Just A Quick Question On My Lighting

[Bigpig]

Just a quick question on my lighting. Is my tank low light medium light or high?

Does wpg count he same with t5 bulbs or is this for t8?

1 Life-Glo & 1 Power-Glo T5HO Bulbs 54w each
W 120cm x D 45cm x H 64cm
120L 84.6USG

Power-GLO in a T5 HO format delivers an 18000K bulb with powerful light output and makes it an ideal choice for African cichlid aquariums as well as for most marine aquariums. Colors such as blue, violet and purple will really come alive with Power-GLO. Combine with Life-GLO and Marine-GLO in marine aquariums

Life-GLO in a T5 HO format provides the planted aquarium owner with a tri-phosphor full spectrum T5 HO bulb that can furnish the intense light levels required when using CO2 injection and regular nutrient supplementation, the result of which is explosive plant growth. In addition to this advantage Life-GLO boasts an excellent CRI value, meaning your aquarium will look as it would in natural daylight. Life-GLO in combination with Marine-GLO is an excellent choice for most marine aquarium installations.

 

[Colin_T]

The watts per gallon is pretty much the same for T5 or T8 even tho T5s produce a bit more light per globe. But it is virtually the same.

1 watt per gallon is low light
2-3 watts per gallon is medium
4 watts per gallon is high

Your tank holds about 300litres and because it is 2ft high the light is on the low to medium side. Taller tanks require stronger lights to penetrate the water depth. T5s are better for this compared to T8 globes. You should be able to grow a reasonable number of plants but you could add another globe or two.
I had 6 x T8 globes on a 4x2x2 plant tank. They were 36watts each and the plants did reasonably well but the tank never looked really bright.

What sort of plants did you want to grow and are you planning on using carbon dioxide (CO2) and iron fertilisers?

 

[Bigpig]

I have JBL pro flora start under black gravel just atm And a bottle of Flourish excel. No co2 machine planed for the min

Am just setting the tank up this week. I want Vallis jungle at one side. then take it from there. Pretty basic. So wanted to know what type of plants I could go for If I spoted some I like.

So low and medium to high but not very high light plants would be OK?

Also is there anything along with flourish excel I could use with it? on daily rotation?

 

[Renate]

At this link http/woo.gotdns.com/Aquarium/Lighting.htm there is more info about how the size of tubes affects the output. Also more accurate to measure in Lux.

 

[Dave Spencer]

Renate, from what I can remember, Lux are based on the human eyes perception of light. That is to say, the green area of the spectrum where the eye is most sensitive. Our sensitivity to light reduces in to the red and blue areas of the spectrum. This is where most photosynthesis takes place, so using Lux is just another generalisation IMO, and a complication few people seem to use.

Dave.

 

[aaronnorth]

T5s produce a lot more light than T8's, it almost doubles the WPG. If you look at Andy's tank (supercoley1) he has 0.9WPG on 125l tank and he manages to grow hard plants like B.Japonica.

Are you dosing any nutrients? Get a fert that doses macro's (NPK) and Micro's (trace elements). Tropica plant nutrition is good.