Zoo Med Aquasun Led Ho Aquarium Fixture

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squidsagirl420 said:
Thanks a lot guys. always good clear info here. love it. I google most things of course, but i wanted more straight info... nothing better than real experience. and this all makes perfect sense. Ive just been worried to dose more of that stuff. I do it once a week. (and i dose 1ml. to the first thread) what would you recommend? start dosing twice a week? or even more often?

Its the same tank as before Byron
the 18-20 gal cube. with the one 6500k tube. cf 36w
 
That is probably more than sufficient light.  I often say that watts is not a reliable measure of light intensity because of all the different types of lighting we have today, but here with 36w of CF over a 20g, I would expect it to be adequate if not over.
 
Flourish products have recommended doses on the label, and they say once or twice weekly.  We are again back to the balance; the fertilizers dosed must be in balance with the light for the needs of the plants.  Algae will take the advantage if either is under or over the level to balance out.  I tend to start out with once and after a few weeks use the plant's response to add a second or not.  But I also use Flourish Trace as well as the Flourish Comprehensive.  And not every tank is dosed the same with either (or both), because of the plant species or numbers or lighting.  Each aquarium can be unique.  The plant's response as well as algae is the guide.
 
Just to illustrate how finicky this can be...in my 90g I found that dosing Flourish Comp twice a week caused brush algae to begin to cover the leaves of the large sword.  Cutting it back to one dose stopped the algae increasing.  I moved up to two doses again, and the algae began to increase.  These tests were for several weeks, and several weeks apart; the sword plant sent out about 6-7 new leaves during the periods and these leaves remaining free of algae or becoming encrusted was the guide.  There is no doubt in my mind that the algae was responding to the increased fertilizer which obviously was not being used by the plants.  However, the floating plants and the red tiger lotus in this tank clearly were being underfed, so instead of a second Flourish Comp dose, I went to one of Flourish Trace.  Plant response was quite noticeable after a few weeks, while algae did not increase.  In this same tank, I also added Flourish Iron instead of the second Flourish Comp., but the same algae problem surfaced.  What all this demonstrates is that plants have a fairly specific requirement for the 17 nutrients, and these are in a sort of proportion to each other, and this is governed by the light intensity.  Sometimes increasing one nutrient can cause plants to actually shutdown the uptake of another.  We may not see this, but when algae begins to increase it is usually a sign that such has occurred.
 
Byron.
 
i see. thanks! and i have kiddos so finding a ml syringe shouldn't be too difficult. lol. i didn't even think about that!!! brilliant.
 
Well... I have taken the plunge!  
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MarineDepot had it on sale!  
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  The lowest I'd seen the 24 inch was $84.00.   Marine Depot had them for $55.67!  And shipping was a mere $6.99 for 2-3 day delivery!
 
So, I'll get a chance to check it out as soon as this weekend potentially!   And more importantly to see it for about a week before I go on my business trip - after which the complete overhaul will begin.  
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Hopefully this will work the way I am seeing it in my head!  
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OK... this was too funny not to share!
 
 
 
Good news, JD!
Your aquarium supplies have been carefully picked from Marine Depot's shelves like delicate berries and placed into a wicker basket lined with unicorn fur. With the grace of a ballerina, we tiptoed them to our packing station where Santa's Elves who work with us during their off-season prepared your order for shipment.

Your products were methodically placed in each box using techniques taught to us by a former Tetris World Champion. Using a pair of tweezers, we placed hundreds of packing peanuts one-by-one into every nook and cranny to ensure safe transport. We are proud to share with you that our packing peanuts are reusable, recyclable, biodegradable and made using 100% recycled content. They also do not trigger peanut allergies. Eat your heart out, Mr. Peanut. 
 
