Lighting with plants

[Rodders]

Ok, i've just worked it out for my current tank and I have 1.3wpg. Rio 125 with two 18W tubes.
Thats classed as low-med light so probably worked out why plants are dieing that I buy. I will be more careful next time on what lighting they require. I have no CO2 dosing.

Now my large tank im buying, Rena 200x50 (660 ltrs approx) has 4x58watt lighting. That works out at 1.6WPG. Will I need CO2 dosing if I only low level lighting plants.
If I want fancy plants (the ones that die on me) I guess im going to have to do the pressurised CO2 dosing.

If I have low level plants, no CO2, will my tank be suseptable to alge attacks and would be a good idea to have CO2??

Cheers!!

 

[Aussie_Star]

its always handy to have a co2 system incase the algae attack is huge. i Was runnginf 1.5 on my 180 and always had algae , now i have 3.1wpg and and fully pressurised co2 system , aswell as adding ferts no problems at all

 

[Lateral Line]

Plants that require high light levels and grow quickly benefit most from CO2 as their metabolic rates are so high. Lower light slow pokes really don't get a huge benefit from CO2 injection.

If you intend to run your new tank with Low-Medium lights and Low-Medium light demanding plants, CO2 is not really necessary.

 

[Rodders]

Couple more questions if i may,

1. Will the low level light plants with low light fight off alge? What sort of hours would i need the lights on for? (My current tank i switch the lights off for a bit in the day to help alge stop growing, but plants seem to be ok.)

2. If i later got a CO2 system and then put high rate metabolysim (spelling) plants in, would I need to upgrade the lighting to more then 1.6WPG?


Thanks.

 

[houndour]

1. Fighting algae is the biggest battle we have and it's hard to tell someone what to do cos everyones tanks are so different. I used to have my lights for 5 on 2 off 5 on, until recently (about a month ago) I changed to having them on for 11 hours straight. My blackbrush algae has not got noticeably worse by changing the routine, but I did get an outbreak of cyanobacteria, but I dont think this was down to the light, and I had it before I switched the routine anyway.

2. Its normally done the other way around..."if I get more light then I'll get more CO2". Normally more demanding plants generally demand more light, and it's because of the increase of light that you need an increase in other factors...nutrients and CO2. If you upgrade your lighting to above 2 wpg then think about CO2 injection.