What is the next step?

[sinistral]

About clay: I think before the days of eco complete and onyx and fluorite and the readily available commercial substrates, most aquarists had recipes for substrates that would provide nutrients (mainly iron) and high cation exchange. In the research I did I found a lot of different recipes that people used, including things like "Yolo loam", peat/clay/laterite combinations, and so forth. Clay still seems to be in rather wide use, although I came along after all that had been done and just started with fluorite.

Here is a good link (kind of a lot of reading) for planted aquarium substrates. There's some good information there about using clay as a substrate.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that some people prefer to use regular aquarium gravel on top for aesthetic reasons. Again, layers will tend to mix over time.

The question about what color temperature plants need is not clear in my mind. Most people suggest that they do best between 5500k and 6500k (the range closest to natural sunlight). However, I am not convinced that this is the case. Silly_me posted a while ago on this topic. Really, I think total wattage is still the best measure. If you do use a bulb towards the lower or higher end of the spectrum, your plants will look redder or bluer. Having said that, all my tanks use bulbs in the 5000k range

 

[yhbae]

About clay: I think before the days of eco complete and onyx and fluorite and the readily available commercial substrates, most aquarists had recipes for substrates that would provide nutrients (mainly iron) and high cation exchange. In the research I did I found a lot of different recipes that people used, including things like "Yolo loam", peat/clay/laterite combinations, and so forth. Clay still seems to be in rather wide use, although I came along after all that had been done and just started with fluorite.

Here is a good link (kind of a lot of reading) for planted aquarium substrates. There's some good information there about using clay as a substrate.

Another thing I forgot to mention is that some people prefer to use regular aquarium gravel on top for aesthetic reasons. Again, layers will tend to mix over time.

The question about what color temperature plants need is not clear in my mind. Most people suggest that they do best between 5500k and 6500k (the range closest to natural sunlight). However, I am not convinced that this is the case. Silly_me posted a while ago on this topic. Really, I think total wattage is still the best measure. If you do use a bulb towards the lower or higher end of the spectrum, your plants will look redder or bluer. Having said that, all my tanks use bulbs in the 5000k range

Thanks for the link - I'll read up on them...

About the temperature, I'd guess that green must be the worst color for them since they will mostly be reflected? So does that mean it is better to have more blue/red/yellow?

Reminder - I have no clue what I'm talking about here...

 

[sinistral]

Thanks for the link - I'll read up on them...

About the temperature, I'd guess that green must be the worst color for them since they will mostly be reflected? So does that mean it is better to have more blue/red/yellow?

You think this would be the case, although again I'm not altogether sure if you can go by color temperature. Another quote from Hoa Ngyuen's invaluable web page is:

It is also a good idea to have a mix of different bulbs, to cover as much of the light spectrum as possible, since there is not yet any definitive conclusion on what light frequencies are best for aquatic plants. Conventional wisdom says red and blue, while Amano and Diana Walstad lean towards green (from their books).

I think he is referring to wavelength here and not color temperature. I am pretty sure if you go with a bulb in the 5000-6500k range you would not go wrong.

 

[yhbae]

Ok, I'm not going to worry about temperature/colors of the bulb. My 60w one has both white and yellowish bulbs - hopefully that is enough.

Heck, even before when I had less than 1w/g, some plants lived fine so anything is an improvement over that one!

 

[Silly me]

plant use mostly blues.. but red does get used in higher amount that yellow or green..


If you get llights of 5000K - 6700K you get of everything..

 

[yhbae]

plant use mostly blues.. but red does get used in higher amount that yellow or green..


If you get llights of 5000K - 6700K you get of everything..

Thanks for the info!

You mention blue - how about actinic lights - are they good or bad for plants?

I recently obtained some Hygrophila Difformis, and I put some in both 25g and 30g tanks. 25g only has 20w of "aquarium" lights (one of those that lights up fishes), and 30g has 30w atinic + 30w white bulbs. From what I can tell, the one in the 25g seems to be doing better!

 

[Silly me]

I'll stick the normal full spectrum lights.. cheap works well and looks great.

 

[Dubby]

I have used simple garden clay as well as cat litter without any problems. Infact I use a combination of clay, vermiculite and sand layers