Lighting Questions

[Egmel]

I've just ordered a 'few' more plants for my Juwel Rekord 70 and am now debating upgrading my lighting.

I currently have a single ballast arcadia unit with a 15w original light, fitted about 6 months ago. Which conveniently leaves the back of the lid empty and ripe for converting to hold an extra light. (BTW anyone needing to fit a replacement light unit may come across the same problem I did, the gaping holes of the old light unit are exactly where you need to put bolts to secure the new light unit! I solved this using plastic from old floppy discs to block up the holes )

None of the plants I've ordered are particularly delicate (although I'm an avid gardener I'm still learning with regards to aquatic plants!) so I shouldn't need excessive lighting.

I'm looking at a dual ballast to power 2 more 15w tubes. My question is this, would I be better off running 3 day lights (the current arcadia original tropical and 2 arcadia freshwater) or running 2 day lights off the dual ballast and running a moonlight off the current single ballast (with overlapping timers at each end of the day/lunchtime)?

Would the 45w of day lights be too bright for the fish (penguin tetras, guppies and a gold spot dwarf plec) or likely to cause excessive algae? I don't add CO2 or extra nutrients (yet ).

Either way it's easy to swap between the 2 options if I make the wrong choice to start off with, I just wondered what people's opinions were.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Rooster]

The "day" lights option gets my vote.... darkness is just as vital to plants, as is "daylight" !

 

[raptorrex]

i would agree with Rooster here. as for the algae. in a planted tank there is a good chance that the light type (daylight tubes) may not cause the algae we expect. much of the food the algae use will be tied up by your plants. but it seems clear, unless you are Tom Barr, that the colour of light does have a baring on the growth of both algae and plants. it may be worth looking at the second light being of the none blue(daylight) type. with a bit of experimentation, if you find the lights cause, or may cause, too much algae. you could reduce the time the "daylight" tubes are on filling the gap with the none "daylight type.

 

[Egmel]

The "day" lights option gets my vote.... darkness is just as vital to plants, as is "daylight" !

If it were to have the moonlight strip it would only have been on for an hour or so each end, the tank's in my room so I couldn't cope with lighting all the night through

i would agree with Rooster here. as for the algae. in a planted tank there is a good chance that the light type (daylight tubes) may not cause the algae we expect. much of the food the algae use will be tied up by your plants. but it seems clear, unless you are Tom Barr, that the colour of light does have a baring on the growth of both algae and plants. it may be worth looking at the second light being of the none blue(daylight) type. with a bit of experimentation, if you find the lights cause, or may cause, too much algae. you could reduce the time the "daylight" tubes are on filling the gap with the none "daylight type.

Ok, so I'll probably stick with the single Aqua Glo I've got and then have a nose around the planted forum to find out what other lamps I should put in the two empty slots. As you say I can play with the timings to combat any algae growth, especially as I'll have one lamp on a separate controller so I can have them staggered.

Thanks a lot for your comments