant growth and no algea. This is a low tech tank I does ferts weekly with WC and I add liquid co2 like excel every morning.

I want to add pressurized co2 and would lower my light down when I do. But the low tech set up works well as is.

 

[DrRob]

Aye, WPG is fairly useless nowadays. What is the 4 tube light exactly? Are they T5's or T8's, or something else entirely?

Worth letting us know the dimensions of your 80 galloner as well, especially depth.

As for tubes, it generally doesn't matter all that much, so long as you stay below the 10,000K colour mark. In a freshwater tank the plants will work with most of what you give them. I tend to run 10,000K tubes as I like the colour and can't see any noticeable difference in plant growth from when I used 6,500K or specialist plant tubes.

Oh, and sorry for not replying earlier, I've been somewhat busy with a crazy work schedule and a new baby, although I'll admit I'd spotted the question.

 

[`Peter]

Stick to T5 bulbs. I recommend looking at the Aqualife T5 HO light fixtures online. There are single, dual, and quad versions of it and should fit any tank depending on the length. The quad versions also include a built in timer and usually 3 6K daylight bulbs and 1 pink roseatte (pink) bulb for plant growth. Mine just shipped 2 days ago and it looks great.

Here's my review btw you can check it out on the Aqualife for a 24 inch long tank

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKtXXCVnQV8&feature=plcp

 

[ian]

there is no bulb that will grow plants best...plants will utilise whatever light given to them, whether it be pink blue purple or yellow. Get what looks best to you.