Lighting For 55 Gallon

[mancin]

I'm trying to figure out if I should upgrade my lighting or not. Help please!
Currently I have 2 hoods on my 55 Gallon tank and only 30W of lights (2 15W that are 18" long). There's no connection for an additional light under either hood. I tried to find a higher wattage for an 18" light and was not successful. I only found higher wattage in actinic lights, which seems to be geared toward reef tanks. I thought, well I'm going to have to upgrade the hood then. I found a hood online that spans the entire tank (48") and comes with a 40W light. Again, only room for one light. Buying a brand new hood doesn't seem worth it to only gain 10W of lighting, especially if there is no option to add additional lights.
I think I'm making this more difficult than it needs to be. Can anyone shed some light? (haha - no pun intended)
For comparison purposes, this is the kind of hood I was looking at: All-Glass Deluxe Fluorescent Full Hoods
Should I just leave the lighting as is? I was considering low light plants, anyway. I'm very new to plants so I don't want to overwhelm myself right off of the bat.

 

[three-fingers]

Personally, I'd stick to the light you have . Getting some reflectors for them would probably be a good idea.

It's likely going to be very easy to DIY extra light tubes in there if you decide you want to grow different plants later.

For now just stick to things like Java fern, Anubias, mosses, Cryptocoryne and if you want something faster growing Hygrophila species .

The slow growing varieties above require basically no extra attention, though Cryptocoryne species will likely benefit from root tabs. If you add faster growing species, they might also benefit from a decent liquid fertiliser.

 

[mancin]

Thank you! Those are exactly the plants I was thinking of, but since I'm at less than 1 WPG, I began to doubt myself.
I'm not familiar with what the reflectors are? I'm guessing they just attach to the existing lights? Sounds like I'm going to have to do a quick search!

 

[mancin]

Hmmmm. I was easily able to find a couple brands that make reflectors (Arcadia & Juwel) in the UK, but I'm in the US.

Edit: Found some on e-Bay! I think I'll try that route. Thanks for the help!

 

[Rlon35]

Coralife Aqualight, freshwater version, 2X65 watts at 6700k. If you are doing a planted tank, this is a good choice. It is available inthe US, but I don't know about elsewhere. It has a top mounted fan, so the tank can be against the wall. I have used this for the past year plus on my 55g, and it has been a good fixture. I have the 4x65 watt version, but I only run the two that run with the fan. 130 watts for 55 gallons is perfect IMO. When I have run more wattage, I have had poblems.

 

[mancin]

Coralife Aqualight, freshwater version, 2X65 watts at 6700k. If you are doing a planted tank, this is a good choice. It is available inthe US, but I don't know about elsewhere. It has a top mounted fan, so the tank can be against the wall. I have used this for the past year plus on my 55g, and it has been a good fixture. I have the 4x65 watt version, but I only run the two that run with the fan. 130 watts for 55 gallons is perfect IMO. When I have run more wattage, I have had poblems.

Good to know! I'll have to keep this in mind if I do end up upgrading the lighting later on. It looks like something like that may actually work w/ my existing hood. I figure I'll start off with the low light plants (with the new reflectors I just bought) and see if I can even keep them alive.

 

[mancin]

Well I just got the reflectors in the mail and hooked them up today. I've had plants in there for several days now, but noticed some of the leaves are starting to brown and waste away. The Crypts melted, which I expected, and hopefully those grow back soon. However, I'm noticing some possible deficiencies in the other plants. I bought Seachem Flourish as a fertilizer (haven't been able to find TPN+ locally, I may need to buy it online if Flourish doesn't work). What could be the cause of this? I googled "Nutrient Deficiency" and found some helpful sites, and it appears it may be a Potassium deficiency? I added 5mL of Flourish on Friday and another 5mL today as I did a water change.

Small hole forming in this leaf.

Some browning and wasting away on this leaf.

These seem to be showing the most problems.

 

[s007]

By looking at the very bottom picture i guess you dont feed your plants with fertelizer do you? I had same problem before then after i started to use ferts the plants started to become more greener ull see difference in as fast as 2 weeks. I have 156 W of light and they are T5 HO with mirror reflectors for 60 UK Gal tank thats about 2.23 WPG

 

[three-fingers]

I wouldn't worry too much yet, as you mention you have only had the plants in for a few days, a lot of aquarium plants are grown emersed before sale, so those leaves will likely die off and be replaced with submersed leaves over the first few weeks.

Buy a small bottle of Flourish Potassium if the new leaves show these signs too. What is your nitrate reading? Does the tank have many fish yet? What type of water do you use? RO? Is your tap water soft anyway?

Also, it's best for the plants if you turn off your air pump, your depriving them of CO2 .

 

[mancin]

I wouldn't worry too much yet, as you mention you have only had the plants in for a few days, a lot of aquarium plants are grown emersed before sale, so those leaves will likely die off and be replaced with submersed leaves over the first few weeks.

Buy a small bottle of Flourish Potassium if the new leaves show these signs too. What is your nitrate reading? Does the tank have many fish yet? What type of water do you use? RO? Is your tap water soft anyway?

