Question On Lighting

[love_fish]

Hello, i was going to do a DIY mod to get more watts and such, but my LFS told me it didnt matter about the watts, it mattered about the spectrum of light. Is this true? Is it really that spectrum that helps plants grow?

 

[Ste_J]

What size is your tank and what Wattage have you got at the moment?

 

[love_fish]

My tank is a 29 gallon, and i have 20 watts. Thats less that 1 WPG. The bulb he was trying to sell me was also 20 watts.

 

[Rodders]

Depends on what plants you want to grow.
Some plants grow in low light, some only grow in bright light.

 

[love_fish]

I've got 3 swords, some anachris, java moss, and some other plant thats relatively small, and has a lot of leaflets coming off it.

 

[sub.42]

Well,

Its a bit of a roundabout way of explaining, but my tank has 96w over 180 liters. My tank is doing ok, but the most active 'pearling' stage for my tank, is when the afternoon sun creeps around the back of my house, and floods my tank with sun. If the sun catches the tank the plants go pearling mad, if there is cloud cover, they just pearl slowly. It kind of makes me realise how important high power lighting is to my plants, and I have only really seen rapid growth since adding a special T5 growth unit.

I am at about 2 wpg, and I think that I could do with more. The more watts the better, if you have really high light, then you may want to consider adding co2 aswell, just to fend off the algea. Add another light to your tank, you cant go wrong, and you won't regret it!

sub.

 

[smif79]

sorry to but into someone elses thread but....

i cant fit another tube into my lid, is there any ohter kind of light i can use to add to my wpg?

 

[love_fish]

Thats why im gutting my hood and adding 4 CF lights.

 

[Jen]

If you have the money for it, look into the power compact lighting. each bulb is the equivelent of 2 normal bulbs (or more). But it is very expensive, and would require a hood mod most likely.

 

[love_fish]

I think ill just go with the compact fluorescent light mod.

Thanks for the help.