Will too much lights cause problems ?

[nbk3]

i had this thought of putting 110W (2xPL) over a 2footer(2x1x1) [] plants would surely florish , fish would certainly be hiding in the shade or worse , flip upside down but algae ?? Any one can comment please ??


Cheers !!

[naturetan]

Based on my experience, putting too much light is just asking for trouble! [] You may try it to know what I mean.

[nbk3]

[:0] algae problems i presume ?? hmmmmm..... but if plants are flourishing well , algae *shouldnt* be a problem right ? []

[new2planting]

110W for 2ft tank? It means 13.98 gallon(80% water filled) if ur tank is 24inches(L)x 12inches(W) x 14inches(H). So here comes e 3Watt per Gallon : 110 divide by 13.98Gallon = 7.86W per gallon. That's more than 2 times of e required amount of light. One thing is tat Green Spot algae & Hair Algae will be e 1st to visit ur tank. (based on my experience as i did this setup before). Once a slight wrong dosage of liquid nutrients, u will see those algae i mentioned to u. Gd luck bro! []

[bclee]

nbk3, if you know what you are doing, you may be fine.

You got to take care of all the nutrients NO3, PO4, K, Ca, Mg, & traces because all the nutrients is going to run out fast. You got to ensure there is sufficient CO2. If you going to miss out on any one of those, BOOM... algae! And it is going to be a mess big time.

Furthermore, nutrient deficiencies will occur and your plants may look even worse that it will be at lower lighting. (Who say plants will always look better in higher lighting? )

If you are not sure what I am talking about above, my advice is to lower it. My plants grow great with 51W over a 2-footer (~50L). In fact I am looking to lower it to 36W.

BC

[juggler]

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On 8/21/2003 2:17:23 AM

i had this thought of putting 110W (2xPL) over a 2footer(2x1x1) [] plants would surely florish , fish would certainly be hiding in the shade or worse , flip upside down but algae ?? Any one can comment please ??


Cheers !!
----------------

Seems a bit excessive. Remember to take care of ventilating your tank to prevent heat buildup. That could potentially kill the fish, not the lights alone.

[Plantbrain]

Why is more better?
Wasteful is what it is, but it's your electric bill/headache.
1/2 or less is plenty to grow any plant.
Powercompacts are more bright than the old NO FL's so that's really about 10+ w/gal on the old scale.

Also at less lighting, the plants stay in the pruned form you want longer.
Will all this light help you grow plants better? No. It will make it tougher, but it's not impossible, just asking for a hassle you don't need.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Allen_1971]

I agree... Generally more lights mean you need to be more active in your maintenance. At the levels you are putting, one mistake could be your last. So why spend the $$$ for a more lights which you won't need.

[nbk3]

wow [:0] thanks for ALL the advice given i think i'll stay as i was [] but one thing for sure , hair algae n an ocassional spot is here already it first came with a plant , now its almost everywhere []

hair is almost impossible to spot unless submerged and scrutinised with lighting

[chua]

I agreed fully with PlantBrain.

Why do you want to waste money on the electric bill and time on trimming the plants if they can do equally well if not better in lower lighting.

Anyway, the choice is yours.

[peterkoh]

too much light for me turned my echin leaves yellow and kill off my water lettuce. i think it's the light for the former and heat for the latter. fast and demanding plants shd love the light but not shade loving plants. so it depends what sort of tank u want to setup ultimately ... a low tech low maintenance or a high-tech, high maintenance and usully more expensive tank.

[naturetan]

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On 8/21/2003 11:20:30 AM

Powercompacts are more bright than the old NO FL's so that's really about 10+ w/gal on the old scale.
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Hey, wonder how is this going to be calculated??? The watts difference between PL and FL?

For this case, with 2X1X1ft tank, what is the W/gal if a 36W PL is used, compared to a 2X15W FL? Anyone knows?

Sometime ago, I saw one of the 55W PL light in one of shop with a rather thin tube that's not bright like the normal one. It seems like calculating according to the light wattage is not an accurate measurement for light intensity. With that weak lighting, I guess even using 2X55W for a 2ft is not going to be that high though!

[FC]

You already answer your question with "too much light".

How much light one should deploy boils down to:
1) the aquascape design and plant used or both
2) the substrate and water condition

I had never really into high light, I always use moderate (0.6 watts per litre) to low light (0.4 watts per litre) for my 400 litre tank.

Note: watts per litre is subjective to tank sizes. Generally, smaller tank require higher watts per litre than bigger tank to maintain the same targetted result.

Moderate light:
With the right substrate and water condition, this light intensity is sufficient to create and sustain dense healthy plant growth without any lost or rotting of leafs that are shaded. Maintenance is moderate too - water care twice a week.

Low light:
Care in aquascape is crucial if high light plants are used; I am into this at the moment. I place high light stem plants at the back and slop them down towards the front. I concentrate the light at the back so that these plants live well. Lower light plants like lotus and crypts are placed in mid and fore ground. I have best of both world - vibrant but low maintenance setup - water care once a week. Here, I have condition to satisfy plants ranging from Ludwigia (growing densely), Tonina, Blyxa, Lotus, Narrow Leaf Java Fern to Crypts.


Regards,

Freddy Chng
www.killies.com