Lighting Upgrade

[leafs]

I currently have a 29 gal with 1 - 20 watt bulb 6700k. I have low light plants such as Swords, Anubias and various Crypts. All the plants are doing fairly well, but very slow growth. I recently added root tabs and fertilizer to help them a bit. My question is if I doubled my lights to 2 - 20 watt bulbs will I see a noticable difference in the growth and health of my plants? I would then have 1.3 watts per gallon. I really want to keep it as a low tech tank and don't want to get into CO2 right now.

Thanks

 

[jimbooo]

if your not going to add co2 then i would leave it be. as your tank is mature it will have found it's own balance by now (unless you have an algae problem which i doubt as you have not mentioned it). if you just add more light and nothing else then algae will start to take over. in order for the plants to use the extra light they must have an adequate supply of CO2 (which wont occur without adding it). either do all or nothing i'm afraid.

if you do decide to add the light all you would need in terms of CO2 is one nutrafin Natural plant system - no more than $25 at a guess (i'm in the UK). the co2 plus the extra light will make a big difference to the plants.

 

[leafs]

if your not going to add co2 then i would leave it be. as your tank is mature it will have found it's own balance by now (unless you have an algae problem which i doubt as you have not mentioned it). if you just add more light and nothing else then algae will start to take over. in order for the plants to use the extra light they must have an adequate supply of CO2 (which wont occur without adding it). either do all or nothing i'm afraid.

if you do decide to add the light all you would need in terms of CO2 is one nutrafin Natural plant system - no more than $25 at a guess (i'm in the UK). the co2 plus the extra light will make a big difference to the plants.

Thanks for the response Jimbooo. I think I'll give the Natural plant system a go. I guess I should only try this if I add more light? Can I just try the system without upgrading my lights? Do you have to use their activator and stabilizer packs, or can you make your own mixture? Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[jimbooo]

you can add co2 at any time (algae doesn't need it so it'll only help plants unlike light). as to the mixture use the supplied sachets first. when they run out add 1/2 tsp yeast and 1tsp bicarbonate of soda. a years supply will cost you the same as a sandwich.

 

[EliteFishy]

Yo Jimboo, I have a lighting question. I also have a 29 gallon tank and i just added glosstigmas, amazon swords and tiger lilies. I need about 100+ watts but my hood can only hold one 24in. light bulb. Do you know where i can get one 100+ watt 24in lightbulb or do you know where i can get a cheap hood that can hold enough lightbulbs for my tank.

 

[jimbooo]

hi elitefishy, wattage is directly linked to length to no i'm afraid, you wont find a 100W 24 inch tube.

you can either add another tube to your hood to double your existing light (not sure of your current wattage) or add a T5 power compact light (like those energy saver bulbs - twisted tube type design)

i've never used power compacts so cant really advise. personally i have just added more tubes to my existing hood.

 

[AndyTaylor]

Elitefishy, my powercompacts should arrive tomorrow so if you can hang on for a few days i'll let you know how they work out.....got them from aquatics online, if that helps?

 

[rowdyates]

Andy,

Have your lights arrived, I'm thinking of the same type to boost the light in my Juwel tank?

Cheers,

Keith

 

[oldwhitewood]

You could probably get away with it and you'd most likely see better growth, I would do anything you think of slowly and incrementally, if you try and change something like suddenly adding more light on that size tank you run the risk of problems, I would stick as you are unless you want to start getting into growing more difficult species.

 

[solidshark55]

TRY HOLEGEN BULBS