Lighting System

[ragn4rok]

Need help...

Is 70 W metal halide sufficient for my 60 x 60 x 60 (cm) cubic aquarium??? Or I must buy and replace it with the new 150 W metal halide???

I think I wanna grow some red stem plant, etc (high lightning required plants)

Thanks and sorry if my English is not really good...

[plantmania]

70W should be ok if you have it now.It's ok because stem plants can grow pretty tall, and if it reaches near the surface, it will have more than enough lights.

150W is good only if you have low/short plants that have high light requirement. Needed more power to reach the bottom. Your tank is 60 gallon, even though metal halide does not really follow this rule of at least 2watts per gallon (focused beam of light as compared to the other diffused/spreaded beams of light), a wattage of 120+ is recommended for very good growth.

For future planting purposes, I would recommend 150 W though.

Note that the 70W system is not compatible with 150 W. Need to get new set if you have an old one. Important : get lights with color temperature range of 6500K to 8000K. Don't be conned into getting marine bulbs

[tcy81]

how much you bought yr 70w MH light and where you bought it from
can pm me
thanks

[eric_kclee]

I wonder why you need to create lightning in aquarium....

[plantmania]

[quote:62f963222f="eric_kclee"]I wonder why you need to create lightning in aquarium.... [/quote:62f963222f]

Why are you making fun of him, he already mentioned his english is not really good....

[budak]

To grow those "demanding" red stem plants (e.g. Rotalas, Ludwigias), people usually try to have between 2.5-3.5 watts per gallon of lighting (ideally colour range of 6500-8000K).. use the AQ tank calculators to determine your tank volume and light requirement..... my guess is that 70W of MH (suspended about a foot above the surface) should be enough for your needs. Of course, with this high level of lighting, your CO2 and fertilisation levels should be also sufficient such that imbalances (and algae) do not result.

[victri]

Save your money first. Use the 70W MH that you already have and then monitor your plants closely, especially the leaves at the bottom of the stems. If you find the bottom leaves being shaded too much and dropping off, then maybe you can consider the change to 150W.

[PeterGwee]

The so called "red" plants do not need extreme high light to grow well nor obtain the redness most desire to have. In fact, it is more tricky to get those redness at high light condition without running the risk of killing or stunting the plant as the NO3 uptake rate tend to be high and a stable low NO3 level is necessary in order to get the redness out. 2W/G of evenly spread light is good enough to grow most plants well as long as you keep up on prunning and prevent any overshading of plants.

Regards
Peter Gwee

[checkerboard]

I have a problem with lights too. Currently, I am runninga 4 feet tank with low maintenance plants like Narrow Leaf Java Fern, lots of crypts, hairgrass and mosses.

because my tank is at the courtyard, it gets a quite a bit of indirect sunlight in the day. I do not know how to account for this bit of light. I believe it is causing slight algae problems of bba and spot algae.

The tank has 132W of light for 240L and is enriched with CO2.

Dosing 1/3 teaspoon of KNO3
1/16 teaspoon of K2PO4
K2SO4, Seachem Flourish.