Basically some of you know my attempt @ planteds This being my first one: 
Didn't turn out to bad, at first I had a lot of things going on in the tank and didn't have a theme in mind. Now its progressed to more delicate and difficult med/high light plants, which I can balance fine. I have the whole c02/light/fertz/husbandry down + a lot of you helped and I gathered a lot of research here. Tank is almost 5-6 months old?
My lighting consist of 2x 65 Watt 4 pin CFL lighting designed to be an outdoor floodlight:
extremely and ridiculously bright but what's needed to grow med/high light plants!
To my POINT!
My Striolatus Piranha is the main inhabitant in the tank w/ an array of what you call "planted tank helpers," such as SAE'S, ottos, shrimp etc, but Striolatus Piranhas (among MANY piranha) have a big ass eye ball to body ratio, making this bright light tank stressful for him. I can imagine the equivalent of a person in Arizona summer Sun with no sunglasses! Plus i can tell it stresses him, he hides more especially under thick foliage and just chills there:
but he will still come out for food when he sees me or to chase some guppies so by no means is his health suffering! He has really grown up to be a beauty so I wanted a good tank for him but I want him to be less stressed.!
THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN:
I had an idea today where I turned one of the 65watt fixtures off and he can out and swam on the dimmer side which obviously makes sense when he likes little to no light, but I don't want to compromise all the plants. Here's a pic:
I was thinking of using the left light instead of right for plant growth, that's already where the lace leaf, nesea are but this also means the Java fern needs to be moved over. lights would opposite as they are in pic.
So if you think this is a good idea let me know and suggestions on plant placement or anything else would be great! I can also replace the high output fixture with a small cfl on the dim side to keep the low lights in balance.
Just need a practical and clean looking scape even if I have to rip all that wisteria out! You may make him happy! Thanks
×Go S. Vettel #1 Infiniti Redbull! 4x WDC!!! Congrats on another flawless title and 9 wins back to back in 1 season (record!) See you next year in Australia boys!×
__________________________________________________________________
Cheap way to decrease nitrates and keep your fish healthy: http://monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=504763
Didn't turn out to bad, at first I had a lot of things going on in the tank and didn't have a theme in mind. Now its progressed to more delicate and difficult med/high light plants, which I can balance fine. I have the whole c02/light/fertz/husbandry down + a lot of you helped and I gathered a lot of research here. Tank is almost 5-6 months old?
My lighting consist of 2x 65 Watt 4 pin CFL lighting designed to be an outdoor floodlight:
extremely and ridiculously bright but what's needed to grow med/high light plants!To my POINT!
My Striolatus Piranha is the main inhabitant in the tank w/ an array of what you call "planted tank helpers," such as SAE'S, ottos, shrimp etc, but Striolatus Piranhas (among MANY piranha) have a big ass eye ball to body ratio, making this bright light tank stressful for him. I can imagine the equivalent of a person in Arizona summer Sun with no sunglasses! Plus i can tell it stresses him, he hides more especially under thick foliage and just chills there:
but he will still come out for food when he sees me or to chase some guppies so by no means is his health suffering! He has really grown up to be a beauty so I wanted a good tank for him but I want him to be less stressed.!
THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN:
I had an idea today where I turned one of the 65watt fixtures off and he can out and swam on the dimmer side which obviously makes sense when he likes little to no light, but I don't want to compromise all the plants. Here's a pic:
I was thinking of using the left light instead of right for plant growth, that's already where the lace leaf, nesea are but this also means the Java fern needs to be moved over. lights would opposite as they are in pic.
So if you think this is a good idea let me know and suggestions on plant placement or anything else would be great! I can also replace the high output fixture with a small cfl on the dim side to keep the low lights in balance.
Just need a practical and clean looking scape even if I have to rip all that wisteria out! You may make him happy! Thanks
×Go S. Vettel #1 Infiniti Redbull! 4x WDC!!! Congrats on another flawless title and 9 wins back to back in 1 season (record!) See you next year in Australia boys!×
__________________________________________________________________
Cheap way to decrease nitrates and keep your fish healthy: http://monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=504763
