Lighting Overkill?

[jive_bunny]

Hi Guys/Gals,
 
Quick question I have a Red Sea Max 250 Reef tank that I am dismantling and was thinking of converting this to a tropical planted aquarium.  At the moment this tank has 6 x 39w t5 tubes, If I was to replace these with arcadia plant pro would I need a full 6 tubes?  234w seems very excessive for a tropical tank and after reading lot on the planted section I'd be going through an awful lot of co2 and pruning the plants a lot due to excessive growth..  Can I just have 2 x 39w plant pro and leave the other fittings empty?
 
Many thanks for your help.
 
Regards
 
Adam

 

[Chad]

No, that's reef levels of light and it's more than is required for even light hungry plants.

 

[DerpPH]

I agree with tcamos. If you put that in tropical tanks it will only make algae bloom.

 

[jive_bunny]

So would you agree with my previous suggestion of just 2 x 39w tubes and leave the others blank?
 
Regards
 
Adam

 

[Chad]

I would buy 3 just in case. If it's too much you can always remove it and use it as a spare.

 

[SO19Firearms]

Start small and work up - So 2 with 6 hrs of lighting. As you've already read, at some point you'll hit an amount of light that is too much for 30ppm CO2 (or the sucessful distribution of it) - and that's when you'll get algae.


If you put in all the tubes you'd need 100('s)ppm CO2 to prevent algae and therefore no live fish.....



IMO