5.4 watts per gallon too much?
- Thread starter Matt724
- Start date
I have exactly the same.. 2 27w CFL daylights. Its probably more than necessary, but I haven't seen any harm from it. Plants aren't burning, water temp is fine, algae isn't out of control (though my tank is very heavily planted)
Pharaoh;3777572; said:
this is my tank right now. adding indian almond leaves to lower pH down form 7.8 and taking out the rocks (can't see in the pic). all i have in there are bettas and ottos, but i plan to add shrimp (probably ghost shrimp, but maybe CRS if i can get them cheap).
this is exactly what i plan to do. I took apart one of my LightsofAmerica lamps yesterday and figured that it wouldn't be to hard to put two in my tank's hood, replacing the useless 15 watt T8 that's in there. Right now I just have one of the 27watt lights on the tank and growth has been steady, but then again, they're only java ferns and one amazon sword, so not much to say. and also i guess if i ever want to change it to SW, i'll have plenty of lightage for corals, right? i admit to not knowing anything in this region of the aquatic trade.Pharaoh;3777572; said:
I beilive he is refering to the theory of light thresh hold.
It states that in smaller tanks that there needs to be alot more light then the old untrue 2watt per gallon rule. And in larger tanks say above 100g that the wattage can decrease under the 2wpg rule and still grow exceptional plant life.
for example
a 5.5g tank will need around 6-8+ wpg to be considered higher light.
But a 500g tank would only need 450-500 watts of lighting or 1wpg to have the same thresh hold of light. And grow the same plants as the 5.5g with 6-8wpg.
check my other thread about lighting question out on this page for a awesome little thread about some of tak. amano's tanks that have been analized.
It states that if you were to mirror one of his set ups you would need 90watts of high quality light over a 10g. But that would definetly be a high tech set up. Compressed co2, ferts, etc the hole 9.
It states that in smaller tanks that there needs to be alot more light then the old untrue 2watt per gallon rule. And in larger tanks say above 100g that the wattage can decrease under the 2wpg rule and still grow exceptional plant life.
for example
a 5.5g tank will need around 6-8+ wpg to be considered higher light.
But a 500g tank would only need 450-500 watts of lighting or 1wpg to have the same thresh hold of light. And grow the same plants as the 5.5g with 6-8wpg.
check my other thread about lighting question out on this page for a awesome little thread about some of tak. amano's tanks that have been analized.
It states that if you were to mirror one of his set ups you would need 90watts of high quality light over a 10g. But that would definetly be a high tech set up. Compressed co2, ferts, etc the hole 9.