Also, it's best for the plants if you turn off your air pump, your depriving them of CO2 .

The Nitrate is at 5ppm. I haven't seen it go above that. The tank is about 1/2 stocked right now (if you go by the inch per gallon guideline). Not sure how quickly I should be stocking since the plants are using some of the ammonia from the fish. When I bought the tank used, it was already set up, so when I re-homed the current fish I aimed for a similiar bio load and haven't really added too much since then. I've always thought it was best to wait at least a week, if not two, between adding new fish, but I don't know if it's any different for a planted tank. I don't use RO water. Just tap water with dechlor added. The water in the area isn't extremely soft.

So I should lose the bubbles? My Pleco will be heartbroken.

By looking at the very bottom picture i guess you dont feed your plants with fertelizer do you?

I do have Seachem Flourish. I was following the guidelines on the bottle, but I think I've heard of members overdosing. I'm just not sure how much is appropriate since I don't have overly demanding plants.

 

[three-fingers]

Ah right, well, these may be real signs of a potassium deficiency, I would buy some Flourish Potassium (K) and use it as well as the regular Flourish, but start off only adding it once a week (during a water change would be good), just because you have not-so-demanding plants. If you still notice the deficiencies on new leaves, then dose more times per week.

If the plants start to go yellow or otherwise stunted after you have added all of the fish you think will fit comfortably in the tank (don't worry too much about inch per gallon rules or anything, just carefully consider the temperament and adult size of the fish and judge yourself), then you may need to add nitrogen and phosphorous fertilisers too (or just feed the fish more), but I doubt it will come to that.

In some planted tanks, you can just add lots of fish at once, but not all - it depends on how fast they are growing and how many there is.
Since it's kinda hard to tell for your tank, and you don't add extra CO2 or have loads of light, it's best just to rely on your filter bacteria to cope with the fish load.
An established healthy colony of filter bacteria should be able to double in size every 24 hours. That means that if you double the amount of fish in one go, it will take 24 hours until the bacterial can once again cover the ammonia and nitrite from the new fish as well.
Adding twice the amount of fish then wouldn't be a problem if there's enough volume of water to dilute some of the waste, and you could do a water change to dilute it too if you wanted.
Plants should be able to help with the spillover ammonia anyway.
So there's no need to wait a week or two before adding more fish . Your plants need the ammonia (N) and phosphate (P) from the fish food!

Once you have more fish, and are adding both fertilisers, your plants will have everything they need to grow healthily, since you will be providing NPK fertilisation and the regular Flourish for trace elements they need.

Then the main thing limiting how fast they grow would be the provision of CO2, so it is best to remove your bubble wall if you want the plants to grow faster, but if you don't mind too much and the fish like it, you can keep it if you want . Plants will just grow a bit slower .

 

[mancin]

Ah right, well, these may be real signs of a potassium deficiency, I would buy some Flourish Potassium (K) and use it as well as the regular Flourish, but start off only adding it once a week (during a water change would be good), just because you have not-so-demanding plants. If you still notice the deficiencies on new leaves, then dose more times per week.

If the plants start to go yellow or otherwise stunted after you have added all of the fish you think will fit comfortably in the tank (don't worry too much about inch per gallon rules or anything, just carefully consider the temperament and adult size of the fish and judge yourself), then you may need to add nitrogen and phosphorous fertilisers too (or just feed the fish more), but I doubt it will come to that.

In some planted tanks, you can just add lots of fish at once, but not all - it depends on how fast they are growing and how many there is.
Since it's kinda hard to tell for your tank, and you don't add extra CO2 or have loads of light, it's best just to rely on your filter bacteria to cope with the fish load.
An established healthy colony of filter bacteria should be able to double in size every 24 hours. That means that if you double the amount of fish in one go, it will take 24 hours until the bacterial can once again cover the ammonia and nitrite from the new fish as well.
Adding twice the amount of fish then wouldn't be a problem if there's enough volume of water to dilute some of the waste, and you could do a water change to dilute it too if you wanted.
Plants should be able to help with the spillover ammonia anyway.
So there's no need to wait a week or two before adding more fish . Your plants need the ammonia (N) and phosphate (P) from the fish food!

Once you have more fish, and are adding both fertilisers, your plants will have everything they need to grow healthily, since you will be providing NPK fertilisation and the regular Flourish for trace elements they need.

Then the main thing limiting how fast they grow would be the provision of CO2, so it is best to remove your bubble wall if you want the plants to grow faster, but if you don't mind too much and the fish like it, you can keep it if you want . Plants will just grow a bit slower .

This was very helpful. Thank you! I think I'll head to the LFS tonight and pick up some Flourish Potassium as well as some more Harlequins. I have 10 Harlequins in the tank right now (in addition to some others, the largest fish is 4") and I had wanted to get another school of fish, but I just love watching the Harlequins together so I think I'll just up their numbers instead.

I failed to mention the plant in the last picture came with the tank and was doing fine until I added the rest of the plants. I guess they are stealing all the nutrients now. I know the 'damage' isn't terrible yet, but I wanted to stay in front of it if I can!

