shade of plants

[hsieh@home]

Hi

Would like to know how to prevent plants from deprive of light from next door plants ( planted too close together

I see good planted tank also have all plants closely planted

please advice

[Simon]

strong intense light.. able to penetrate even the closest bunch..

[DEA]

no necessarily that planted tanks plant the stems close together
what i do is i estimate how wide the plants will grow, and separate them accordingly before planting them
that way it ends up with the overall effect of thick growth without the overcrowding

[sherchoo]

Normally plants will react instintly to get more light when shaded. IMO, juz let them be. More careful planting would be a plus.

BTW, welcome hsieh..... hope you stick around and share

[hsiehqf]

Thanks DEA,SIMON, Sherchoo for your advice

I am picking up knowledge as to prepare for getting a 5ft or 6ft end of year.

Another question - which is more advantages for good planting :MH or rows of PL lights . For all other people in this forum. What decision did you take to decide on MH or PL?

[vinz]

My reasons for not investing in MH
- costs (suppose to better long term, but need to able to afford it in the first place)
- need to install in ceiling (are there alternatives?)
- aesthetics

[vinz]

hmmm, additional question about MH vs FL/PL.

Given that MH are usually suspended higher above the water surface then PL/Fls, do they heat up the water as much?

[Simon]

MH is not nessarily mounted onto the ceiling, those hood like MH fixture can sit on the tank itself, only with pendant kind do u have to mount, there r many alternatives and its limited to yr imagination

when it comes down to choice of lights, PL may be able to support most tanks except for a few, the penetration is better than FL but way below MH, thats where MH is needed, when u have a deep tank... but u oso have to consider the heat emitting from MH, u can suspend the light say 2ft above the water line and still feel the heat.. that will be a concern, choice of plants/theme oso play an imprt part in deciding

[hsiehqf]

Hi Simon and rest,

How is the heat from PL compared to MH?
I guess that you need about 8X 32 Watt for 5 to 6 ft right PL lights as compared to 2 MH lights

[Simon]

shldnt be hotter than MH

[loupgarou]

since I'm running tank with ac fan.

with MH on, tank temperature gets as high as 29.
without MH on, tank temperature can drop as low as 26.5

thus I run a heater at 27.5 as well
heh