[TurtleFish]

I have set up a planted tank (with aid of these forums:roll my planted tank is a 15 long. I have plants like rotala, swords, hornworth and another one which I forgot the name of after a lot of reaserch I changed the light. I took a 24w t5 from aquael and put it on . the standard was an 11w fixture compact.itook it off my turtle tank (25gallon). Is this new lighting good enough ? I have seen inprovements in my rotala. I am docing 1ml easylife carbo a day and easylife profito once a week for ferts (sand substrate). I also have some black beard algae I need a hand with. I removed a lot of erected leaves and have cut down on light to 8hrs from 9. Thanks for help.

 

[sprmankalel]

I don't understand what your question/s is/are. One thing I can say is that an 11 watt fixture will only give you 11 watts of light even on a 24 watt bulb. At least to my understanding.

There are 2 things going on.
1.) With a T5 bulb you don't necessarily need 2 or more watts per gallon especially if it is an HO (High Output) bulb. 24 watts should be more than enough.
2.) The bulb you're using. What is the Kelvin rating? I've heard tell (in one of my own posts) that 6500K provides a good spectrum of light that your plants will use for photosynthesis.

My fixture has 2 bulbs (they came with it). One is 6000K and the other is Roseate. From my understanding the Roseate is the one that induces the growth and the 6000K balances the look of the red from the Roseate light. I will be upping the 6000K to at least a 6500K when I change them. I have been having issues which I think was caused by the glass lid I had on top not allowing light to get to my plants. I've changed it to an all glass lid and have seen improvement but I know bulbs will need to be changed soon anyway. My plants aren't dying and since changing the lid I see growth bulbs have another 4-6 weeks before being changed.

I keep my lights on for 12 hours a day. I have a 20 inch deep tank and a number of plants. The amount of time your light should be on depends on the plant's lighting needs. The more plant you have the less algae because the plants should compete with algae for nutrients. It is natural to have some algae in the tank. I'm not really familiar with any specific types of algae or how to get rid of it as I don't seem to get it.

I'm sure that if any of my info needs correcting someone will do so. I'm really no expert, yet.