78watts of light is 78watts, doesn't really matter if it is T8 or T5. T5s will penetrate the water better than T8s but both are fine on a tank that is 18inches high.
I agree that 1W = 1W no matter what the bulb but it is an irresponsible thing in this hobby to suggest that it doesn't matter what type of fixture you use and to just go by the wattages otherwise all the statements on the compacts we use in household lights would be false.
If it were so then a 9W compact would be pointless and you may as well stay with the standard 60W pearl. We know that this is not the case otherwise a 9W compact would be like a single candle in the room whereas the 60W pearl would be nice and bright.
I really wish people would stop trying to claim that watts equal light. This is fanciful to say the least. There is much more to light than just penetration too. Its all about the efficiency, watts per inch/cm, dimensions of the light (both length and diameter), quality of the light, quality of the reflector.
I wish you could understand this Colin because it makes a mockery of us trying to help people when someone like yourself comes along with these silly suggestions.
My tank is 18 inches tall and has 0.9WPG of T5HO with pressurised and it grows 'slow growers' fast!!!!
1W = 1W.
1W T12 = nowhere near 1W T12 within the tank.
Light is the biggest factor in plant growth. The more light the plants get, the more nutrients they can use and the faster they grow. Light with the wrong colour spectrum will cause plants to become leggy or short and stunted. If the globes are more than 12 months old, then replace them with new globes. Get globes with a lot of red & blue in their colour spectrum
Light is not the biggest factor in growth. It is the driver that controls the growth rate but without enough nutrients (C is a nutrient) then the plants cannot grow at the rate the light is driving them to. This means that they then run out of a nutrient (C is a nutrient) and therefore run defficient and stop taking up the other nutrients at which point algae utilise it.
The colour of the spectrum of the light has long been understood to have no effect at all within reason. Plant gro lights are a marketing myth which has people buying lights at silly prices. Any light within the 3000-10000K range is good for the human eye but outside of this spectrum is just as viable for the plants but will not look to good to us. Even Tom Barr has stated this!!! and there are not many people with more research / knowledge / respect within this hobby than him.
T5 lights run on electronic ballasts and not magnetic and therefore they diminish very little over a year. Mine is a year and a half old and there are no noticeable difference to the eye or from plant growth / appearance. I also run a T8 off an electronic ballast which is 2 years old and again no noticeable difference to eye / plants. Magnetic ballasts flicker start lights and the tubes don't last as long. The 'year' replacement is still doubtful but there is no question tubes on magenetic ballasts don't last as long.
I would increase your lighting times to 12 hours per day
This will just help the algae. 6 hours is plenty enough light at the quantity you have even if you were on pressurised. You could go longer with pressurised but you don't have it.
The pinholes in the leaves could be caused by fish or snails eating the plants. Deficiencies in potassium and phosphorus are uncommon in tanks with fish in, and you are adding fertilisers, which should be keeping the levels up.
This is incorrect. The light on this tank will need a lot of ferts and therefore they could easily run defficient. The waste/food will never supply enough unless the light was very very low. The defficiencies mentioned are more likely that the plant is unable to take up the phosphate/potassium due to the lack of C!!
Algae often grow from excess nutrients and too much light.
In a roundabout way this is true but the vital explantive is left out and the way it is phrased makes it sound like the old disproved theories.
Excess nutrients do not cause algae. Algae feeds on excess nutrient ONLY when the plants aren't growing well. Dosing 10x the amount the plants can use/store WILL NOT cause algae if the plants are growing well. It may however cause the fish some distress. The reason in your tank is that because you cannot supply enough C for the 6 hours your lights need that the plants are unable to take up the nutrients and because the plants are running defficient they are releasing ammonia. this is what is triggering the algae which is then feeding off the nutrients that the plants cannot take in because they have no C.
If the light unit is enclosed in a hood, the globes won’t last as long as if they were out in the open. Globes deteriorate quicker in hot conditions and if they are hot all the time, they will often burn out sooner. They still produce light but not the correct coloured light.
Although this can be true it shouldn't really affect your lights. they are running on electronic ballasts and therefore the lights last longer than on the magnetic ones anyway. There is a huge difference in heat, longevity, quality etc between tubes used on an electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ones
Big water changes can be more beneficial than small ones. Sometimes you get a build up of certain minerals/ elements and these build up because the plants aren’t using them. The excess levels of these nutrients can prevent plants from doing well just as overdosing on vitamin supplements can adversely affect people. Doing a bigger water change (50%) will dilute the nutrients and help prevent an excess or build up of some of the trace elements that don’t get used in large amounts.
The practise is correct but the theory is wrong here. Large water changes are beneficial in that they remove organic matter and ammonia from the water and therefore remove some of the algae's trigger. Plant toxicity levels are very very high and just yesterday Tom Barr was explaining this to someone on our forum. This is what he said:
The outer limits are quite large, I've never found them for plants, but know they are beyond 150ppm for shrimps. Plants like can go to 300ppm or perhaps more for NO3.
Seeing as EI targets 10-20ppm and EI is excess dosing we will never ever reach 300ppm in our aquariums unless we chuck a ridiculous amount of powders into the tank.
Do you have any test kits to check the water quality and nutrients you are adding? You should be testing the water for iron, nitrate, and anything else you are adding. If you don’t test for the nutrients there is a chance you could overdose and that can cause problems, especially with low light.
Oh deary me. Am I really reading this? Here is what Tom said in his same post with the above:
If you suspect something, test, but also confirm that the test was good/valid.
Do not assume that a 10$ cheapo test kit is accurate, do not assume a theory is correct if you see falsifying examples that it cannot be.
I will however add that when I took some of my premade fert which I know undiluted is in the 1000s ppm of nitrate my API nitrate test kit showed 10-20ppm, 10-20ppm, 30-40ppm (I did 3 seperate test tubes.) They should have all read at least the maximum which is 150ppm+ and they didn't so here you can see why none of us in planted test......because we cannot afford or have no wish to spend huge amounts on laboratory grade tests. Some products say laboratory grade but they aren't You can be talking hundreds for decent test equipment!!!
In summary I stand by what I said. Unless you can limit those lights right down or raise them up a long way from the tank (1-2ft) then you have no option than to go pressurised. dosing more will not help because without the CO2 the plants need then they won't be able to utilise the nutrients at which point algae will utilise it.
We did warn you this would happen when you first posted r.e. no CO2 and high lights and here you go. It has happened. If you want posts that tell you what you want to hear then go with Colin's explanations but you will suffer from following advice like 'put the lights on longer' when you are suffering from algae.
As for ferts I said before that there is no point dosing higher unless you lower the lights to a level that your DIY CO2 suffices the plants needs or go pressurised to provide enough CO2 for the growth rate the lights are driving you at.
ColinT however will say 'Add Sera Iron' because that is what he always suggests!!!
I would strongly advise you to detail the scenario/events of your tank and the specs on barrreport.com and UKaps.org and then you will have 2 dedicated planted forums that you can 'glean' the correct info from. Not pooh pooing this forum at all. I am here and I use both the others too. Its just good to get opinions from several sources.
AC
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but if 10% has worked "fine" so far i'm assuming 25% will only be better.
