need help with lights

[marx]

any bros here can advise if i want to do a 4 feet planted tank. what lights do i have as options? what is recommended?

[Phillipians]

2 big questions:

1) What kind of a tank do you intend to have? - High or low maintenance?
2) What kind of a budget do you have?

There are so many permutations for the types of things you can do with a 4ft tank. Some can do high maintenance with lots of DIY lighting (cheap) or low maintenance with ADA (aka top range) products.

You will need to be more specific rather than ask a vague question.

[Phillipians]

Or alternatively, if you are really new to this, google and look for a tank and let us know what kind of a look you want to achieve. That gives an idea. And also, main thing is still budget.

[marx]

thanks for the prompt reply..
1) im having a 4 x 1.5 x 1.5 feet. consisting of hc and mc carpeting and some mosses and little bits and pieces of plants.
2) budget wise - mid range.
my first planted tank but looking at eventually attempting others.
probably looking at just buying a decent one and use throughout.

hope this info is sufficient

[Shadow]

You better stick with MC only for the following reason
1. HC is more difficult to take care than MC. It is not plant for newcomer.
2. MC grow much faster than HC, it will over run HC very fast.
3. Normal people can't really tell between HC and MC. It become pointless to have it at the same tank

Light wise, you can try 4 tube of T5HO. Recently there are plenty of LED light set in the market but I have trouble controlling plant grow using LED.

[Ingen]

Shadow, can share more about your problem controlling plant growth with LED?

[Shadow]

cant tell much, I dont have time to trouble shoot what going on. It could be just me since others not complaining. What I found is interesting top half of the tank grow green spot algae where the bottom half not at all.

[Urban Aquaria]

What I found is interesting top half of the tank grow green spot algae where the bottom half not at all.

Thats interesting... in my case, i find that the bottom half of my tanks get green spot algae, but the top half don't have. The line is very precise, its look like someone draw a line right through the middle of the tank and the GSA cannot cross it, haha.

I guess the tuned spectrums and angle spread of different LED lights have alot to do with how plants and algae react to them.

[Kevinova]

Sorry to hijack this forum. I'm having a 3x2x2 tank lately. Equipped with 2x 39W x 4 T5HO lights. I've also have a chiller set at 25DegC with 3bps CO2 injection for 8hrs. It has been a month my plants are doing well but it just doesn't have the pearling effect. Any advise?

[Urban Aquaria]

Sorry to hijack this forum. I'm having a 3x2x2 tank lately. Equipped with 2x 39W x 4 T5HO lights. I've also have a chiller set at 25DegC with 3bps CO2 injection for 8hrs. It has been a month my plants are doing well but it just doesn't have the pearling effect. Any advise?

How are the Co2 levels in the tank? ie. is the drop checker at green color during the active photoperiod?
Whats your fertilizer dosing regimen like?
What type of plants are in the tank?

Not sure if it affects as much, tanks with cooler water can hold more oxygen, so they may achieve oxygen saturation abit later than compared to tanks with warmer water, hence pearling might take abit more time to happen.

[Kevinova]

Please see my response below.

Btw is my lighting good enough for 2 ft depth tank?

How are the Co2 levels in the tank? ie. is the drop checker at green color during the active photoperiod?
Oh. I do not check the CO2 level.
Whats your fertilizer dosing regimen like? I uses the complete set of HCP 1 from LUSHGrow.
What type of plants are in the tank? HC, downoi, Rotala, tiger lily...

Not sure if it affects as much, tanks with cooler water can hold more oxygen, so they may achieve oxygen saturation abit later than compared to tanks with warmer water, hence pearling might take abit more time to happen.

[Urban Aquaria]

Okay, assuming your fertilizer dosing regimen and lights are optimal (2x 39W x 4 T5HO lights = 312 watts of T5HO lights on a 4ft tank, it should be sufficient for a 2ft height tank)... the unknown factor here would be the Co2 level in the tank water.

The Co2 levels in a tank can't be measured just by BPS injection rate, it depends on water volume, diffuser efficiency, Co2 dissolve rate, circulation and the plant Co2 take-up rate... hence every tank setup would be different.

Therefore to narrow down the possible causes, just get a Co2 drop checker to test the Co2 levels in various areas of your tank (especially areas where the plants are), it should be a consistent lime green to light green color during the active photoperiod, if its dark green or blue, then it indicates insufficient Co2 levels and it means the plants overall photosynthesis rate is being limited by restricted carbon supply, which may explain the lack of pearling effects.

Note that Co2 drop checkers usually have a delay of 1-2 hours when reacting to changes in Co2 levels, so leave the drop checker in an area for at least a few hours to generate the results. Don't keep shifting it around every 10-15 minutes, some people do that and keep wondering why its not working.

Btw, get the Co2 drop checkers that come packaged with pre-mixed indicator solution (not those that require you to mix), like the ones from Ocean Free or ISTA brands, they are much easier and more reliable to use.

[Kevino]

Thank you. Will start with that approach. And advise accordingly.

[Kevino]

Hi Urban. Thank you so much. The CO2 indicator shows that my tank CO2 injection is insufficient. Now I have to blast my CO2 like 10bps. I'm currently using an automizer. And my tank is clouded with diffused tiny CO2. Is there a better way or a CO2 reactor will minimise or reduce the sight of it?

[Kevino]

One more thing. My CO2 indicator shows only bluish green not even green and I'm already injecting 10bps. Need your advise.

[Urban Aquaria]

One more thing. My CO2 indicator shows only bluish green not even green and I'm already injecting 10bps. Need your advise.

Well, there could be a few possible reasons for that:

1. Your tank volume works out to around 324 liters, although bubbles-per-second (BPS) isn't a reliable way to gauge Co2 levels between different tanks (due to variations in their equipment and setups), but just as an rough estimate based solely on relative water volume, if you consider that there are people who are running 2ft/64 liter tanks already injecting 2-3 BPS to achieve their optimal Co2 levels... since your tank volume is around 5x larger, hence "in theory" it should also require 5x more Co2 to achieve the same Co2 concentration levels too. Therefore an injection rate of more than >10 BPS for your large tank volume may not be so surprising after all.

2. Your current Co2 diffusion rate might not be as efficient as it could be, perhaps alot of the injected Co2 gets wasted as it rises up too quickly and pops at the water surface, or there is alot of surface agitation and the Co2 is driven off as fast as its being injected. You'll have to look at your Co2 diffusion method (maybe consider more efficient diffusion methods like Co2 reactors), or look at whether there is excessive surface agitation (ie. constant splashing from spray bars) and see if you can reduce it.

3. If your tank is choc full of established fast growing plants that receive ample nutrient and lights, the large plant mass might actually be consuming all the Co2 being injected, hence they may really do need even more Co2 to support their rapid growth.

[Phillipians]

A reactor is only good if your filter powering the reactor is sufficiently pumping and mixing meaning that you need a powerful filter to drive and improve diffusion
You can alternatively try those bazooka diffusers which supposedly help better diffusion.

[Kevino]

Thanks Urban and Philipians. I started using reactor previously and realized the dissolving is not fast enough causing the bioball within the reactor choked(not spinning CO2 keeps building up in the chamber) hence change to a bazooka diffuser. It is just that with the amount of CO2 injection the tiny CO2 bubble is crowding the entire tank. Should I go back to CO2 reactor?

[Phillipians]

That was the reason i used a reactor as i didnt like the fine bubble clouding the view. I like pristine waters.

[Phillipians]

Just ensure that your filter is powerful enough. I used Sera filter. There is a lookalike ista one which is much cheaper. Probably works the same way.