Lighting Specs—Do I Have Any Chance?

[FranM]

I have an 120 gallon 4’ x 2’ x 2’
I will attach a pic of the lighting specs. I have one elderly silver dollar left and loaches. What chance do I have to keep anchored plants of any kind or floating? I have 2 Fluval 407’s. Is the water flow at the surface too much for floating plants?

 

[Byron]

There certainly should be no problem for floating plants re the light. Without seeing the surface disturbance I can't say it is or isn't too much. I always had the surface disturbance at one end of the tank. Substantial floating plants would have no issues on the rest of the surface. Water Sprite, Water Lettuce and Frogbit are what I mean by substantial, as opposed to Salvinia or duckweed. Salvinia is nice, but I would not recommend duckweed here. As for lower plants, you can try low/medium light requiring species and see how they do. That is what I have always done with a new setup, and over the years I had certain plants that did extremely well, and others that didn't I tossed and forgot.

Silver Dollars are herbivorous so it will likely eat some plants, especially tender leaf species. Echinodorus (swords) might do well here. Don't know the loach species but many of them do not dig up plants even when excavating their "home" which is usually under or in a chunk of wood.

 

[Colin_T]

The light looks reasonable but the silver dollar will eat any plants you put in there.

 

[FranM]

There certainly should be no problem for floating plants re the light. Without seeing the surface disturbance I can't say it is or isn't too much. I always had the surface disturbance at one end of the tank. Substantial floating plants would have no issues on the rest of the surface. Water Sprite, Water Lettuce and Frogbit are what I mean by substantial, as opposed to Salvinia or duckweed. Salvinia is nice, but I would not recommend duckweed here. As for lower plants, you can try low/medium light requiring species and see how they do. That is what I have always done with a new setup, and over the years I had certain plants that did extremely well, and others that didn't I tossed and forgot.

Silver Dollars are herbivorous so it will likely eat some plants, especially tender leaf species. Echinodorus (swords) might do well here. Don't know the loach species but many of them do not dig up plants even when excavating their "home" which is usually under or in a chunk of wood.

The silver dollars are one reason why I knew plants would be fruitless. Since there is only one left…. But he does go crazy for lettuce leaves…. Loaches are clowns and yo-yos. I was thinking of attaching some kind of plant to decorations and not into the sand substrate. Would Java fern be a test treat?

ALSO, I have issues with diatoms. My tap water has phosphate. In the aquarium that amount doubles. I’m hoping plants can combat that???

Thank you.

 

[FranM]

There certainly should be no problem for floating plants re the light. Without seeing the surface disturbance I can't say it is or isn't too much. I always had the surface disturbance at one end of the tank. Substantial floating plants would have no issues on the rest of the surface. Water Sprite, Water Lettuce and Frogbit are what I mean by substantial, as opposed to Salvinia or duckweed. Salvinia is nice, but I would not recommend duckweed here. As for lower plants, you can try low/medium light requiring species and see how they do. That is what I have always done with a new setup, and over the years I had certain plants that did extremely well, and others that didn't I tossed and forgot.

Silver Dollars are herbivorous so it will likely eat some plants, especially tender leaf species. Echinodorus (swords) might do well here. Don't know the loach species but many of them do not dig up plants even when excavating their "home" which is usually under or in a chunk of wood.

Also, because I have TWO Fluvals, I have water return on each end of the aquarium.

 

[Colin_T]

Diatoms and algae are caused by light and nutrients, with no live plants to use the light and nutrients. Reduce the light.

Silver dollars need plant matter in their diet every day so keep feeding it lots of green leafy vegetables. Make sure they are free of chemicals.

If you can grow Duckweed outside in a pond or plastic container, you can feed that to the silver dollar.

 

[CarissaT]

The silver dollars are one reason why I knew plants would be fruitless. Since there is only one left…. But he does go crazy for lettuce leaves…. Loaches are clowns and yo-yos. I was thinking of attaching some kind of plant to decorations and not into the sand substrate. Would Java fern be a test treat?

ALSO, I have issues with diatoms. My tap water has phosphate. In the aquarium that amount doubles. I’m hoping plants can combat that???

Thank you.

Yes, try Java fern. It’s tougher and less tasty than many other plants and will do well with low light and can be anchored to whatever you want.

 

[FranciscoB]

"The light looks reasonable but the silver dollar will eat any plants you put in there."

Possible and likely but not necessarily so!
There are many aspects to it, ranging from fish training, choice of plants, how to feed and care for the dollars, etc., etc. Two of my ongoing tanks.

 

[Byron]

ALSO, I have issues with diatoms. My tap water has phosphate. In the aquarium that amount doubles. I’m hoping plants can combat that???

Yes, somewhat anyway. It depends upon the phosphate level. If you know the number, post it, but don't waste money on a phosphate test, it is not that crucial. Phosphorus is a macro nutrient, but in a natural or low-tech planted tank you will get all the phosphorus you need from feeding the fish. Phosphorus is primarily absorbed through the roots of aquatic plants, so your floating plants I mentioned previously will benefit.