Saying goodbye to such sought-after products is always gut-wrenching. That is why we offer employees unlimited handkerchiefs as a part of our generous benefits package. As your order was whisked away at light speed down our assembly line into the loving arms of the shipping courier, our warehouse elves, with tears in their eyes, joined hands and whispered, "Jábba sô kalîk qonay." We don't speak Elvish ourselves, but they tell us the rough translation is "May these supplies bring stability and success to the aquarium and its owner." Wow, we are getting a little choked up ourselves now. Thanks, elves.
As the delivery truck pulled away from our warehouse dock, a rare double rainbow appeared overhead. That's when we knew the products we had raised since they were mere hatchlings were on their way to a better home. Please take care of them and, we promise, they will take care of you.


With sincere appreciation,

The MarineDepot.com Family
 
 
That is wonderful.
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It would appear that the lighting unit won't be arriving to me until Wednesday next week.  :sad:  So, I'll have very little time to check it out before heading off for business.
 
 
BUT:  Upon my return I will be doing an overhaul of the tank, moving its location to the living room, adding plants and adding some new fish stock.
 
The lights arrived today.  Already installed.  
 
 
The best part is the 'moonlight' :good:
 
The sad part is that its a 24 inch fixture, but the tank is 30 inches wide.  But, I still like it!  
 
:)

Good stuff.

Look forward to seeing and hearing more about this light unit and tank plants thrive under these leds.


Btw pics please :p
 
No pics will be forthcoming until after the tank has moved... and been rescaped.
 
 
I might do a quick 'before and after' though...   The before won't look like much, my plants have become quite sad under their old light (very old 28W T5).
 
 
I'll give you the full lights, white only, and 'moonlight' after the move though - just for the sake of comparison.  I will only be using the full lights and moonlight.  I don't like the look of the white only, nor do I think the plants would appreciate the lack of the 'extra' light from the blue.  Its only 0.5W each bulb, but it is in a good wavelength, and there are 6 of them.  
 
 
We'll see how the whole thing progresses!  I am optimistic.
 
The tank has been moved and I decided to add the old light fixture behind the LEDs.  I have a 18W Floramax T8 bulb in addition to the LEDs....
 
 
Why you may ask?  Because I want more light for the plants. :lol:  The fish are dealing with the light just fine, except for my pearl gouramis, who are still rather timid.  I'm hoping as they get used to the tank they'll be more outgoing.  I also figure as the plants grow more that it will help them feel more secure as well.
 
That does make a certain amount of sense, though I would have thought adding more lights would make the gouramis more timid if the lights are brighter or more harsh.
 
On other hand, plants will grow faster under more light, especially with addition of nutrients/ferts, so the tank will then be more dense with plants therefore less light in the tank in certain areas, guess it depends on how fast your plants grow to make the gourmis more comfortable.
 
Look forward to hearing more of this :)
 
Yes, the extra light could make the gouramis a bit more timid, but the Floramax bulb is not very bright at all (at least to my eyes) and I would be very upset with it as my only light.  In fact, I would return it and get a daylight bulb.  But, since I don't need it to see the fish, it serves as a nice little 'dawn/dusk' setting.  I turn the Floramax on when I get up, and turn it off when I go to bed (will need to keep an eye out for algae)... and the LEDs come on from 12pm to 8pm.  
 
The fish don't change behavior at this point when the LEDs are on versus when they are off, with the exceptions of the singletons and the pearls.  I believe once the pearls settle in a bit more and some of the stem plants start to grow a bit more, they will come out more.  If they do not, then I will add some floating plants to the tank to give them a bit more security in a more visible section of the tank.
 
Good plan :good:
 
Like the suggestion of floating plants as Gouramis really do appreciate this, as well as many other specie actualy.
 
Ch4rlie said:
Good plan
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Like the suggestion of floating plants as Gouramis really do appreciate this, as well as many other specie actualy.
 
 
Yup... the downside of floating plants is that it would also block light to the other plants... bit of a "Catch-22".  What can you do?  
 
Well, I use water lettuce as floating plants in my tank, easy to remove some when becomes too much on surface.
 
So just having part of the tank with floating plants may be a good compromise.
 

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