My Tank

[Themuleous]

Lighting of around 6500k is generally OK for plants, however the spectrum of the light is far more important, as I guess you could have a 6500k bulb that produces all blue light which would be crap for plants! So try and get a bulb that produces a full spectrum of light with peaks in the blue, green and red areas.

The supplied bulbs are for marine tanks hence the very high k rating.

Sam

 

[TrueNoob]

Lighting of around 6500k is generally OK for plants, however the spectrum of the light is far more important, as I guess you could have a 6500k bulb that produces all blue light which would be crap for plants! So try and get a bulb that produces a full spectrum of light with peaks in the blue, green and red areas.

The supplied bulbs are for marine tanks hence the very high k rating.

Sam

dp those bulbs have a special name or something?

 

[Themuleous]

They have lots of different names depending on who makes them. I guess what I'm saying is that you need to get bulbs designed specifically for plants whether they are 4000k or 18000k.

Sam

 

[TrueNoob]

They have lots of different names depending on who makes them. I guess what I'm saying is that you need to get bulbs designed specifically for plants whether they are 4000k or 18000k.

Sam

ok, ill look into that







oh and petpirates.com is good for lighting in the UK

 

[TrueNoob]

im having no luck, everything looks the same in lighting, either blue or white is all i notice, any help on full spectrum lights will be welcome

 

[Jen]

Its not the actual colour of the bulb you need to be looking at. It's kinda confusing. The bulb you get will need to be a white bulb in colour, but each bulb emits its own special colour pattern. The chart looks something like this:

That bulb would give off a very red light. There is virtually no blue, and just a bit of green. Plants wouldn't do too well under that light. You need to find one that has good peaks on all three colours. That being said, it will be very hard to find that chart on bulbs you look for on the net. I found it very helpful to go to my fish store and find the bulbs there that would fit in my fixture, and then try to find the same ones on the net. It's a little more work, but you can save a good deal of money in the long run. (my bulbs are $60 a piece, but found them through an ebay seller for $6. Big difference!)

-Edit-
Ok. I had a look at the fixture you are getting, and it holds the same bulbs that I use. If you are able to buy from ebay, check out this seller... aquadeal He has all types of power compact bulbs, and sells them in bundles of 4 and 6 I beileve... for $6 a piece, or you can buy them seperatly, but if you buy 6, you'll have 2 extra for when one burns out, then you can order more. And they will be exactly what you are looking for. If you do order them from him, you can specify exactly what you want... so just in the notes as you are paying, say 6x 6400k bulbs, and that's what you will get! Just make sure of course that they are the right length for your fixture.

To make it even easier... this auction would be your best bet 6 for $40 US plus shipping... but it will still be a ton cheaper that buying those bulbs in a fish store. I bet you wouldnt be able to get 2 for the price of 6 and shipping. Deffinately worth checking out.

 

[Jen]

With that much light on the tank (almost 3 wpg) you will need to make sure that your co2 is constant, and around 30mg/l all the time. You might want to look into dosing more ferts. The Seachem trace is good, but you might need more. Have a read of the EI article pinned at the tops of this section. It seems like a lot of complicated work, but it really isn't. Once you get the swing of it it's really quite simple. You may not need to dose something every day, but you will need to keep up on your nitrates(NO3) and phosphates (PO4), as well as your trace. You will get some nasty nasty algae with that much light if you don't keep up on your ferts. I can gaurentee it.

 

[TrueNoob]

With that much light on the tank (almost 3 wpg) you will need to make sure that your co2 is constant, and around 30mg/l all the time. You might want to look into dosing more ferts. The Seachem trace is good, but you might need more. Have a read of the EI article pinned at the tops of this section. It seems like a lot of complicated work, but it really isn't. Once you get the swing of it it's really quite simple. You may not need to dose something every day, but you will need to keep up on your nitrates(NO3) and phosphates (PO4), as well as your trace. You will get some nasty nasty algae with that much light if you don't keep up on your ferts. I can gaurentee it.

o thanks for the info, thanks for the bulbs also!!!!!

 

[TrueNoob]

that one is a mix of different bulbs i beleive

he doesnt have anything lower than 55? 55x4 is 210/55 is 4wpg im aiming for 3 65 is way to high4.7...wpg

 

[Jen]

Yes, it is a mix... but you can say you want 6 of whatever. So you can get 6 6400k bulbs.

Unfortunately, the size you are looking for only comes in 65watts. Because its a power compact fixture, they fit as much wattage into the bulbs as possible. That's the point of them. If you are only looking for 2.5 or 3 wpg, then you probably would have been better to get a fixture that hold the regular flourescent bulbs opposed to a power compact. What you could do, since the fixture has 2 plugs for the bulbs, it only use 2 bulbs instead of all 4. that would cut you back to 2 wpg, and the co2 and fert issue wouldnt be as big.

I dont know if you can put a 36 watt bulb in the hood instead of 55/65. I don't know much about electronics to say if that is safe or not.

 

[AlexAndCarmen]

Hi Truenoob, I've just been reading this and can't help but get the feeling that we've all been here before.
Sounds like your getting great advice on lighting, so I won't add.
I see you use Flourish for trace and add Fe every other day (I'd drop Fe dosing.). I'd also add Seachems Flourish excel which should give you a big noticeable boost in plant growth and it has a great side effect of killing off algae. It's one of the best products I've ever come across for planted tanks. The next deficiency in low light tanks and high tech is normally Potassium. Which you can buy as a brand name or you'll be adding it as Potassium nitrate in dry form in an EI dosing regime, which i would recommend if your adding the lights you've been talking about. I won't go into EI as the chap who pioneered it, Plantbrain- Tom Barr, is on this forum and you might as well learn from the pro. 8)

Good luck and hope to see progress reports.

Alex

 

[TrueNoob]

Hi Truenoob, I've just been reading this and can't help but get the feeling that we've all been here before.
Sounds like your getting great advice on lighting, so I won't add.
I see you use Flourish for trace and add Fe every other day (I'd drop Fe dosing.). I'd also add Seachems Flourish excel which should give you a big noticeable boost in plant growth and it has a great side effect of killing off algae. It's one of the best products I've ever come across for planted tanks. The next deficiency in low light tanks and high tech is normally Potassium. Which you can buy as a brand name or you'll be adding it as Potassium nitrate in dry form in an EI dosing regime, which i would recommend if your adding the lights you've been talking about. I won't go into EI as the chap who pioneered it, Plantbrain- Tom Barr, is on this forum and you might as well learn from the pro. 8)

Good luck and hope to see progress reports.

Alex

i use the flourish excel not the trace yet, and have yet to see it at any of the LFS around me (7 of them)

 

[TrueNoob]

what does trace do anyway? im going to be putting up some newer pics soon

 

[Themuleous]

Trace adds all the other things that the plants need but not in a any great quantities, like iron and other elements, which are vital to help the plants grow healthily.