Phosphate levels in natural waters are usually in the 0.005 to 0.02 mg/l range, while in the aquarium they will be in the 1 to 3 mg/l range. Diana Walstad has phosphates around 5 mg/l (not deliberately, it occurs in her water and fish foods) and she says this is not problematic.

 

[FranM]

Yes, somewhat anyway. It depends upon the phosphate level. If you know the number, post it, but don't waste money on a phosphate test, it is not that crucial. Phosphorus is a macro nutrient, but in a natural or low-tech planted tank you will get all the phosphorus you need from feeding the fish. Phosphorus is primarily absorbed through the roots of aquatic plants, so your floating plants I mentioned previously will benefit.

Phosphate levels in natural waters are usually in the 0.005 to 0.02 mg/l range, while in the aquarium they will be in the 1 to 3 mg/l range. Diana Walstad has phosphates around 5 mg/l (not deliberately, it occurs in her water and fish foods) and she says this is not problematic.

Thank you. The tap phosphate reads 1 but it doubles to 2 in the tank.

 

[FranM]

"The light looks reasonable but the silver dollar will eat any plants you put in there."

Possible and likely but not necessarily so!
There are many aspects to it, ranging from fish training, choice of plants, how to feed and care for the dollars, etc., etc. Two of my ongoing tanks.

View attachment 165682
View attachment 165683

Lovely tanks. I like the silver dollars but I chose not to replace them? How old are yours? My last one I got in 2009.

 

[FranM]

Diatoms and algae are caused by light and nutrients, with no live plants to use the light and nutrients. Reduce the light.

Silver dollars need plant matter in their diet every day so keep feeding it lots of green leafy vegetables. Make sure they are free of chemicals.

If you can grow Duckweed outside in a pond or plastic container, you can feed that to the silver dollar.

Actually, I always understood that diamtoms proliferate with low light. The tank is “bright” per se, but the actual kelvin produced us low.

 

[CarissaT]

Diatoms are produced usually with silica in higher than normal amounts, for instance when new sand is added. They also use light and if conditions are good higher light will create more diatoms. It’s usually part of ‘new tank syndrome’ and they often go away after exhausting all the excess silica.

 

[Byron]

Actually, I always understood that diamtoms proliferate with low light. The tank is “bright” per se, but the actual kelvin produced us low.

On the light, there appears to be a misunderstanding about Kelvin. Kelvin is the colour temperature of light. This has nothing to do with heat, light temperature is a different thing. All light is produced by colour wavelengths (think of the rainbow or a spectrum) and these can be measured, one way is by Kelvin. "Warm" light is higher in the red/yellow wavelengths, and "cool" light is higher in the blue wavelengths. Sunlight is around 5000-6500K midday, it varies throughout the day though most of us do not see that. So "warm" light will be lower Kelvin numbers, while "cool" light will be higher. Artificial light that has a Kelvin range from 5000K to 6500K is the best light for aquatic plant growth according to scientific studies. The 5000K will have more red and be a bit warmer, while the 6500K has less red and more blue so it is cooler.

The K for your light as posted in Post #1 is 5500K to 8000K. The 8000K is getting a bit high in the blue, and this can assist problem algae, so if you can adjust the light to have the K between 5500K and 6500K, it would be better. Plants need red and blue to drive photosynthesis, and red is the more important of the two. Adding high green to this combination greatly improves plant growth. Plants appear green because they reflect green light, so you need more of it. Just as red leaf plants reflect red so you need higher red for these, or a more intense light collectively.

 

[FranM]

On the light, there appears to be a misunderstanding about Kelvin. Kelvin is the colour temperature of light. This has nothing to do with heat, light temperature is a different thing. All light is produced by colour wavelengths (think of the rainbow or a spectrum) and these can be measured, one way is by Kelvin. "Warm" light is higher in the red/yellow wavelengths, and "cool" light is higher in the blue wavelengths. Sunlight is around 5000-6500K midday, it varies throughout the day though most of us do not see that. So "warm" light will be lower Kelvin numbers, while "cool" light will be higher. Artificial light that has a Kelvin range from 5000K to 6500K is the best light for aquatic plant growth according to scientific studies. The 5000K will have more red and be a bit warmer, while the 6500K has less red and more blue so it is cooler.

The K for your light as posted in Post #1 is 5500K to 8000K. The 8000K is getting a bit high in the blue, and this can assist problem algae, so if you can adjust the light to have the K between 5500K and 6500K, it would be better. Plants need red and blue to drive photosynthesis, and red is the more important of the two. Adding high green to this combination greatly improves plant growth. Plants appear green because they reflect green light, so you need more of it. Just as red leaf plants reflect red so you need higher red for these, or a more intense light collectively.

Wow. Thank you. So I have sand. I think that could be the problem. I can’t empty the tank but I can
probably siphon it out. I kind of wish I had gravel again anyway. But very fine gravel for the loaches. So I should try red and green light once I get plants. Maybe I need to get the sand out first. In face, I have to look up the sand purchase to see the ingredients. I’ll post it. Thank you so much. Well I’m screwed. It’s Silica!!