I'm not completely opposed to removing the bubble wall, and I certainly can if I need to. My Pleco, the character that he is, LOVES to play in there, as well as the Harlequins. But, I'm going to re-home the Pleco anyway as he's a Common and not large now, but will be, so I guess it doesn't matter if he likes them or not.

 

[SuperColey1]

Leave the bubbles in. Low light non CO2 tanks need water surface turbulence. It keeps a natural level up through natural gaseous exchange at the surface.

I would however up filtration to 10x or more the tank volume per hour. This will get things moving and keep detritus in suspension better making sure the filter gets more crap out of the water.

Non CO2 tanks also require 'no water changes'.

CO2 is vital for plant growth but plants adapt themselves to the levels available within the tank water. While the plant is adapting it doesn't grow and therefore if the level is not stable then the plants are constantly adapting and algae jumps in. Algae adapts much quicker to almost everything than the plants.

When you do a water change the huge movement coupled with the high CO2 content of the fresh water means that you are disturbing this level which in turn means that the plants will stop every week to adapt.

Take a look on barrreport.com for methods of Non CO2 tanks and some of his examples. The same posts are on here somewhere but not sure of their titles

I would think your light is not necessarily too low but I doubt you have a decent enough spread from the small tubes you are using. I would suggest getting 2 full length tubes (T8/T12 with reflectors). something like a T12 48" 40W or T8 48" 32W. Steer clear of T5 for now as they would boost the light right up.

That would keep you in the low light area and mean you can stay away from CO2 but circulation will be a key issue with or without the light/CO2 additions

AC

 

[mancin]

Well I went to my LFS last night and they looked at me like I was crazy when I asked to find a fertilizer that just focuses on Potassium. None of them seemed too familiar with fertilizers in general, but I did manage to find something.

I would however up filtration to 10x or more the tank volume per hour. This will get things moving and keep detritus in suspension better making sure the filter gets more crap out of the water.

I have 2 Aqua Tech 30-60 HOB filters right now. I think each one filters around 300 GPH, which should put me at 10x - 11x, right? I also have a powerhead in there, but I'm not sure what it's set to right now (it's adjustable).

Non CO2 tanks also require 'no water changes'.

CO2 is vital for plant growth but plants adapt themselves to the levels available within the tank water. While the plant is adapting it doesn't grow and therefore if the level is not stable then the plants are constantly adapting and algae jumps in. Algae adapts much quicker to almost everything than the plants.

When you do a water change the huge movement coupled with the high CO2 content of the fresh water means that you are disturbing this level which in turn means that the plants will stop every week to adapt.

So are you saying by doing water changes, I'm actually preventing my plants from adapting to the tank? How often should I be doing water changes then? My first priority are the fish (then the plants) and I have a couple sensitive species in there (the GBRs specifically) so I want to make sure the water is staying top notch.

Take a look on barrreport.com for methods of Non CO2 tanks and some of his examples. The same posts are on here somewhere but not sure of their titles

I will definitely take a look at this! I just heard about this website somewhere else, perhaps from one of Tom's posts?

I would think your light is not necessarily too low but I doubt you have a decent enough spread from the small tubes you are using. I would suggest getting 2 full length tubes (T8/T12 with reflectors). something like a T12 48" 40W or T8 48" 32W. Steer clear of T5 for now as they would boost the light right up.

My LFS actually does have some good choices for lighting. His prices are on par with what I could find online, minus the shipping + waiting. I have already swapped out the hood for glass tops, so swapping lighting would be a piece of cake.

 

[three-fingers]

Leave the bubbles in. Low light non CO2 tanks need water surface turbulence. It keeps a natural level up through natural gaseous exchange at the surface.

And why cant that happen without the turbulence? The "natural level" of CO2 is lower in the water when you have surface agitation.

A little bit of turbulence from filters is great to stop a thick biofilm forming, but surface aggression though an air pump will remove even more CO2 from the plants reach...so I still don't understand why some people recommend air pumps?

So are you saying by doing water changes, I'm actually preventing my plants from adapting to the tank? How often should I be doing water changes then? My first priority are the fish (then the plants) and I have a couple sensitive species in there (the GBRs specifically) so I want to make sure the water is staying top notch.

No, the plants will adapt quickly enough, it's not really a problem for them. The water change thing is just a reason algae can appear in tanks, especially if your tap water is significantly different from the tank water. But if your doing weekly water changes I wouldn't worry about it at all, water changes are fine, they are very easy to do and with your nice soft water I don't see any downsides. Water changes do not necessarily mean you will have lots of algae...
I wouldn't stop doing water changes until your plants are growing well, especially with rams in there.
After that you could stop or slow down depending on how things are going, but you don't need to stop, water changes are potentially good for lots of reasons.

Don't think you have to stick to one set way of doing things (i.e. no water changes with surface agitation), most people unknowingly mix it up and get great results.

Don't bother upgrading your lights until you see signs of light deficiency, could just end up being a waste of money, and give you a temporary bout of algae since you cant just up your CO2 levels to account for the extra light.