Does my tank have enough light?

redchigh

I see you asked for other plants that would do in your setup... These may work with one fixture, but preferably you'll get another one. Low light plants that worked for me are Crypt wendtii, Anubias, and java fern do well under really low light.

yodapoolman

@Byron: My LFS has a T5 setup with dual 10 or 12k lamps from TrueLumen T5HO Lamps | Current-USA. Would this new fixture be sufficient for my column tank while not being too bright for the tetras?

http://www.current-usa.com/lighting/nova-extreme-2x as another site

Rip

T5's are super bright.

yodapoolman

Out of curiosity Rip, where do you go in Phoenix for fish supplies? I got my plants and the clown pleco from Aquatouch.

Byron

I would want to see this myself, and examine the spectrum graphs, before being definite, but from what I can find I would think the Freshwater Lamp combo might work. T5 HO is 1.5 times brighter (intensity) that the same sized T8 tube in the same spectrum/type, so with a dual T5 HO you are equating to 3 T8 tubes. This may not seem like much, but it is; over the same tank it is vastly different.

With floating plants and a dark substrate (nothing white or light toned, as this reflects overhead light making it even worse on the fish) I think this is viable.

Rip

i go to Petco and PetSmart. i've went to the Ocean's Floor a few times,located at 19th Ave. and Thomas, but they are terribly overpriced. i live in the west valley, and i don't know of any other good fish/pet stores on this side. if you know of some, i'd love to hear about them though.

yodapoolman

@Byron: I'm afraid I do have light substrate and hardly any floating plants at the moment. So I may just try your earlier advice about either getting a dual hood or adding a hood with a 10k daylight.

Hypothetically, if I had enough floating plants, would the T5 lighting work even with the light substrate? It seems too bright as it is for the Black Widow Tetra (from what I've read on the fish profile). Or if I were to get a dark substrate, I had read that it's better to do partial section changes so as not to disrupt the bacteria? I've seen pics of a black substrate, but I wonder if it'd be too coarse/rough on my cories that dig around in it?

@Rip: I use a Petsmart on 7th Ave and Bell, but there's a nice family-owned LFS called Aquatouch AquaTouch that I've been buying plants from. They're at 32nd St and Cactus (W of the 51). As far as I can tell they keep things in really good shape and have been around for a while. The staff is patient with me and my questions lol. For pricing, it doesn't seem too bad for a mom/pop store. For reference, the clown pleco I got was about $13.

yodapoolman

What's the turn-around on it? It's been about 2 weeks now and the moss is still fairly brown and seems like if I'd untie it, it'd disconnect from the wood.

Also, you mentioned adding a 10,000k Daylight in addition. Will this provide more benefits than just adding another 6500k to what I have currently?

Byron

If it were me, I would consider changing the substrate. However, I don't know what you have now, it may be fine. "Light" is not always bad, but a white substrate is. If the substrate is a sort of buff colour, that can work; some bogwood or rock and plants break it up, then floating plants.

Smooth substrates are essential for bottom fish like corys and loaches. Most (but not all) aquairum fine-grade gravels work, or sand like playsand. Enriched substrates for plants like Flourite are OK, but Eco-complete is sharper and others have advised me not good with bottom fish.

I'ver had it take several weeks to recover.

"Benefit" is questionable, it is more the appearance. A higher-kelvin tube generally is "cooler" in colour, and combined with a "full spectrum" can create a nice cool white hue. I personally like that, others may not. I doubt the plants care much, the 6700K is their range if it is a good tube. Mine have done equally well under such a combo and under straight 6700K.

yodapoolman

Thanks Byron!

Here's a pic of the tank with the single Coralife 6500k. Hopefully it's a decent enough shot of the substrate. I'm mainly looking for lighting that will help plants so if the 10000k mixed with the current 6500k will do that, great! The softer hue will just be a bonus

Attached Images

IMG_1327.jpg (60.8 KB, 12 views)