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Plant light

2K views 14 replies 3 participants last post by  DKRST 
#1 ·
Ok, so I decided to finally get a plant light for my 20 gallon tall! But now I have some questions. This light looks super different! Like a black light, but lighter. My glofish and some others just light up under it!

Before

View attachment 9594

After

View attachment 9602

Ok... It isn't showing me my pictures... But it's different. Anyone think I should get more plants now? I only add C02 and have the light. I have 2 ottos and a snail for algae. And for the sand substrate I have 3 Cory catfish. And I have a HOB filter, but instead of carbon I use filter floss. And I took away my bubbles. They'll make enough oxygen, right?

The light isn't harmful to any of my fish, right? And how planted should my tank get?
 
#2 ·
Can you provide some data on the light? First, is it fluorescent tube, or screw-in bulb? And what are the specs (watts, Kelvin rating, type...all this will be on the package or the end of the tube if fluorescent.

On plants, do you have any live plants now? And what are your water paramters for the tap water, meaning GH (general hardness) and pH? These you can get from the municipal water supply people, probably on their website.

Do you have any plant fertilizer yet?

Byron.
 
#3 ·
Oh ya. Ok it is fluorescent. 18 inches long. 15 watts. The brand is Aqueon. I'm not sure on kelvin rating.
yes right now I have 4 plant types. I have moneywort, but it's dying off so I'm not sure if Id count it. I've been removing a lot. Then I have um,,, well I'm not sure on the names but, one is a broadleaf type. One is like thick grass but it's also not looking too lush. Then there's a cool looking kind with little leaves all around like a big cylinder sorta. The other two types are red and green.

No, I wasn't really planning on fertilizer...

Well I condition my water, but i do know that in my area we have generally VERY hard water. I leave it for the goldfish but for the plant tank I put some aquarium salt in. And the ph is a little bit on the basic side.


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#4 ·
Oh ya. Ok it is fluorescent. 18 inches long. 15 watts. The brand is Aqueon. I'm not sure on kelvin rating.
yes right now I have 4 plant types. I have moneywort, but it's dying off so I'm not sure if Id count it. I've been removing a lot. Then I have um,,, well I'm not sure on the names but, one is a broadleaf type. One is like thick grass but it's also not looking too lush. Then there's a cool looking kind with little leaves all around like a big cylinder sorta. The other two types are red and green.

No, I wasn't really planning on fertilizer...

Well I condition my water, but i do know that in my area we have generally VERY hard water. I leave it for the goldfish but for the plant tank I put some aquarium salt in. And the ph is a little bit on the basic side.
First thing, do not use salt in freshwater tanks. Depending upon how much, this will harm many plants. But moreso, soft water fish (like the Glofish which are a modified zebra danio) are affected by salt.

Second, can you post a photo of the aquarium so I can see these plants?

Third, you will likely need a basic liquid fertilizer, but I may have more when I have seen what they are. I'll explain a bit below.

Fourth on the light, a different tube will be better. I know the Aqueon one, it came with one of my fixtures, and it is not very intense light. It highlights blue and red which is why the fish may look nice, but plants will struggle. Over your 20g, I would suggest a Life-Glo or a ZooMed UltraSun. The latter is a bit less expensive, but otherwise these are much the same.

Now, a brief explanation of plant needs. Plants grow by photosynthesis, and they can only photosynthesize if they have sufficient light intensity and sufficient nutrients to balance. They need 17 nutrients; some of these occur from fish foods, and some in the tap water. For some plants this can be sufficient, but the more fast growing species (like your Moneywort) and any red-leaf plants will not have sufficient without adding them. A complete liquid fertilizer is sufficient for this, I use Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive Supplement for the Planted Aquarium. You use very little; for a 20g tank, just 1/2 of a teaspoon once a week will be enough. This makes quite a difference. But under the new light is part of this too.

Byron.
 
#5 ·
First thing, do not use salt in freshwater tanks. Depending upon how much, this will harm many plants. But moreso, soft water fish (like the Glofish which are a modified zebra danio) are affected by salt.

Second, can you post a photo of the aquarium so I can see these plants?

Third, you will likely need a basic liquid fertilizer, but I may have more when I have seen what they are. I'll explain a bit below.

Fourth on the light, a different tube will be better. I know the Aqueon one, it came with one of my fixtures, and it is not very intense light. It highlights blue and red which is why the fish may look nice, but plants will struggle. Over your 20g, I would suggest a Life-Glo or a ZooMed UltraSun. The latter is a bit less expensive, but otherwise these are much the same.

Now, a brief explanation of plant needs. Plants grow by photosynthesis, and they can only photosynthesize if they have sufficient light intensity and sufficient nutrients to balance. They need 17 nutrients; some of these occur from fish foods, and some in the tap water. For some plants this can be sufficient, but the more fast growing species (like your Moneywort) and any red-leaf plants will not have sufficient without adding them. A complete liquid fertilizer is sufficient for this, I use Seachem's Flourish Comprehensive Supplement for the Planted Aquarium. You use very little; for a 20g tank, just 1/2 of a teaspoon once a week will be enough. This makes quite a difference. But under the new light is part of this too.

Byron.
I only use a little bit of the salt, and I was told to use it specifically because of the glofish, actually. Because they kept dying when I first got them, long ago, and it helped with stress. The new ones seem fine, my water quality is better than it was a long time ago as well.

I am trying to post photos but it won't let me. Ill keep trying...

I have Aqueon plant food that I use weekly but I'm almost out so ill probably think about if I even want more.

So you'd say it's better to take it back? Ill want a fluorescent for sure. Are different brands better? Like top fin? I have a lot of those products.


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#8 ·
That's nice, and I stand by my previous suggestions now that I've seen the plants. And yes, to answer a question in your initial post, more plants.:lol: If you can find one, pygmy chain sword would be ideal to spread over the gravel (in time). Floating plants would be good too, once you get the other tube (they will shade the light too much with the present tube). Check our plant profiles.
 
#10 ·
Ok I took the light back and got another one. It's zoo med like you said but instead of ultra sun they said that flora sun was for the plants.
You might be OK with this, it is certainly better than what you had. But it would be better with the Ultra-Sun, believe me. The people who work in stores mean well, but they are probably going by what they are told or read on the package, and this is not always accurate.
 
#15 ·
I agree with everything Byron says (mainly 'cause he's correct!) :lol:

The Ultrasun gives significantly more light at the substrate (20-40% more depending on depths I've measured with a meter) than the Florasun and using the Ultrasun, you'd be fine with a nice floating plant cover as well. Enough light would penetrate to grow some nice chain swords in there. Absolutely ditch the salt.

Be cautious regarding big-box pet store advice. First question to casually ask the person helping you is "how many tanks do you have at home?" If the answer isn't 2 or more, they may not know anything about fish! I've had both great advice and horrible advice from pet store employees over the years.
 
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