plants in a juwel trigon 190

[cheshire hawk]

3 questions regarding my juwel trigon 190

1. With x2 20W bulbs with reflectors I reckon I'm getting 1.9 w / gallon of lighting. What plants can I grow with this relatively low light output? I've spoken to Juwel and they reckon I can grow ANY plant with this output. They placed alot of emphasis on the fact that as there is no coverglass the light output increases considerably - probably nearer to 2.5-3.0 watts / gallon.

2. What are the best 20W fluoro tubes money can buy for growing plants?

3. Has anyone had first hand experience of growing light loving plants in a Juwel Trigon 190?

Appreciate any help....................PLEEEEEEEAAASE!

 

[smithrc]

190l = 40uk gallons...
I make that 1W/gallon.
I'd add 50% for the reflectors.
= 1.5W/gal

You should be ok with low light plants.

We have the 350 with 2x 15W and 2x30W
giving it a whopping 1.2W/gal

our Java fern and annubis are doing fine.

as for bulbs - In our old planted 4ft - we couldnt fault the denerle products - their topical bulbs work a treat.

 

[sif]

I've got the 190 with standard lights plus reflectors, I went for a Dennerle trocal and an Arcadia freshwater...

Like yourself I have been searching the internet for light upgrades but decided to buy a load of plants just to see which ones would survive. To my surprise they are all doing pretty well thanks even some Riccia on rock at the bottom (I do have one of those C02 ladder setups and a heater cable under the sand). I have Anubias, swords, Cladophora aegagropila, dwarf and micro sag, black swords(?), creeping jenny, bacopia, crypt, vallis, twisted vallis and a few others including some red varieties whose names escape me at present. The only plant I couldn't get going well was Cabomba. I do have to admit that the tank is situated in a very light room that has skylights so don't know wheter that makes a difference... I certainly have a reasonable amount of hair algae but I also keep SAE, Shrimp and Ottos so rather see this as good.

Simon

Forgot to say the plant selection was the 30" set menu labelled plant selection from Greenline plus the 10 mixed potted selection

 

[cheshire hawk]

thanks Simon - I feel confident enough with what you've told me. I think I'll do what you have done and try buying a few varieties to see what works for my tank. Although I don't have undergravel heating, I do have the CO2 ladder and feed weekly. How long have you had you're plants in?

 

[sif]

Had the plants in since the beginning of April... was a bit nervous at first as my previous experience of plants has been 6 weeks of looking good followed by rapid demise. A few of the plants as expected started immediately shedding leaves and getting very stemmy but all then started to have prolific new growth from the base and the red ones are red, and I am having to prune a LOT, so I am fairly confident now that this is a good indication everything is running OK, though I have heard from some that you can't really tell how balanced a tank is until 2 years(!!). I do keep meaning to take some pics but haven't sorted it out yet. Hopefully getting some more fish tomorrow as I reckon the more stocked the tank is the more plant food available, until now I have been very lightly stocked and as a result I did drop in a bag of fertiliser that I got from Greenline.