Lighting basics for aquatic plants

[jeremyh81]

Part of the success in growing aquarium plants comes from high-output and high-quality lighting. An easy rule of thumb for light output is in watts-per-gallon (wpg). A minimum of 2wpg is good for fast-growing stem plants. Some more demanding plants may require up to 5wpg.

Power compact fluorescent lighting has been the most popular option until the emergence of high-output T5's. However, T5 HO systems are gaining popularity and decreasing in cost. To date, retrofit PCF's are the most affordable. From the right supplier, one can purchase a 4x55-watt PCF retro system for the same price as just a single-bulb, T5 HO fixture.

On to bulbs and color spectrum. Most freshwater aquarium bulbs' color spectrum is measured by color temperature (degrees Kelvin, or "K"). Some of the most successful aquatic gardens are illuminated using 6500/6700K bulbs. Other gardeners use a mixture of 6700K and 10,000K bulbs. A 6700K bulb emits a light that encompasses nearly a full color spectrum and is a very white output. 10,000K lighting leans closer to the blue side of the spectrum and can enhance the visible colors in plants and fish.

If you want to get very technical, one would use sufficient lighting
to obtain a certain amount of lumens being emitted into the water. We'll just leave this to those who are building contest-winning aquascapes.

This is just a quick and dirty summary pulled off the top of my head. Bunnie, feel free to chime in and correct me.

[angel]

I've had those for a year. You just have to know where to look. Home Depot and Lowes both carry them. There's a package they had in Home Depot where you get 5 for the price of 4. That deal was for me!

[sirknight]

Just a little input. There are two types of T5 bulbs and fixtures.

One is regular T5 and the other is High out put T5.

the HO T5 is used and has been used in the reef hobby for years. The bulb itself is not all that, what makes them strong enough is the reflector. With a good setup each bulb has it's own reflector this increases PAR. Also note that some people use MH lighting on planted tank which is very expensive to run and creates a lot of heat.

I for one don't use the watts per gallon and here is why.

If I am using a standard fixture with lets say 100 Watts on a 50 gallon tank which would be 2 watts per gallon and my plants are doing well, if I change to a 100 watts HOT5 setup with individual reflectors I have in ceased to over all Par (which to keep it simple means the amount of light penetration and intensity). As you can see from this example I have more light getting into the tank even through I am using the same amount of watts. MH is another story.

Plants do use the red part of the spectrum for photosynthesis and don't use the blue side, however lighting is not the main cause of algae, pollutants cause algae. My tank which has no plants has 20K bulbs lighting and I have no algae, why because of my maintenance routine on water quality.

Joe

[angel]

Joe,
which pollutants cause algae? Is it the fish poop? I'm fighting algae in a few of my tanks, and I've pretty much got the brown algae under control and rarely get that anymore, but there's some that looks like carpet(not hair--more like plants in a way) and some that looks like a green moss. I'd like to do away with those!
Tina

[sirknight]

The main food of algae is nitrates and phosphates. They need to be reduced to control algae. The main reason people don't like algae is it over takes a tank and if plants are in the tank it starts growing on them and will kill them. There are phosphate removers on the market but it stills comes down to maintenance and water quality. Some areas have nitrates and phosphates in drinking (Tap) water, so even if you are doing regular water changes it may not be enough. (yes from foods as well).
The other problem is when you test for both you may get low or 0 reading because they have been absorbed by the algae.

Joe

[angel]

So the algae is water's natural way of controlling nitrates and phosphates in a way? I hadn't realized.
There are really just a couple of tanks it gets aggravating in. The angelfish look like they have green moss all over the sand. But they're healthy and the one pair spawns, it's just a lot of work. Juvenile tank of angels same thing. it gets all over the walls and everything.
And the tank I have nosibees in gets the algae that looks like a plant. It sort of has a maroon cast to it. It's pretty in a way on the rocks. It doesn't bother me too much, but I like to keep that controlled because it makes the tank look dirty when the fish dig it off and its all over the substrate.

[sirknight]

Yes in a way. Just to give you an example.

I bought live rock one time that I cycled and could not get rid of the algae so I took the rock out and let it dry out, then scraped all of the algae off. place the rock back into the tank only to have the algae start growing again. how I found out what the problem was, is I repeated the same course and put the rock into a dark container and my phosphate levels were off the scale. so the rock itself had very high levels of phosphates which was feeding the algae.

Joe

[angel]

That could be it! Was it the algae that looked like a plant? I wonder if it's those particular rocks in the Madagascan setup?

[angel]

I have. it's 0. I don't let my water quality get bad. But if you let water quality go in an angelfish tank you end up with dead angels . There's no solution other than keep scraping then.

[angel]

Hannah there's a different way of thinking when you focus more on fish and have focused more on plants. For plants you want some nitrates for them to eat. With fish you want them gone! They're dangerous. They're the least harmful of the three stages in a cycle but still will stop fish from breeding and kill delicate fish like discus and angels. If I have to pick between blue-green algae and live angels, I'm gonna have to put up with the algae. Treating it can cause a cycle according to the plant geek article. I think I've got the lesser of the poisoning for my situation. Of course, I'd love to hear what everyone else has to say on this. Algae hasn't been discussed in depth as of yet. Til now.
I noticed on that page, too, that I've had two types of algae that aren't even on there. The one I was most talking about, in my Madagascan tank, is one of them. It looks just like what grows on saltwater reefs to me. I'd like it if that guy expands.

[angel]

But you said yourself you lost angels in the past. Dosing those nitrates in if you lose your angels again I won't be the one to say I told you so. But I've lost angels when all that was present was 40ppm nitrates. I'm not losing any now. And I listened to guys like Mike Gibbs Sirknight and ree123. I'm sorry I have to disagree with you this time. Dosing in nitrates in an angelfish tank is asking for trouble.

I did describe the other algae I was talking about. Read up. I think you should have seen it here too. It was downstairs, in the tank with the blue madagascars and the rainbows in it. Maybe it was all too overwhelming to notice everything. I get like that when I go to Jon's mostly. Fish everywhere--very exciting.

[angel]

I have to mention that Mike Webb is an angelfish veteran too. I just haven't gotten to get to know him and his program yet.

[angel]

Don't we all!! LOL
I'll say no more about it. Fish have been my focus and I can kill a plant in record time. But rarely lose a fish. So when I do it's a big and devastating thing.

[angel]

Yes I put them in the same tank they were sitting on top of. I was just talking to a friend about them and offered him a sprig but the rest are mine. They have a reddish cast and he was hoping for some red so he can try it. If it's what he wants he knows where to go for more--be it sale or trade.

[sirknight]

Cyanobacteria also known as red slim, is caused by a build up of waste in area of a tank (usually on the sand to start) with poor water movement. They do sell chemicals that can be added to the tank to get rid of it, but it is only a temporary fix (why add chem's to fix a problem temporarily) when there are other ways to fix it. I have found that removing as much of the cyano as possible and increasing the water movement in the area of the tank that has the problem will cause it to go any. This is not from reading it is from experience, with saltwater tanks.

Now how does the algae get into your tanks, first and for most common way is not cleaning plants that you add to a tank (this will also help stop adding unwanted snails). clean anything you add including rocks (even rocks that are dry can still have algae on them that will start to reproduce when placed in a tank), also sand and the like. This is one of the best preventatives to the problem. The other way algae enters the tank is from fish waste, back to the cleaning the tank idea.




Joe