are lights really important?

[daniel]

Dear All
Yepp..
was at Teo's on Saturday, noticed the display tank has only two light
tubes of 36 watts and his plants are doing very fine.
From articles that I read, it seem there's lot of hype on the types of bulbs and lighting systems needed for a plant tank, would like to have some views and comments.

Thxs

[Simon]

daniel, u mean 2x36w or 2x18w?.. when it comes to lights, we have to take in consideration in type of plants we intend to plant, that will determine the kinda lights we require. and it is said that color temp of 6500 to below 10000 is suitable for plant growing

FL, PL, MH, MV all works the same except for light peneration, light intensity..

[daniel]

[quote]
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On 1/23/2002 11:58:12 AM

daniel, u mean 2x36w or 2x18w?.. when it comes to lights, we have to take in consideration in type of plants we intend to plant, that will determine the kinda lights we require. and it is said that color temp of 6500 to below 10000 is suitable for plant growing

FL, PL, MH, MV all works the same except for light peneration, light intensity..
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Hi Simon

I think the tank there was using 2 x 36 watts of PL tubes
and I must say he's got all kind of plants in tthat tank...Riccia, Red Lotus in particular are doing fine

[budak]

If it's that Teo tank that's outside by the concrete tanks, it probably gets enough sunlight to render the two FLs irrelevant.

In short, lighting quantity (best measured in lumens) counts a great deal esp when indoors. I mean, try switching on just two average 3 ft long FL tubes in a typical HDB room at night, it's hardly as bright as day, what more for aquatic plants used to getting full sunlight daily.

[loupgarou]

buy MH lights. ultimate solution to everything except heat. heh

[Simon]

if its a 2x36 for a 2ft.. then its more then enuff to grow those plants

[benetay]

2x36 for a normal 2ft will give you a nice algae effect =)

[Simon]

benetay, i disagree with u on that algae thingy.. with fast growers and proper care, u shldnt face any major algae probs.

daniel, was at Teo last week, and I realise u referring to the tank outside under one of the shelter, that tank is a really short tank, which explain y the plants r doing well

[benetay]

what for trouble yrself so much?? just switch on one of the pl lohz kekekekke dun smack me in the forehead ahz..

[Simon]

huh? weird reply *whack* benetay, better?

[benetay]

/pengz

[sherchoo]

For a standard 2ft tank (60cm X 45cm X30cm), the volume s about 21.4 gallons. Thus the wattage for Teo's planted tank is about 3.36W per gallon which is more than the 3W/g recomendation.